Lecture 2 : Ethical Order: Primary Islamic Values

Summary

Professor Anis Ahmad presents seven primary Islamic values as universal ethical principles intended to benefit all humanity, not only Muslims. He argues that they should guide personal conduct as well as social, political, legal, and economic institutions.

Two accounts of how values develop

• Empiricist paradigm: Local customs and traditions shape ideas about right and wrong. These ideas become norms and laws and may eventually be treated as universal. The lecturer uses democracy as an example of a concept that developed in a particular historical setting and was later widely promoted.
• Islamic paradigm: Values originate in divine revelation (wahy), which provides an objective and universal standard. In this account, universal values should shape local customs and behavior, rather than local customs determining the values.
• The lecturer distinguishes revelation from personal intuition, feelings, or spiritual experience, which he regards as subjective and individual.

Seven primary values

1. Unity in life (tawhid) A person should orient their life toward one ultimate authority rather than competing loyalties such as power, popularity, pleasure, ego, or wealth. The lecturer describes this as a way to avoid contradictions between different parts of life. He argues that the underlying principle of coherence is valuable to people of any religious or cultural background.

2. Justice and equity (‘adl) Justice means more than fair treatment in courts. It should shape how people treat others, themselves, society, and the natural world. The lecturer associates it with impartiality, non-discrimination, fairness, harmony, and ethical responsibility. Practical implications include social fairness, economic rights, fair public administration, and participation in political decisions.

3. Protection and promotion of life Human life should be protected regardless of a person’s religion, race, or nationality. The lecturer cites medical care and education as examples of services that should not be withheld on discriminatory grounds. He also connects this principle to avoiding harm to people and the wider environment.

4. Protection of reason People should act rationally and avoid influences that impair judgment, such as intoxicants and drugs. The lecturer presents sound reasoning as essential to responsible individual and social conduct.

5. Religious and cultural freedom In a plural society, people should have the right to practice their faith and culture. The lecturer treats freedom of religion as a requirement of fairness, including for non-Muslims.

6. Protection of lineage and identity The lecturer argues that preserving family relationships and a person’s lineage helps maintain identity and social recognition. He warns against a society in which people lose knowledge of their family origins and relationships.

7. Protection of ownership and property People’s property should be respected and not taken or exploited. The state, society, and individuals all have a role in protecting people’s ability to possess and use what they own.

Applications discussed

• Political and legal order: Unity should extend to governance and law, and public authority should be exercised justly.
• Administration: Positions of trust should be given to people considered worthy of them, and judgments should be made fairly.
• Economic life: The lecturer emphasizes fair trade, mutual consent, and protection from exploitation. He also discusses the right to engage in economic activity, save, invest, give gifts and charity, inherit, and receive fair compensation for work.
• Social and family life: Justice includes social responsibility, such as helping people who lack family support.
• Religious learning: People are encouraged to engage directly with the Quran through reading, reflection, and analysis, rather than treating religious understanding as the exclusive domain of a particular group of scholars.
• Political participation: Public responsibility, consultation, independent opinion, and efforts to oppose injustice are presented as expressions of justice.

The lecturer cites Quranic passages and hadith to support these principles. He says the seven values are often condensed into five objectives of Sharia, but presents his seven-value framework as a set of universal principles relevant to all people.

Questions and answers

• Freedom of speech and protest: The lecturer says Islam permits people—including non-Muslims—to express opinions, disagree, and protest. He says this should be done in an orderly and ethical way, without violence, destruction of property, slander, or defamation.
• Environmental ethics: People may use natural resources but should avoid waste and unnecessary harm. Examples include conserving water during washing and ablution, protecting trees and animals, and reducing pollution. The lecturer contrasts careful water use with leaving a tap running.
• Government’s role: Government has an active responsibility to promote ethical conduct and prevent wrongdoing, rather than simply observing society without intervention.
• Rulers and justice: The lecturer notes that Islamic history includes scholars and others who opposed rulers they considered unjust. In his account, history tends to honor those who stood for truth and condemn oppressive rulers.
• Rituals and everyday ethics: Islam is a comprehensive way of life (deen), not merely a set of rituals. Prayer and fasting should be accompanied by ethical conduct at home, work, and in public life.
• Productivity and action: Faith should lead to action. The lecturer presents effort, creativity, keeping promises, and working to establish what is good as important parts of religious commitment.
• The call to prayer and noise: In response to a question about the adhan, the lecturer claims it has a soothing effect, unlike some forms of traffic and mechanical noise. He argues that environmental impacts should be considered when comparing different sounds.

Speakers and sources featured

• Professor Anis Ahmad: Principal lecturer and respondent.
• Session host/moderator (unnamed): Introduces the lecturer, reads audience questions, and closes the session.
• Audience questioners identified by name: Nurudeen, Abdullahi, Shaharan Qasim, Ismail, Muhammad, Abdulrahman Imam, and Abayomi.
• Texts cited by the lecturer: The Quran and hadith.