Encyclopedia of Islam

ethics and morality

Ethics and morality are concerned with how 

humans should live their lives in accordance with 

what they know to be right and wrong. The two 

terms are often used interchangeably. However, 

when scholars distinguish them, they understand 

ethics to mean philosophical reflection upon 

moral conduct, while morality pertains to specific 

norms or codes of behavior. Questions of ethics, 

therefore, involve such subjects as human nature 

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ethics and morality

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and the capacity to do good, the nature of good 

and evil, motivations for moral action, the under-

lying principles governing moral and immoral 

acts, deciding who is obliged to adhere to the 

moral code and who is exempted from it, and the 

implications of either adhering to the moral code 

or violating it. Morality encompasses the values 

and rules that govern human conduct, such as the 

Golden Rule, which holds that a person should 

treat others as he or she would be treated.

There is no necessary relation between ethi-

cal beliefs and religion; people in many times and 

places engage in moral action without having to 

adhere to a particular religion. Nevertheless, most 

religions promote moral teachings and engage in 

ethical reflection. Religions also provide motiva-

tions for acting in accordance with moral principles 

by promising rewards and punishments from a god 

or some other supramundane power in this world 

or in the 

aFterliFe

. Religions can also criticize indi-

vidual and communal morality. This “prophetic” 

function is most evident among the Abrahamic 

religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), but it 

is present in other religions too. Lastly, it should be 

noted that the close relationship between religion 

and morality can have negative aspects. When a 

religious 

aUthority

, normally expected to embody 

moral virtues, is believed to have committed crimi-

nal, tyrannical, or other immoral acts, it can 

provoke resentment or opposition and engender 

sectarian and reform movements.

Ethical awareness has been a defining feature 

of Islam, even though engaging in moral 

philoso

-

phy

 per se has not. Rather than being a formal area 

of knowledge, ethics in Islam has been a topic 

addressed more often in a practical sense within a 

variety of contexts, including ones in which it was 

engaged with non-Muslim ethical traditions, both 

religious and nonreligious. Indeed, Islamic moral-

ity has formed internally among Sunnis, Shiis, 

Sufis, and rationalists while also being shaped 

by interactions with pre-Islamic Arabian, Greek, 

Persian, Jewish, Christian, and other ethical tradi-

tions on the local and global levels. This process 

has continued in the modern period as a result 

of encounters with Western powers and modern 

secular moral systems.

The word islam implies a moral outlook, 

since it is understood to mean submission to 

God’s will, which is seen as a good that brings 

a person into harmony with the “natural” order 

of 

creation

. Submission and performing good 

deeds, the q

Uran

 teaches, are done because 

they are prescribed by God, they reciprocate 

God for the blessings he provides, and they are 

rewarded, whereas rebellious and wrongful acts 

are punished. Muslims believe that performing 

the required F

ive

  p

illars

 of Islam is “worship” 

or “service” (ibada), and they have given it moral 

meaning. Therefore, they associate the virtue of 

keeping bodily hygiene with prayer ablutions, 

overcoming selfishness with fasting, and promot-

ing equality among believers with pilgrimage. 

Islamic morality is clearly involved in the duty of 

almsgiving

, a charitable redistribution of wealth 

for the benefit of the needy and the community 

as a whole. Participants in the annual 

haJJ

 to 

m

ecca

, the fifth pillar, are prohibited from being 

violent, acting rudely, and harming most plants 

and 

animals

. According to the 

hadith

, those who 

perform the hajj properly are forgiven their sins 

and rewarded with 

paradise

. Furthermore, in a 

famous hadith, called the Hadith of g

abriel

, islam

and 

Faith

 (iman) itself are closely associated with 

ihsan, “doing the good.” Ihsan, the hadith states, 

means doing what is good and beautiful in wor-

shipping God, knowing that he is aware of what a 

person does, even if he (God) is not visible.

Muslims look primarily to the Quran and 

the 

sUnna

 of Muhammad, “customary practice” 

expressed in the hadith, for moral guidance. The 

Quran’s chief moral instruction, one that echoes 

throughout the history of Islam, is for people to 

“command what is known to be right (maaruf) 

and forbid what is reprehensible (munkar).” This 

is stated, for example, in the third chapter: “Let a 

people from among you invite (others) to good-

ness. Let them command what is known to be