نشریه اخلاق وحیانی
سال دوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 3، پاییز و زمستان 1391)

According to Søren Kierkegaard, ethics happens at the religious stage, which is the third stage of life, and its fundamental element is submissiveness to the categorical imperatives of the religion. Moreover, general, common and intellectual values are totally irrelevant in ethics. Further, based on the Asharites’ standpoint, ethics is characterized by the element of good and evil and by the religious, divine and legal duties, as opposed to the good and evil and the inherent and intellectual duties. Hence, neither in Kierkegaard’s standpoint on ethics nor in that of Asharites does intellect play the role of the ethical criterion, ethical knowledge, ethical duty or ethical motivation, and these stages all belong to religion. The present paper aims at reviewing the religious ethics of Kierkegaard as well as that of Asharites and will also explain their differences in their common approach. While the Asharites initially derive the ethical indications and rules from religion, Kierkegaard basically believes in the indication and the rule of intellect; however, the categorical imperative of the religion causes the indication and the rules of intellect to be suspended. Furthermore, contrary to Kierkegaard who derives the valued and necessary concepts of ethics from intellect, the Asharites’ version of ethics is dependent upon religion even in the domains of ethical meanings and concepts.

The purpose of this study is the systematic and analytic investigation of ethical propositions stated in the Surahs of the Quran. To this end, using content analysis method, the role and the significance of these propositions in guiding the people and the society towards perfection and felicity will be explained, which would in turn form the basis for a model of an ethical system to emerge.By extracting the ethical propositions in the holy Quran and analyzing and categorizing them thematically, this research paper seeks ultimately to come up with a model of the way in which the people and the Muslim society could be guided. In this article, the ethical propositions stated in the Quran regarding both individual and social dimensions, will be addressed equally and, in order to construct a model and a structured system with regard to ethics, four basic pillars of a system, i.e. theoretical principles, requirements, premises, and impediments will also be explicated.In the present paper Surah Al-Israa will be studied as a sample using the content analysis method. The results indicated that the individualized propositions regarding the two issues of virtues and vices comprised 47%, and the social propositions stated regarding four issues of culture, society, politics and economy comprised 53% of the total propositions of this Surah. The model that will be presented in the end will illustrate all aspects and dimensions of an ethical system in both individual and social levels.

Ethics is about good and evil and it constantly circles around these two issues whether when it is discussed with regard to beliefs or sensual qualities or deeds. In the present paper, ethics has been examined from the viewpoint of two theological schools of thought, i.e. the Asharites and the Separatists. The Separatists believe good and evil to be inherent and intellectual characteristics of deeds and they consider this to be an essential element of Divine Justice. They take all Divine Acts to be good and fair and maintain that God never does any vice acts and never hesitates in doing something necessary. The attribute of ‘justice’ is related to the attributes of Divine Will and Divine Omnipotence. These attributes lead to the knowledge of the oneness of God and all of the Divine attributes. The knowledge as to the oneness of God and the substantiation of the eternity of God are dependent upon the humans’ will and freedom of will in their acts and the validity of these issues are dependent upon intellect and not tradition, for, otherwise it would lead to the collapse of the social system, the invalidation of the law of causality, as well as the destruction of the Revealed Law and the religion.In contrast to this view, the Asharites believe in the Divine and lawful good and evil of the acts. They also believe in Divine justice but with a different definition from that of the Separatists; they believe that whatever God does is pure justice. Therefore, they do not believe good and evil to be inherent in acts and as a result, they do not consider any role for intellect in the discovery of good and evil; rather, they believe God and his Divine Orders to be the creator of good and evil. The Asharites also believe that good and evil of acts is dependent upon the Divine Will and Omnipotence which are both considered as Attributes of the Essence. Another point worth considering is that both schools have the same stance on the intellectuality of certain meanings of good and evil; yet, sooner than later they will have a controversy, but only on the merit of praise and reward and rebuke and penalty. Finally, in the theological system of the Separatists, and based on their interpretation of good and evil of acts, their focus is more of an anthropocentric nature, while in the theological system of Asharites the emphasis is more of a Divine and theocentric nature.

Inattention to the bonds between the Islamic criminal law and Islamic ethics in principles, purpose, contents and administrative mechanisms, the attenuation of various ethical aspects of Islamic criminal law and also casting doubts on the rationality and efficiency of the Islamic criminal law, have all resulted in a call for exclusion or alteration of some impeachments and penalizations. By employing an analytic-descriptive research method and library-research data collection methods, the present research aims at explaining one of the principle bonds between Islamic criminal law and Islamic ethics, i.e. the role of Islamic criminal law in cultivating Islamic moral values in the society. It is hoped that through this study, some aspects with regard to the rationality and efficiency of the Islamic criminal law be explicated and its ethical capacities and capabilities be further activated. It must be noted that impeachments and penalizations in Islamic criminal law serve, one the one hand, the purpose of informing and teaching the people the basic and minimal Islamic moral values by drawing the boundary lines of moral values in the society, and training individuals and hence the whole society based on the values by hurting the offenders of the basic moral values on the other. Furthermore, the legislation and administration of Islamic penalties convey the message that the more a behavior approximates and resembles the prohibited actions, the higher its degree of nastiness and immorality will be, though it might not have reached a prohibited criminal degree. This will in turn lead to an increased effect of Islamic impeachments and penalizations in teaching moral values.

From the beginning, reforming and improving ethics in the society have always been one of the most important objectives of the Prophets, which is in fact the very ethics that they have offered mankind. However, it is rather unfortunate that some of the religious leaders and the guardians of the faiths and their followers disregard ethics when confronting other people, while the full realization of the prophets’ message would take place only when the religions leaders, who are examples for the followers of the religions, practice such ethics first. Heeding ethics is necessary everywhere and for everyone, yet doing it seems more crucial for the religious leaders. Observing such ethics, especially when confronting other religions and while studying and pondering them, is of great importance. However, a historical survey of the confrontation of religions with each other does not depict an acceptable picture in this regard, as studying religions has always been accompanied by a sort of skepticism, misapprehension, and at times even contempt of others. Hence, it seems necessary to examine the ethics regarding the study of religions and faiths carefully so as to pave the way for putting it into practice. Finally, ‘fairness’, ‘proper apprehension’, and ‘refraining from contempt’ are among the most essential ethical principles to be observed during scientific confrontation with the religions.

Everyone would admit that individuals have a set of ethical codes by the help of which they distinguish good deeds from bad deeds. Such ethical codes would condemn selfish, impulsive and shortsighted actions on the one hand, and reinforce actions that would lead to broader perspectives on the other. As a result of these sets of codes, people start making choices. The ability of making such choices is what is referred to as ‘self-control’. Nowadays, self-control is recognized in psychology as a capability that keeps an individual’s behavior within the boundaries of the accepted rules and criteria. However, it is possible for everyone to have experienced some failures, in some cases, based on his own idea of ethical codes. Therefore, the power of self-control needs assistance and help and the teachings of the religions can be rather effective in this regard. Apparently, according to the teachings of Islam, a wide variety of moral virtues arise from success in self-control. For instance, virtues such as discretion, dignity, patience, and above all ‘piety’ all originate from self-control. On the contrary, moral vices are considered to be a test for self-control in this regard. Thus, the present paper aims at investigating the capability of Islam in cultivating virtuous and ethical behavior in the people through reinforcing and promoting self-control factors. Through these studies we will realize that Islam pursues the reinforcement and promotion of self-control through five methods which are as follows: ‘offering clear standards’, ‘creating incentive for moral behavior’, ‘monitoring the individuals’ behavior’, ‘managing the indecent desires’, and ‘containing and regulating the emotions’.

A quick look at the world today and the expansion of the emerging mysticisms, which are at times immoral, and the growing conversion of the people to these new schools of mysticism, reveals that we live in the era of the humans’ return to spirituality, or the era of the return of spirituality to humans’ lives. It is at such times that a society’s reserves of cultural heritage would protect it, just as one’s immune system which comes in handy in the protection of one’s body against the infestations of diseases.The customs and traditions regarding the ways of ‘manliness’ and ‘chivalry’ are among such spiritual and cultural reserves of Iran and Islam which have formed a series of ethical and spiritual teachings and some kind of practical wisdom for the public and which have come to be very useful to the people in interregnum periods. The present paper seeks to identify and present the system of chivalry through reflecting on the written documents on the codes and the ways of chivalry and manliness and also by examining their remaining traditions such as the manner and conduct taught at traditional Iranian gymnasiums and the ways of the traditional Iranian athletes. This is because these traditions and customs enjoy special ethical and educational properties and principles, and have always heralded the original human and ethical values such as ‘equality’, ‘fraternity’, ‘wellbeing’, ‘justice’ and etc. And these very tenets and ethical principles provide an appropriate standard for the society.