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Ethics and Ethical Theories from an Islamic Perspective

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Ethics and Ethical Theories from an Islamic Perspective e-ISSN 2289-6023 International Journal of Islamic Thought ISSN 2232-1314 Vol. 4: (Dec.) 2013 Ethics and Ethical Theories from an Islamic Perspective AL-HASAN AL-AIDAROS*, FARIDAHWATI MOHD. SHAMSUDIN & KAMIL MD. IDRIS1 Received: 07 Received: July 2013 Accepted: 2013 12 August ABSTRACT With the collapse of many organizations, many researchers are increasingly paying attention to such phenomenon. But ethical issues are not always clear cut; there are many grey areas that need to be threaded with care by organizations. To determine whether an action or decision is ethically carried out, ethical theories, developed mainly by Western scholars, are the current theoretical framework organizations have at their disposal. Theories such as relativism, utilitarianism, egoism, deontology, the divine command theory, and the virtue ethics, are all products of Western understanding of what ethics are and how they are applicable to help one’s decision making process. Despite their utility, this paper intends to argue that the Western concepts and understanding of what ethics are limited and incomprehensive in explaining what is right and what is wrong. In its place, this paper argues that to understand the concepts of ethics that can extend beyond time and space. It has to be analysed from an Islamic perspective. Toward this purpose, this paper will compare and contrast between Islamic and Western perspectives of ethics, and highlight the main weaknesses and limitations of the former. Then, an argument on why Islam can provide the best understanding of ethics will be made. Keywords: Ethics, ethical theories, Islam, al-Quran, al-Sunnah The word “ethics” originates from the Greek word “ethos”, which means “character, spirit and attitude of a group of people or culture” (Loeb 1971). According to the Oxford Dictionary, ethics is defined as: (1) a system of moral principles by which human actions may be judged as good or bad, right or wrong; (2) the rules of conduct recognized in respect of a particular class of human actions. Rachels and Rachels (1993) note that ethics represent a set of moral principles, rules of conduct or values. According to Burks (2006), the issue of ethics arises when a person has to make a decision from various alternatives relating to moral principles. Rania (2006) highlights ethics in a more general term as web relationships with others. Delaney (2005) contends that ethics is concerned with the good worth sought in life and with the rules that ought to govern human behavior and human interaction. Ogbonna and Ebimobowei (2011) state that ethics is reflected in the principles that a person uses in governing his/her actions and the personal standard by which a person distinguishes the right from the wrong. Elegido (2000) describes ethics as it is the mission for, and the understanding of, the good life, living well, a life worth living. Thus, he thinks ethics is largely a matter of perspective by putting every action and goal in its place, knowing what is important doing and what is not. 1 Al-Hasan al-Aidaros*(Corresponding author), Ph.D., Senior Lecturer at Islamic Business School, College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 UUM SINTOK, Kedah, Malaysia, Email: [email protected]; Faridahwati Mohd. Shamsudin, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. at Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 UUM SINTOK, Kedah, Malaysia, Email: [email protected]; Kamil Md. Idris, Ph.D., Professor and Dean of the School of Accountancy, College of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia, 06010 UUM SINTOK, Kedah, Malaysia, Email: [email protected]. https://doi.org/10.24035/ijit.4.2013.001 1 Ethics and Ethical Theories from Islamic Perspective Al-Hasan Al-Aidros, Faridahwati Mohd. Shamsudin & Kamil Md. Idris Nwagboso (2008) believes ethics is in confusion and ferment among all people and he highlights that ethics is not about what person is or what person was, or even about what person will be but ethics is about what ought and have to be. Because of that, Nwagboso (2008) thinks ethics is the standard by which person should judge action or character. On the other hand, Hayes, Schilder, Dassen and Wallage (1999) define ethics as a set of moral principles, rules of conduct or values and ethics is relevant when a person has to make a decision from different choices concerning ethical principles. From an Islamic point of view, ethics is related to several Arabic terms. These terms are as follows: ma‘ruf (approved), khayr (goodness), haqq (truth and right), birr (righteousness), qist (equity), ‘adl (equilibrium and justice), and taqwa (piety). Good actions are described as salihat and bad actions are described as sayyi’at. However, the term that is most closely related to ethics in the Quran is akhlaq (Beekun 1996). Even though ethics is defined as what is right and wrong, the most pressing issue is how is one to know the right from the wrong (Velasquez 2006). To find out whether an action or behavior is ethically carried out, ethical theories are what organizations have at their disposal. Ethical theories such as relativism, utilitarianism, egoism, deontology, the divine command theory, and the virtue ethics, are all products of Western understanding of what ethics are and how they are applicable to help one’s decision-making process. The next section discusses these theories and how ethics is viewed from an Islamic perspective. Ethical Theories With the collapse of many businesses and companies, recent research has been increasingly devoted to investigating ethical issues. This circumstance goes with the fact that the existing ethical issues are not always clear and understandable. To identify whether a behavior or decision is ethically performed, there are several ethical theories to explain what is right and what is wrong. These include relativism theory, utilitarianism theory, egoism theory, deontology theory, the divine command theory, and the virtue ethics theory. These theories are the current theoretical framework that is applied by recent research to explain an ethical phenomenon. Relativism Theory Relativism theory proposes that ethical values are relative to a particular environment or location. It discusses that moral values can be different from one culture to another, from one time to another (Sturgeon 2009). According to this theory, there are no moral principles that are completely right, relevant and applicable to companies and people of all countries (George 1986; Rachels et al. 1993; Velasquez 2006). This implies that: (a) different countries and societies may have different ethical codes; (b) there is no standard or principle that can be used to evaluate one societal code better than the other; (c) the ethical code of specific society has no special rank, which means it is simply one among many; (d) there is no universal truth in moral/ethical principles that can be held for all peoples at all times; and (e) the moral code of a specific country or society identifies what is right within that society; if the moral code of that country or society says that a certain action is right, then that action is right at least within that society (Rachels & Rachels 1993). Critics of relativism theory have argued that there are several ethical principles and values that members of any society or culture must accept if that society is to stay alive and if its members are to act together with each other efficiently. For example, all societies and cultures have norms against killing other members of the society, norms against stealing the personal goods of other members of one’s society, and norms against taking bribe or involving in corruption (Velasquez 2006). Relativism theory has been criticized on this basis; because different people have different ethical viewpoints concerning some issues, it does not follow reasonably that there is no objective https://doi.org/10.24035/ijit.4.2013.001 2 e-ISSN 2289-6023 International Journal of Islamic Thought ISSN 2232-1314 Vol. 4: (Dec.) 2013 truth about that issue or that all viewpoints about that issue are equally acceptable (Velasquez, 2006). When two people or two groups have different viewpoints, theorists as well as researchers are fond of pointing out that at least one of them is wrong (Rachels & Rachels 1993). Also, this theory would make little sense to disapprove the practices of other societies as long as their practices conform to their own principles and values. For example, practically this means that multinational companies should not be judged to act in a rightful or wrongful manner since they do so according to different prescribed cultures (Rachels & Rachels 1993; Velasquez 2006). From the Islamic point of view, relativism theory is also problematic. According to Islam, what is right and what is wrong cannot be left to a particular society because human beings have inherent weaknesses in that they will tend to behave in a manner that they see is convenient, regardless of whether such action is right or wrong. This is why Muslims have to base their actions on the words of Allah (the Quran) and the Sunnah of the Prophet (Al-Qaradawi 1985; Mohammed 2005). For this reason, Islam rejects relativism theory. However, Islam also respects the culture of any society as long as it is not against what is Islamically prescribed (Al-Quran 7:199). For example, the Prophet Muhammad recognizes acts such as telling the truth (Al-Quran 9:119) as morally right and rejects other acts such as killing a newborn girl as being morally wrong (Al-Quran 81:8/9). The Divine Command Theory Divine command theory argues that the nature of right and wrong is based on religious beliefs, which in this context refers to Jewish and Christian religions that are claimed to be divine. According to this theory, both Jewish and Christian religions define “ethically right” as being something “commanded by God”, and “ethically wrong” means something “forbidden by God”.
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