The Golden Rule in Islamic Ethics and Moral Hadith

Is there a single and unique moral rule that can be applied to every ethical situation and guide our moral life? This paper tries to deal with this question and assess the Golden Rule and evaluate its importance and application in different religions and moral systems, specially Islamic ethics. To achieve this goal, this paper is divided into seven sections. The introductory section explores the ancient search for this rule of conduct and introduces two forms of Golden Rule, i.e., its positive form, that says: "do to others what you would like them to do to you." And the negative form that teaches us: "never do to others what you would not like them to do to you." the second section traces the golden rule in different Eastern and Western religions and moral schools to show its world wide acceptability. The next section presents some Hadiths on Golden Rule and analyses them to show its broad applications in Islamic moral teachings. The fourth section assesses this rule of conduct in Islamic ethics. The next sections deal with the task of this rule of conduct in moral imagination and report critically some misunderstandings on this rule. At the end the writer concludes that this rule can be very helpful in avoiding moral behaviors and judgments.