and the capacity to do good, the nature of good
and evil, motivations for moral action, the under-
lying principles governing moral and immoral
acts, deciding who is obliged to adhere to the
moral code and who is exempted from it, and the
implications of either adhering to the moral code
or violating it. Morality encompasses the values
and rules that govern human conduct, such as the
Golden Rule, which holds that a person should
treat others as he or she would be treated.
There is no necessary relation between ethi-
cal beliefs and religion; people in many times and
places engage in moral action without having to
adhere to a particular religion. Nevertheless, most
religions promote moral teachings and engage in
ethical reflection. Religions also provide motiva-
tions for acting in accordance with moral principles
by promising rewards and punishments from a god
or some other supramundane power in this world
or in the aFterliFe. Religions can also criticize indi-
vidual and communal morality. This “prophetic”
function is most evident among the Abrahamic
religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), but it
is present in other religions too. Lastly, it should be
noted that the close relationship between religion
and morality can have negative aspects. When a
religious aUthority, normally expected to embody
moral virtues, is believed to have committed crimi-
nal, tyrannical, or other immoral acts, it can
provoke resentment or opposition and engender
sectarian and reform movements.
Ethical awareness has been a defining feature
of Islam, even though engaging in moral philoso-
phy per se has not. Rather than being a formal area
of knowledge, ethics in Islam has been a topic
addressed more often in a practical sense within a
variety of contexts, including ones in which it was
engaged with non-Muslim ethical traditions, both
religious and nonreligious. Indeed, Islamic moral-
ity has formed internally among Sunnis, Shiis,
Sufis, and rationalists while also being shaped
by interactions with pre-Islamic Arabian, Greek,
Persian, Jewish, Christian, and other ethical tradi-
tions on the local and global levels. This process
has continued in the modern period as a result
of encounters with Western powers and modern
secular moral systems.
The word islam implies a moral outlook,
since it is understood to mean submission to
God’s will, which is seen as a good that brings
a person into harmony with the “natural” order
of creation. Submission and performing good
deeds, the qUran teaches, are done because
they are prescribed by God, they reciprocate
God for the blessings he provides, and they are
rewarded, whereas rebellious and wrongful acts
are punished. Muslims believe that performing
the required Five pillars of Islam is “worship”
or “service” (ibada), and they have given it moral
meaning. Therefore, they associate the virtue of
keeping bodily hygiene with prayer ablutions,
overcoming selfishness with fasting, and promot-
ing equality among believers with pilgrimage.
Islamic morality is clearly involved in the duty of
almsgiving, a charitable redistribution of wealth
for the benefit of the needy and the community
as a whole. Participants in the annual haJJ to
mecca, the fifth pillar, are prohibited from being
violent, acting rudely, and harming most plants
and animals. According to the hadith, those who
perform the hajj properly are forgiven their sins
and rewarded with paradise. Furthermore, in a
famous hadith, called the Hadith of gabriel, islam
and Faith (iman) itself are closely associated with
ihsan, “doing the good.” Ihsan, the hadith states,
means doing what is good and beautiful in wor-
shipping God, knowing that he is aware of what a
person does, even if he (God) is not visible.
Muslims look primarily to the Quran and
the sUnna of Muhammad, “customary practice”
expressed in the hadith, for moral guidance. The
Quran’s chief moral instruction, one that echoes
throughout the history of Islam, is for people to
“command what is known to be right (maaruf)
and forbid what is reprehensible (munkar).” This
is stated, for example, in the third chapter: “Let a
people from among you invite (others) to good-
ness. Let them command what is known to beethics and morality 215 J