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Tuesday November 24, 2009

Circumventing moral relativism

IKIM Views by Dr MOHD SANI BADRON


OUR previous article (“Adab defines Islamic education”) clarified how adab manifests the beautification of ethics, whose fundamentals are ultimately based on the worldview of Islam.

This directly contradicts an integral factor of secularisation: the “relativisation of all human values”.

Islam disagrees with the secular view that each and every value system is relative to human opinions and personal beliefs.

Relativism denies that there are ultimate and final values, ethical rules or codes of conduct.

The secularist is of the opinion that every value system is transient and open to change with the times.

“Deconsecration of values” implies that man shall remove all religious support from ethics; secularisation claims that mankind has an absolute freedom to change moral values, all on its own.

Moreover, relativism denies that right and wrong are objective.

For the secularist, right and wrong are of human making; ethics merely consist in inventing right and wrong.

Consider J.L. Mackie’s book Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong.

Relativism may be illustrated by the following humorous anecdote: once, Mulla Nasruddin was acting as a judge. Two men came to him looking for a fair decision.

The plaintiff’s lawyer advanced strong reasoning and Nasruddin said: “Yes, you are right.”

But later, the defendant’s lawyer also presented a powerful argument of his case and Nasruddin said: “Yes, you are also right.”

The court registrar, who was witnessing the situation, said with amazement:

“I just cannot understand you, my lord.

“Both the plaintiff and respondent can never be right at the same time.”

In a state of desperation, Nasruddin replied: “You are right, too.”

Contrary to relativism, Islam understands ethics as akhlaq (the plural of khuluq), referring to the moulding of man’s nature according to which he is created by Allah.

In fact, Islam identifies khuluq with fitrah — that is, a natural religious disposition of which the human being is created, or with tabi’ah, an innate temper with the creation.

To be ethical is not to invent right and wrong, but rather to be in harmony with humans’ purity of being and spirituality.

This original sense of khuluq is very relevant to the Quranic verse:

“By the Soul, and the proportion and order given to it” (al-Shams, 91: 7).

’Allamah ’Abdullah Yusuf Ali clarifies that “Allah creates the soul, and gives it order, proportion, and relative perfection, in order to adapt it for the particular circumstances, in which it has to live its life.”

“God breathes into it an understanding of what is sin, impiety, wrongdoing and what is piety and right conduct, in the special circumstances in which it may be placed.”

Thus, in contrast to the cognate term khalq, which refers to the fashioning of the “outer man” with its peculiar qualities and attributes, ethics (khuluq) is primarily used to mean the moral character of the “inner man”, that is his intellect or soul, with its peculiar qualities and attributes.

Hence, Islamic ethics signify one’s habit as one’s “second nature”.

The aforementioned meaning is illustrated clearly in the Qur’an, to the effect that the Prophet Muhammad “stands on an exalted standard of character (khuluq ’azim)” in reference to the very core of his being (al-Qalam, 68: 4).

There is also the prophetic tradition that “nothing is heavier in the mizan than goodness of the moral character (husn al-khuluq)”.

The mizan refers to eschatological balance in which good and evil actions of every human being will be weighed in the afterlife.

Another tradition narrated by Sayyidah A’ishah emphasises the fact that whereto the Prophet Muhammad clung was the Quran, including its rules of discipline (adab), its commands and prohibitions, as well as the excellence, beauty and gracious things comprised in it.

Our previous article also mentioned another relevant fundamental fact, that the Quran is a means (ma’dabah) which God has prepared on Earth for men’s learning about right and wrong.

As such, it is clear that Islamic ethics as well as good discipline of the mind are based on what is taught by Allah through the Quran, which was immediately translated into a living reality intimately and profoundly lived in the experience of Prophet Muhammad, whom the first community of believers emulated.

The Quran and the Prophet thus guide future generations of Mus­lims by confirming and affirming this prophetic example in their lives, as witness the first community before.

Even when later in history, Muslim rule expanded to become a great civilisation encountering other world cultures, this basic structure of Islamic ethics and intellectual discipline remained intact.

This made it possible for Muslims to approve and appropriate those traditions and elements which did not contradict such a superstructure of universal Quranic teachings, regardless whether it was of pre-Islamic Arabic, Persian, Greek, or any other origin.

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