The Position of hadith in Ethics

After the Holy Qur’an, hadith is the second most credible source for the study of the faith and determining human beings’ path of happiness. Reliance upon this source is greater in some areas of religious studies, including jurisprudence (fiqh) and parts of ethics; the reason is that the grounding principles of these sciences are indicated briefly in the Qur’an, the details being left to be found in hadith. By way of examining books of hadith and books of juridical principle, this paper seeks to find the answer to the question whether hadith is accountable in ethics or not, and that if it is, then how far its impact and scope go. For this purpose, chapters on ethics in some source texts on juridical principles and on ethics are studied and accountability of hadith in ethics is thereby established, while it was found out that ethics strongly needs hadith both for its establishment, i.e. defining its concepts, and for establishing, i.e. approving its propositions, and that hadith is the supporting pillar required for the practice of ethical codes.