Subject Analysis of Ethical Propositions in the Quran

Ethical propositions found in some texts which are usually expressed in forms of one or several statements structurally consist of a subject and a predicate. The predicates of such statements usually include ethical concepts such as "good" and "bad", "should" and "should not", "right" and "wrong" and "duty". Concerning the subjects of such propositions with regard to the disagreements among the experts in ethics of virtue and ethics of duty, different views have been expressed. The advocates of ethics of virtue according to their belief in the significance of human merits and vices consider man's enduring- subjective qualities as the subjects of ethics and ethical propositions. While the proponents of ethics of duty on the basis of principles of manners, regard human voluntary actions as the subject of ethics. In this essay, Quranic views concerning the subjects of ethical propositions will be reviewed and by referring to some instances from Quranic verses, it will be concluded that the ethical injunctions of the Quran cover a vaster field than just human’s voluntary actions and qualities and as a result the subject of ethical propositions would be "man and his dimensions of existence.” In other words, in the Quran, the seven ethical concepts i.e. "good" and "bad", "should" and "should not", "right" and "wrong" and "duty" have been attributed to man's five dimensions including "epistemological", "emotional", "voluntary", "active" and "human character".