PE Spring 2012 Lecture 01

8/2/2019 PE Spring 2012 Lecture 01

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Ethics


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Ask yourself?

Why study ethics?


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Classification of Values

Values are classified differently:

Moral values Aesthetic values

Religious values Economic values Political values

Legal values Customary values

Social values

Literary values


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What is value?

Concept of worth

denotes something's degree of importance

reflect a persons sense of right and wrongor what ought to be

Values tend to influence attitudes and behavior


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Genesis of Values

Local, national and regional values and culture generallyevolve a particularistic vision and way of life

Universal values are transcendent and carry a global

applicability, e.g: Truth (sidq), Justice (adl), Trustwiorthiness(amanah), fulfillment of contracts (uqud), steadfastness(sabr), persistence (istiqamah), etc.

Universal values are absolute and are not variable relative or

subject to social evolutionary process. ?????

Universal values address whole of humanity, withoutdiscrimination of color, gender, race, language, territorial

nationality or economic status. ??????


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Genesis of Values

Universal values have an innate mechanism to developsub-values, adapt ways that do not conflict with these

basic values, and help in making life easy, fair, anddignified for humanity (al-din yusr).

Allah desires for you ease (yusr); He does not desirehardship (usr) for you

al-Baqarah 2:185

The Quranic sociology does not accept local, tribal,regional origin of values and religious visions. Values,in Islam, come from beyond. Society is to be structuredand developed on the basis of values and not the

contrary.


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Culture: Meaning of the term

Derived from Latin; means cultivation, Christianauthors use it in the sense of worship.

It also means : training of mind, faculties,manners


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T.S Eliot thinks culture is not merely the sum ofseveral activities; but a way of life.(P41)

He also underscores.

The primary channel of transmission of culture isthe family

and when family life fails to play its part, we must

expect our culture to deteriorate (P45)

T.S. Eliot,Notes Towards the Definition of Culture, London, Faber and Faber,1948,.


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Culture and Religion

The dominant force in creating a common culturebetween people each of which has its distinct culture, is

religion. Please do not, at this point, make a mistake inanticipating my meaning. This is not a religious talk, and Iam not setting out to convert anybody. I am simply statinga factit is in Christianity that our Arts have developed,it is in Christianity that the laws of Europe have untilrecently been rooted

If Christianity goes, the whole of our culture goes

T.S Eliot,Notes Towards the Definition of Culture, P122.


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Culture as way of Life

Civilization and culture both refer to the overallway of life of a people. They both involve values,norms, institutions, and modes of thinking towhich successive generations in a given society

have attached primary importance

AddaB.Bozeman,Civilization under stress,VerginiaQuarterly,P1.quoted in Huntington, The Clash ofCivilizations and The Remaking of World Order,

Penguin Books, 1997, P41.


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A Civilization is thus the highest culturalgrouping of people and the broadest level ofcultural identity people haveIt is defined both

by common objective elements, such as language

history, religion, customs, institutions and by thesubjective self-identification of people

Huntington ,The clash of Civilization, P43


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Iqbal considers Muslim Culture a translation oftawhidin space and time.

M. Iqbal, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought inIslam, Lahore, Ashraf, 1977, P147


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Pickthall

By Islamic culture, I mean not the culture, fromwhatever source derived, attained at any givenmoment by people who profess the religion ofIslam, but the Kind of Culture prescribed by a

religion of which human progress is the definiteand avowed aim

If any development in Muslim society is notsanctioned by the Quran or some express

injunctions of the Prophet, it is un-Islamic and itsorigin must be sought outside the Islamic polity.

(P 2)


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The culture of Islam aimed not at beautifying andrefining the accessories of human life. It is aimed

at beautifying and exaltinghuman life itself (P3)

Islamic culture is intricately bound up with

religion so Imbued with the idea of Allahsuniversal sovereigntyIslamic Culture whether

we survey it in the field of science, or of art or of

literature, or of social welfare has everywhere

and always religious reference

M.Marmaduke pickthall,The Cultural side of

Islam,Lahore,Ashraf,1993.P.20.


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Sayed Mawdudi

People think sciences and manners, fine arts, artifacts, socialbehavior, civility and political mannerism is the civilization of a

people. These are, the fact of the matter is, manifestations ofcivilization not the essence of civilization. The real worth andvalue of a civilizational tree cannot be estimated from theapparent images and on the surface apparels. We need to godeep into its soul and essence to discover its reality

First and foremost is to discover real nature of a civilization.We have to find out what is its concept of worldly life, what ismans status in this world, and how would man relate himselfwith this world.

(continued)


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Second, what is the ultimate objective of life of man, what isthe target of all human activities.

Third what is the ideal character and behavior of man in a

civilization and how it tries to build it up.

Fourth what is the ethical profile of man in a civilization andwhat behavioral pattern it wants to inculcate in man or insociety.

Fifth, how a civilization develops inter-personal relations andlooks on its building blocks of family, neighborhood, friends,authorities, in brief the basis of a social system

Abul Ala Mawdudi,Islamic Tahdhib aur uskay usul wa Mubadi, Lahore, IslamicPublishing Ltd, 1960, P 11-13


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Conclusion

Islamic Civilization and culture transcends the formand medium which is mistaken as Arabian, Turkish,Iranian, Central Asian or Andalusian art andarchitecture, ceramics, carpets and so on.

The essence of Islamic calligraphy, for example isnot in angularKufi,Nabiti orHamiri,Khat; nor inthe naskh, nastaliq,rihani, thuluth, khat diwani or

in arabesque as such, or in any other medium but inthe tawhidi vision.


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Tawhid is the essence and ultimate concern.

The fact of the matter is tawhid is the essence and ultimate principle,manifested in all intellectual, audio, visual, creative, artistic, endeavors made

by the Muslims and by those influenced by Islam. One obvious example is thecalligraphic inscription of wa la ghaliba illa Allah on the ceramic tiles andtapestries in the post Muslim exodus Andalusia.


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Universality of the Islamic culture and civilization isremarkably reflected in the creative works at aglobal level, in Spain, the Near East, Far East,Africa or Central and South Asia.

Local materials may be various, the essence remainsthe same, for the simple reason Islam was not a

product of Arab but it bestowed on the Arabs andnon-Arabs an Islamic cultural character.


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The tree of Islamic culture and civilization

does not have its roots in Asia, Africa, or

Europe but in the Divine guidance

(hidayah, shariah, wahy) or universaltawhidi paradigm.


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Ethical Theories

Ethical Principle

Ethical Judgment

Ethical Theory


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Types of Ethical Theories

Motive Act Consequences


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Evolution of Ethical Values

Ethical Norms

and values

Social Habits

and Behavior

Local Customs

and Traditions


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The Islamic Paradigm

Divine Guidance

& Wahi

Universal Values

Social Customs

and Behavior

Divine guidance frombeyond guides through

wahi (revelation) in an

objective manner and not

in a subjective, intuitive,

mystical, purely rational or

personal judgment.

Documents

PE Spring 2012 Lecture 01