The Ethics Of Islam

THE ETHICS OF ISLAM BY SYED AMEER ALT, M. A., C. I. E. B A KRISTER-A T-L A W, JUDGE OF HER MAJESTYS HIGH COURT OF . JUDICATURE AT FORT WILLIAM IN BENGAL AUTHOR OF THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM MAHOMMEDAN LAW, ETC. TEC. Calcutta THACKER, SPTNK AND CO. 1893 All rights reserved. CALCUTTA FEINTED BY THACKER, SPINK AND CO. PREFACE. THIS little work embodies the substance of a lecture delivered to the Society for the Higher Training of Youths, and forms a mere attempt towards the exposition of Islamic Ethics in the English language, a task not unattended with difficulty owing to the extended range of selec tion. At the instance, however, of friends in terested in the education of Mahommedan youths and in the diffusion of correct notions of Islamic morality among outsiders, I am induced to place this brochure in the hands of the public, in the hope that it may, perhaps, help towards bridging the gulf which still in the nineteenth century divides the Mahommedans, not only from the Hindoos, but also from the Christiajis follow ers of a cognate crej L Besides most of the Koranic ordinances, I have inserted a number of the precepts and sayings of the Prophet, the Caliph Ali, and of Our Lady Vlll PREFACE. taken from, among other works, the Hisbdh-ush-Sliariyet, the JAmaa-ul-Akhbtir, the Mustatrif the Bihtlr - id-Anwar, the Ghurrar-wad-Durrar. the Sahifai-Kdmila, the Lumaat-ul-Baidha, c., and translated with as much precision as the exigencies and the nuances of the English lan guage would allow. CALCUTTA, AMEER ALL October 1893. THE ETHICS OF ISLAM. NON-MOSLEMS, unless they have made the teachings of the Arabian Prophet a subject of special study, have generally a very distorted conception of Islamicmorality. They imagine that, with the exception of a feu r principles, bor rowed from Christianity or Judaism, the rest may be summarised in the stern alternative of tire Koran or the sword. Few stop to consider the truth or the meaning of the antithesis enough that it exists somewhere in the eccle siastical records of the crusading days. It is impossible to exaggerate the baleful influence of this wholly unjust idea. In this country, Eng lish education has deepened the gulf between the two great communities which inhabit the soil of India, by diffusing through the medium of 2 ETHICS OF ISLAM. histories written with a bias against Isl m, the notion to which I have referred. To disabuse people therefore of the impres sion that Islam is a religion of force an. d vio lence, I give in the following passages a short abstract of the Ethics of Islam in the words of its great Teacher, of his Disciple, AH, and of the moralists who have from time to time written on the subject. But before proceeding further I desire to point out that Islam possesses, in com mon with all other moral creeds, tlie everlasting heritage of universal truth. It is to the new life, the new vitality, the vibration it causes to the pulse of humanity that we have to look for the moral force of the creed which wants to take the place of an older faith, and not to what new truths it teaches for truth cannot be new it is immutable and eternal like Nature itself. Such, in my opinion, is the position of Islam. Its democratic appeal to the conscience of hu manity, its assertion of the absolute equality of mankind in the sight of the universal Father, ETHICS OF ISLAM. 3 its disclaimer of mysteries, its constant affirma tion of theintimate communion of the soul of man with its Creator, appeal more strongly to the ethical faculty of reasonable beings than most other creeds, Legends and stories must grow up as the circle of influence enlarges or time advances, to suit the tastes and tempera ments of the sovereigns as well as the people. No religion has escaped from the effects of this natural desire on the part of man to read the dictates of his particular creed according to his own inclinations...