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Tuesday, November 7, 2023

{Verily this Qu'ran doth guide to which is most right }

 



The global confusion resulting from technological advancement, the deterioration of the environment, the spread of poverty, and the ever-widening gap between different regions and continents of the planet, puts upon our shoulders grave responsibilities with clear ethical implications.

 

The end of the Second World War saw the rise of a political trend that separates politics from ethics, asserting that ethics are in fact ideologies that can only acknowledge their own, distorted perspective on reality. In the trail of the following Cold War hundreds of wars, big and small, were fought over different ideologies. These conflicts appear to confirm the beliefs of adherents to pragmatism and utilitarianism: While politics are solely lead by interest, ideologies (i.e., ethics), do not obey a specific master.

 

This separation between ethics and ideology has been overcome, however. Seeking public interest is also an ethical work, neither defined by ideology nor by fixed ideas. It is rather defined by the contribution of a given policy to enhancing peoples’ lives and upholding their stability and prosperity, on both local and international levels. In this sense, “managing public interest well” is an honorable end that can only be attained by honorable and moral means. Just as ideology is not the synonym of ethics, means do not justify ends. We should even go so far as to say that being inappropriate means backfiring.

 

The basis of totalitarian regimes, their one declared aim, was to secure economic welfare to the people. The means they adopted, however, regardless of the sincere end, was coercion and the denial of liberties, considered a distraction to the accomplishment of ideals. This made for the biggest injustice that befell the same people whose lives were to be enhanced and welfare secured.

 

Ethics are as closely related to the mind, in determining where best interests lie, as they are to it, in determining the means that best suit its ends, while respecting human dignity and the nobility of Man.

 

Q 17:7. We have honoured the sons of Adam, provided them with transport on land and sea, given them for sustenance things good and pure, and conferred on them special favours, above a great part of our creation.

 

The Holy Quran shows that God Almighty has honored humanity in three ways, by providing three ethical favors: the honor of the mind, stated here in Q 17:7, the honor of choice of belief, the noblest of ethical principles,

 

Q 63:8. But honour belongs to God and His Messenger, and to the Believers and the honor of righteous work through       progeny.

 

Q 9:105. And say: "Work (righteousness): Soon will God observe your work, and His Messenger, and the Believers."

 

When due respect is given to ethics that seek the best interest of Man and are the solid grounds for his honor and dignity, there is no possible doubt as to the righteousness of the criterion for all other ideas and ethical behavior.



This individual concern, when complemented with the principle of justice, becomes an issue of interest to the group or society as a whole. Justice is to be just with oneself, one’s family and one’s close circles, as it is to be fair in judgments and conceptions, the view of the other, the global world and in ways of communicating on both levels.

 

Q 16:90. God commands justice, the doing of good, and liberality to kith and kin.

 

Q 4:58. God doth command you to render back your Trusts to those to whom they are due; And when ye judge between man and man, that ye judge with justice.

 

Q 5:8. And let not the hatred of others to you make you swerve to wrong and depart from justice. Be just: that is next to piety.

 

Justice is thus the right path joining thought and action, word and behavior, public and private interest, inner and outer being, the closest of relatives and the farthest of strangers, the nation and the world.

 


It is based on this quality of belief, devotion and piety, that ideal nation emerges. The nation that chooses the correct vision and behavior and could therefore open up to new, vast horizons and instill noble and committed ethics into them.

 

Q 3:110. Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in God.

 

Q 2:143. Thus, have We made of you an Ummat justly balanced, that ye might be witnesses over the nations, and the Messenger a witness over yourselves.

 

Amidst this grave confusion, three elements-- mind, justice and ethics--interfere to adjust the common vision and highlight the need for global ethics that all humans of all religions, beliefs and doctrines, agree upon. We are hopeful of this light and see it through piety and deep belief. Has God Almighty not said, in his Holy Book:

 

Q 43:44. The (Qur'an) is indeed the message, for thee and for thy people; and soon shall ye (all) be brought to account?

 


Reference:

{Verily this Qu'ran doth guide to which is most right}, by: Abdulrahman Al-Salimi, Al-Tafahom Magazine, issue number 02/2006.