Living The Quran
From Issue: 688 [Read full issue]
Attachment to Morality
Al-Shams (The Sun) - Chapter 91: Verses 7-10
"By the soul, and That which shaped it and inspired it to lewdness and godfearing! Prosperous is he who purifies it, and failed has he who seduces it."
Morality, reference to good and evil, is a central domain of Islamic teaching. Admittedly, permission comes first, but there are things that one does not do and does not allow to be done: social, political and economic liberties must be exercised in accordance with respect for certain rules. To say that there is morality and rules is tantamount to attesting to the freedom of each person.
Moral tension partakes of human nature. Peace of the heart or its agitation testify to the ways taken, but the choice always remains within the hands of human beings. From freedom arises responsibility: one must give account of our attachment to morality. This is for ourselves, in our hearts, in the silence and solitude of our intimacy, as in our relations with our parents, brothers, friends, enemies, the stranger, the colleague, the employee, the old, the handicapped, the poor or the exiled; as also with nature, trees, forests, the air, sea and all the elements; as also, lastly, with the totality of the animal world.
Compiled From:
"Islam, the West and the Challenges of Modernity" - Tariq Ramadan, pp. 236, 237