The Role of Faith in Determining Man’s Moral Dignity from the Viewpoint of Qur’an and Traditions

The question of moral dignity is one of the important debates of moral philosophy. Despite differences in this issue, all experts agree that human beings have a moral dignity. The question now is, how does faith play a role in determining the stage and degree of one's moral stage, by accepting the issue of moral dignity? Islamic teachings hold that faith plays a central role in determining the existential stages of humanity. In this context, anyone who denies God or the Apostle or the Resurrection is at the lowest existential stages. Faith itself has an equivocal nature that accepts strengths and weaknesses, and since the degree of humanity depends on the degree of faith, the stages of faith also follows the stages of humanity. The various stages of humanity constitute the stages of the human moral dignity, which determine the duties of moral activists before man. Accordingly, the unbeliever has the lowest level of moral rights, but the believer has a much higher legal rights, which, his moral dignity, also changes in accordance to his moral dignity. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the finding of this research shows that, a believer whose piety is established in his soul and hence avoids sin, in comparison with a fasiq believer who has not such stability in his soul, enjoys a higher moral status.