Ethics and Man

Ethics and Man
20/03/2011

Spiritual problems

The essential characteristic of a Muslim
The root of human afflictions
The reason behind the decline of civilizations and nations

Ethics and society

The main values of a society
The line between an Islamic society and an ignorant society

Ethics and life

Heaven on earth
The relationship between wealth and ethics
Ethics and management

Ethics and knowledge

Knowledge must be accompanied by ethics
Separation of ethics from knowledge
Medical ethics

Ethics and politics

The dangers of separating politics from ethics

Ethics and art

Uniqueness of ethics and art

Ethical deviations

Freedom minus ethics
Drifting away from ethics
Spiritual problems
The effect of moral corruption on the family

Ethics and Man

Spiritual problems

The essential characteristic of a Muslim

A Muslim is not somebody who simply believes in Islamic principles and engages in Islamic rituals. Rather, an essential characteristic of a Muslim is that he acts according to Islamic ethics. Otherwise, a person may have Islamic beliefs and may engage in Islamic rituals such as daily prayers and fasting, but at the same time he may be envious, tight-fisted, spiteful, malevolent, lethargic and indecisive – such a person is not really a Muslim. A true Muslim should be educated in an Islamic way, should have Islamic knowledge and should act according to Islamic principles.

The root of human afflictions

Human afflictions can be traced back to spiritual corruption of man. Wherever there is a shortcoming or an affliction, it is because of discord, greed, malevolence, fear, fear of death, indulging in carnal desires or having a life of intemperance. These things are the main source of human afflictions.

The reason behind the decline of civilizations and nations

The decline of civilizations is the result of deviations. When civilizations reach their peak, they start to decline due to their weaknesses, shortcomings and deviations. Today we can see the signs of this decline in western civilization, which is the civilization of science without ethics, material life without spirituality, and religion and power without justice.

The decline of nations is not sudden – it is gradual. The keen eyes of western intellectuals in America and Europe have noticed this gradual decline. Normally in western societies the youth have a tendency towards promiscuity. They end up being immodest. They develop a tendency towards delinquency. They are submerged in moral corruption. In any community, such a young generation would act like termites and destroy the foundations of that community, no matter how much knowledge or wealth the community has.

Ethics and society

The main values of a society

The ethical identity of a society is the real identity of that society. That is to say, the ethical framework of a society is the main characteristic of that society, and everything else in that society revolves around this axis.

If a society takes care of its ethics, social justice will be taken care of. That society will prosper, and it will become heaven on earth. We see throughout the world that the majority of the tragedies human beings are suffering from are the result of moral corruption of the people of the world. Social justice mostly depends on ethics. Of course a major portion of social justice is related to the laws and regulations of a certain society. But laws and regulations will not be very effective if the people of a society do not enjoy divine and Islamic ethics. There are some people who earn huge amounts of money. They should not spend all their money on their own needs. This is materialistic ethics. This is satanic ethics, or more precisely, animal ethics. Whatever an animal has belongs to that animal alone. Human ethics, especially Islamic ethics, would not allow this. After addressing his essential needs, a human being should spend the rest of what he has on addressing the needs of the people of his society.

The line between an Islamic society and an ignorant society

There may be a society whose members enjoy appropriate ethical principles. The people of that society are selfless, intellectual, wise, benevolent, helpful, patient, steadfast and well-behaved. The opposite situation may also exist. That is to say, there may be a people whose relationships are based on greed rather than compassion, equity and good ethics. In such a society people tolerate each other as long as they do not pose a threat to each other’s interests, otherwise they would be prepared to destroy each other. Such a society is called an ignorant society, and it is different from a society ruled by moral virtues, which is called an Islamic society. The Holy Prophet (s.w.a.) was sent down to invite people to moral virtues. Therefore, we can say that ethics is in fact one of the characteristics that distinguish an Islamic society from an ignorant society.

Ethics and life

Heaven on earth

Islam has demanded human beings to be kind towards one another. It has demanded human beings to care about one another’s destiny and interests. It has demanded people to share in each other’s grief. It has asked people to pray for each other. It has asked human beings to treat each other kindly. “And exhort one another to show compassion.” [The Holy Quran, 90: 17] Friendship, emotional bonds, benevolence and kindness among brothers, sisters, friends and members of an Islamic nation – these are very prominent characteristics. We need to strengthen these characteristics in ourselves. Putting oneself and one’s material interests first is one of the worst human characteristics. Being prepared to get many people into trouble just to fulfill a personal need is one of the worst characteristics.

A society in which there is no envy, miserliness, injustice, crime, greed, suspicion, plotting and malevolence is in fact heaven on earth. An Islamic society that has been purified is like heaven.

The relationship between wealth and ethics

Some people simplistically look at certain wealthy countries of the world and say, “These countries have wealth, yet they do not have religious faith and ethics, so we must follow the same path.” They wrongly believe that these countries have become wealthy because they do not have religious faith or ethics. This is a mistake. The power and wealth of those countries are the result of certain factors which bring about power and wealth. Wherever there is wisdom and hard work, there will be an outcome. This is a divine rule. Even those who are after material achievements will achieve what they want if they work hard and make appropriate strategic decisions. “We aid everybody – these as well as those – out of the bounty of your Lord.” [The Holy Quran, 17: 20] This Quranic verse says this explicitly. When efforts are made for the sake of material gains, wealth and power will be achieved. But it will not be possible to achieve spiritual prosperity.

Ethics and management

Try to make your management as Islamic as possible. Islamic management means respect plus decisiveness. “So when you have decided, then place your trust in God.” [The Holy Quran, 3: 159] After the Battle of Uhud, Allah the Exalted told His Messenger, “Thus it is due to mercy from God that you deal with them gently, and had you been rough and hard-hearted, they would certainly have dispersed from around you. Pardon them therefore and ask pardon for them, and take counsel with them in the affair. So when you have decided, then place your trust in Allah.” [The Holy Quran, 3: 159] Allah the Exalted tells His Messenger, “When you have made up your mind, trust God and go ahead.” This is the art of management: gentle but at the same time decisive, decisiveness and reliance on God in all conditions.

Ethics and knowledge

Knowledge must be accompanied by ethics

Somebody who is after knowledge needs to be pious. The more pious he is, the more he will come to like and appreciate knowledge. Knowledge must be accompanied by ethics, and industrial and scientific progress must be accompanied by ethical growth. Paying attention to God is the main factor that can bring about ethical growth.

If a society enjoys spirituality and ethics but lacks knowledge, this lack of knowledge will cause that society to collapse. This is because the enemy will come and sell his knowledge to that society but will take away its spirituality. Such a society may refuse to import knowledge for a while, but ultimately it will have no choice but to import the knowledge it needs. This happens when a society does not have a firm academic base. What happens if a country has good universities but lacks spirituality and ethics? This is even worse because knowledge will progress in the country, but this progress will work against human values. Knowledge will be at the service of oppression, arrogance, discrimination and immorality. Knowledge will even be at the service of betraying national ideals.

Separation of ethics from knowledge

Today the reason why the advanced knowledge and super modern civilization of the west is not capable of delivering mankind is that their civilization is not accompanied by human values. Wherever there is knowledge, but human conscience, spirituality, morality, and emotions are absent, mankind will not be able to benefit from that knowledge. Knowledge in the absence of spirituality and morality would turn into an atomic bomb and take the lives of innocent people. This type of knowledge was used to manufacture weapons and kill civilians in Lebanon, occupied Palestinian lands and other parts of the world. This type of knowledge produced lethal chemical weapons which were used in Halabcheh and other parts of the world to kill women, children and young men and to destroy human beings and animals alike. Where did these chemicals come from? These deadly chemicals were produced by the scientific centers of European countries. They were the ones who produced these chemicals and gave them to a regime which was not considerate enough. Weapons and different scientific products have not been able to bring about happiness for human beings, for families and for men, women and children. This is because they were not accompanied by ethics and spirituality.

Medical ethics

A doctor should pay a lot of attention to the issue of ethics in two areas: Learning and teaching. We have Islamic ethics for learning. That is to say, learning is one area for practicing Islamic ethics: how to learn and what to learn from whom and for what purpose. These are all related to learning. "God bless those who take on a responsibility and do it appropriately." The same is true of learning. That is to say, learning well is one stage of ethics.

The next stage is to practice what one has learnt with a patient at hospital or with a student at university. The writings of Hippocrates contain a lot of interesting and important points, which are mostly about patients. And this is the second area of medical ethics.

Ethics and politics

The dangers of separating politics from ethics

The world has come to accept that the leaders of human communities have special characteristics. Arrogance, extravagant lifestyle, obstinacy, selfishness – the people of the world have come accept that heads of governments should have these characteristics. Even the leaders of revolutionary governments, who used to live in tents and hide in dirty places, change their lifestyle as soon as they come to power. Their attitude changes, and they become exactly like other leaders and kings in the world.

Imam Khomeini (r.a.) changed this wrong belief and showed that the popular leader of a nation and Muslims of the world can have a simple lifestyle. He showed that a popular leader can entertain his guests in a Hussayniyyah instead of a sumptuous palace. He showed that a leader can treat the people like divine prophets.

Two things pose a threat to politics. The first danger is that politics may drift away from ethics, spirituality and moral virtues. That is to say, evil motives may take over politics. Passions of certain individuals may take control of politics. The interests of wealthy and powerful people of society may take control of politics and drag it in different directions. If politics suffers from this malady, then all aspects of social life will be affected. The second danger is that short-sighted, childish and incompetent individuals may push aside competent people and take control of politics.

Ethics and art

Uniqueness of ethics and art

If human beings are honorable, their hearts and minds also deserve respect. It is not right to present everything to the audience simply because they are paying attention to what the artist is saying. We need to see what the artist is trying to say. Considering what one wants to say is a virtue. If I remember correctly, I once quoted Romain Rolland (French Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature 1915, 1866 - 1944) as saying every artistic work is one percent art and ninety nine percent ethics. To be more cautious, let us say every artistic work is ten percent art and ninety percent ethics. I realized that Rolland's comment is not a precise comment. If I were asked a similar question, I would say every artistic work is 100 percent art and 100 percent ethics. These two are not necessarily inconsistent. One should present 100 percent of one's artistic work through artistic innovation and fill 100 percent of it with content that promotes virtues and lofty and enlightening ideas. Therefore, "committed art" is a consistent phrase. Some of the people who care about artistic issues are worried that the artist may act against human virtues and ethics under the pretext of freedom of imagination and artistic freedom. This is a very important point.

Ethical deviations

Freedom minus ethics

Western democracy is rooted in liberalism. They say because man is free, dictatorship should be abolished and replaced with democracy. The kind of freedom that liberalism is based on is absolute freedom. That is to say, if they want, the people can accept something which is certain to harm them. For example, just as the English legalized homosexuality in their parliament, so they may legalize heroin or incest only if they decide to do so. In this case there is no logical reason why they should not listen to us. They have to accept what we say. What is the difference between homosexuality and incest? In this case they do not have a logical justification for what they do. Therefore, there are no logical limits to restrict this western freedom. If they say, “This is the point where freedom goes against ethics”, we can say, “What ethics? There are no ethical limits. Everybody is free.” This is because liberalism is based on freedom, and no limits can restrict this freedom unless one kind of freedom goes against another kind of freedom or against the essence of communal freedom. This is the only red line that they have. In fact by relying on the philosophy of liberalism, western democracy proves its hollowness. Then all ethical values may be destroyed in society. Today those who believe in western democracy are not prepared to acknowledge this. But this is the inevitable consequence of accepting the philosophy behind liberal democracy.

Drifting away from ethics

Westerners have destroyed the foundations of ethics with their own hands. Since 50, 60 years ago, the foundations of ethics have been continually undermined. That is to say, the uncontrolled boost in individual freedoms and letting people be totally free to indulge in whatever they want – these things have destroyed the culture of society from within. This shows that westerners are in a critical situation in terms of culture and personality.

In spite of its great wealth, numerous facilities and scientific advances, the American society is suffering from a kind of spiritual poverty and severe ethical deficiency, which is why such crimes and tragedies happen there. This is a consequence of drifting away from spirituality. How can a mother murder her own children because of a passing desire? If pleasure is grounds enough for unlimited freedom, then why are there so many restrictions on drug abuse? Why stop those who want to use drugs? They do not have an answer for this. When ethical foundations of a society are destroyed, it will be impossible to control anything. Westerners are in such a situation today.

Spiritual problems

Some people who go after material interests suffer from spiritual and moral problems. This is the result of drifting away from the divine, spiritual and monotheistic world view. Selfishness, narcissism, creating a pharaoh in one’s heart – these are the root of the problems that nations and government officials suffer from. A person may not reveal any pharaonic characteristics, but he may be a pharaoh at heart. Selfishness, narcissism, obstinacy and putting one’s interests and desires first are the main source of corruption in life. Therefore, it is necessary to move towards self-purification.

The effect of moral corruption on the family

Break-up of the family is an inevitable consequence of carnal desires, decadence and moral corruption. And if moral corruption continues, then the consequence will be the same thing that has happened in western countries. This is especially tangible in societies where decadence is more prevalent. In such societies the family has lost its real meaning. For example, if a husband and wife decide to get together and drink tee with their children, then they should make arrangements so that everybody comes home at a particular time. That is to say, there is no warm family environment in such societies. Therefore, the most important issue is that members of a family should love each other and try to build trust.

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