There was a group of people who, when it was said to them “do not commit corruption”, they responded, “we are but putting things right”.
Whereas, in God’s view, they are the ones who are truly spreading corruption even though they admit that they are neither cognizant nor mindful of it.
Even though those people think that they have a good, ethical mission, they lack the true vision of right and wrong. Consequently, they contribute to moral chaos in society. The attitude of such a group is recorded in the Qur’an, al-Baqarah, 2:11-12.
Moreover, there is even a hopeless case of one who-because evil in his conduct is so alluring to him-he regards Evil as Good (see Fatir, 35: 8; al-Naml, 27: 24; al-‘Ankabut, 29: 38).
The worldview of Islam reminds Muslims not to act merely as they please, as without the aid of Revealed knowledge, contradiction with regard to what constitutes good or bad, will arise.
With regard to the value of action in the context of morality, so-called instincts are in a state of battle; some minds consider certain acts to be good, while others consider those to be bad.
Even one person can be of two minds concerning one and the same action.
Consideration of what is good or bad may also come to be based on mere whim, since capriciousness (al-hawa) often wins out over one’s intellect and obscures its moral valuation.
When permissiveness is allowed, then society gives rise to terrorists, for example who commit injury against the innocent, students who turn upon their teachers and violate the educational institutions, and children who are hostile to their parents-all the while claiming they are putting things right and consider that which is Evil to be Good.
Additionally, ethical relativism will allow for decorum to be led astray and permit widespread abandonment of any standard comprising that which is decent, proper, and right in terms of speech, dress, and behaviour.
In the formulations of al-Ash‘ari (d. 324/936) and the luminaries of his school of thought, good actions refer to what the Shari‘ has permitted or commanded to be done; while bad actions refer to what the Shari‘ commands to avoid from. The Shari‘ (Law-giver) refers to Allah or His messenger.
This mainstream school of Islamic thought refutes that right and wrong are merely relative to what man decides. For them, ethics does not mean that knowledge of that which is right and wrong is the sole purview of mankind.
As stated by Ibn al-‘Arabi (d. 638/1240) “hukmullah fi al-ashya’ ghayr makhluq“, referring to the fact that Divine Rules governing action, once revealed as shari‘ah, is eternally valid.
According to this view, all moral actions have certain divine rules (ahkam), and mankind is created to prize those actions according to their values, and to act in conformity therein.
This is the verification by deeds in accordance with what is known to be religious truths, as required in the narrated prophetic tradition from Caliph ‘Ali, “al-Iman ma‘rifat bi al-qalb, wa qawl bi al-lisan, wa ‘amal bi al-arkan” (related by Ibn Majah, al-Tabarani, Tammam, al-Daylami). As such, a righteous person refers to one who is just in giving things their due esteem.
In relation to this, it has been said that the aims of education is to teach the pupil what he or she ought to like and what not to like.
In the case of children, who will not know what is the right at first, they must be trained by their parents to know pleasure, like, disgust, and abhorrence for those things which are really pleasant, likeable, disgusting, and abhorrent, which corresponds somewhat to the meanings of al-fard, al-mandub, al-makruh, and al-mahzur, respectively.
That was why al-Shafi‘i (d. 204/820) said that parents are responsible to teach their children about purification (al-taharah), prayer, fasting, and so forth commensurate with the child’s age.
Furthermore, as their social relationship develops, parents must teach them that there are regulations as far as the relationship between male and female; and that they should hold their tongues from lies, slander, and the like; and that theft, drinking intoxicants, and the like are unlawful acts. The last item mentioned refers to one’s obligation to know what is permissible and what is unlawful concerning things one is unable to do without, such as food, drink, clothing, and so on.
It is quite evident that specification of knowledge concerning fardu ‘ayn is somewhat different from individual to individual and is relative to the difference in one’s situation, condition and requirement.
Indeed fardu ‘ayn-knowledge is dynamic and not limited to the aforementioned basic preliminaries taught to children.
There is a very important principle concerning education in Islam, that for anyone who wishes to be a trader, to get married or to be a leader, for example, they are personally obligated to learn and understand their means and condition according to the shari‘ah.
In other words, it is unlawful to delve in such enterprise until one knows the conditions for their legal validity. In his Mubid al-Humum wa Mufid al-‘Ulum, Abu Sa‘id al-Khawarizmi relates the following examples:
For how can one be a good husband and father if one is not educated on how to treat one’s wife and children? Or how can one be a benevolent leader if one is ignorant of the rights of one’s subjects, socio-political and legal justice, and so on?
Or how can one be a just trader if one does not know what constitutes a valid transaction, the condition of any article transacted, usurious gain (riba), and so on, for example?
The historian, al-Zabidi (d. 1790), mentioned that the educational system during the time of Caliph ‘Umar (d. 644) was so good to the extent that there was no Muslim trader-in all the markets of the entire Arabian Peninsula, Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Egypt-who was not clear on matters concerning transactions.
Nevertheless, fardu ‘ayn actions also refer to spiritual acts, or acts accomplished by the heart, whether in terms of commission or omission.
Hence, fardu ‘ayn-knowledge also refers to knowledge concerning the illnesses of the heart, such as rancour, niggardliness, envy, pride, and so on, more than anything else. To know their definition, causes, remedy, and treatment is one’s personal obligation in order to eliminate one’s unlawful inner traits.
Likewise, fortitude, gratitude, trust, truthfulness, and so on are among the spiritual acts one must be committed to.
The Risalah of al-Qushayri reported that one of the wise once said: “If someone does not perform those religious duties which must be continuously practiced (al-fard al-da’im), his performance of the religious duty scheduled for a given time (al-fard al-mu’aqqat) will not be accepted of him.”
When asked to explain what he meant by ‘religious duty which must be continuously performed’, he replied: “honesty (sidq)”.