Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
2. BASIS OF SYSTEMATISATION OF THE QUR’ANIC MORAL CODE ─ THE QUR’ANIC IDEAL:
The effort to systematize the Moral Code has passed through several stages in the history of human thought. Among the ancients, it was Aristotle who gave a classification that is based on the main psychological aspects of human nature, viz., Knowing, Feeling and Willing. The highest virtue pertaining to Knowing is Wisdom, pertaining to Feeling is Temperance, and pertaining to willing is Courage, while Justice governs them all. But the Greek mind does not seem to have developed its moral consciousness properly, and that because of the fact that, as the historical account of Greek civilization available today shows, it was pagan in character and possessed no proper conception of ‘personality’; whereas morality is inseparably related to ‘personality’ and seems to have developed under the impact of the teachings of revealed religions and not otherwise.
Among the philosophers of the modern age, it was Kant who made an important contribution. But his emphasis on the form of the Moral Law as the standard of morality and his attitude of leaving the contents of that Law to be traced from the established morality and the moral situation did not provide much lead in respect of the Moral Code, though the importance of his contribution to Moral Philosophy cannot be denied without injustice. Kent did furnish us with a classification of duties in order to complete his ethical system. But, the Code prescribed by him is through & through ideational and individualistic in character, because it does not attach importance to the duties of the moral agent towards the societal whole, nor is there any reference to the duties of the societal whole to its parts. This appears to be due to his limitation that he was born and lived in Christian environment,—the Christian point of view being that man’s socio-cultural yearnings are inherently incompatible with his spirituao-moral yearnings.
What, then, is the basis of systematization of the Qur’anic Moral Code? Answer to this question necessitates the statement of the Qur’anic Ideal, which emerges in the following terms:
The Qur’an places equal emphasis on the sensate and the transcendental yearnings of man and harmonizes them; and thus it lays down for humanity a comprehensive Ideal, which consists in the cultivation of:
(1) Holiness based on a dynamic, vibrant and living faith in God, an earnest and courageous pursuit of Truth, and an ever present consciousness of Final Accountability;
(2) sound and comprehensive Morality;
(3) social, economic and political Justice;
(4) Knowledge in all its dimensions; and
(5) Aesthetic Grace,
—all of these resulting in the conquest of harmful propensities within the individual, the conquest of evil within the society, and the conquest of the physical environment, or, Nature. In the pursuit of this Ideal, Holiness, Love for Humanity, Truth, Justice, Beauty, Discipline and Progress are the watchwords, while the concept of Unity permeates the entire movement towards the Ideal, and the motto of ‘simple living, hard labour and high thinking’ forms the wheel of progress.
to be continued . . . . .
