Volume-1 | Issue-3 | December-2018 | ISSN - 2617-443X (Print) | ISSN - 2617-7250 (Online) | East African Scholars Journal of Education, Humanities and Literature (An Open Access, International, Indexed, Peer-Reviewed Journal) A Publication of East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya www.easpublisher.com Original Research Article The Rule of Law and Islamic Ethics: A Means of Peaceful Coexistence in the Society Shettima Mustapha1, Babagana Umar2 1Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria 2Mohammed Goni College of Legal and Islamic Studies, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria *Corresponding Author Shettima Mustapha Received: 06.12.2018 | Accepted: 15.12.2018 | Published: 30.12.2018 Abstract: The most critical challenge facing Muslim today is the lack of the spiritual ethical aspect of life, and one of the most powerful means to overcome this problem is the observance of the code of ethics. This paper tries to clarify the concept of Islamic ethics as a basic pillar for a vigorous society. It looks the need of ethics for the advancement of individual and humanity, and its importance on the character molding. The paper also present ethics as the counter part of other sciences, such as, law, politics, science, economics, and others for such sciences become bleak or immaterial if separated from ethics. The paper concludes that Muslim‟s character should be molded along with Islamic ethics and its application into daily affairs of Muslims‟ lives should be given appropriate attention. Meanwhile, this paper adopted desk review where to analytical method was used in order to critically examine the Rule of Law and Islamic Ethics as the only solution to the advancement and peaceful coexistence in the society. Keywords: Ethics, Rule of Law, Islamic Ethics, Peace, Coexistence, Human Society Introduction: Al-Ghazali stated that man consists of two Islamic ethics is being defined as akhlaq forms, khalq and khuluq or akhlaq. Khalq refers to the (plural of khuluq) which means character, nature, and physical form of mankind while khuluq or akhlaq refers disposition. The word akhlaq has a very close to the spiritual form of mankind. Thus, akhlaq from al- relationship with the word khaliq (the Creator) and Ghazali‟s point of view is rooted in the soul and makhluq (the creature). Therefore, akhlaq assumes a manifested through man‟s actions. Good soul will good relationship between khaliq(the Creator) and produce right action and vice versa. Al-Ghazali defined makhluq (the creature), and between makhluq (the Islamic ethics or ilm al-akhlaq as the way to acquire the creature) and makhluq (the creature) themselves. The well being of the soul and to guard it against the vices. term khuluq appears in the Qur‟anic verse “And You It is also a study of certain religious beliefs and of (Muhammad) are on an exalted standard of character” rightness or wrongness of actions for the purpose of (Qur‟an 68:4). Khuluq (akhlaq) or character has been practice, and not for the sake of mere knowledge. For referred as the state of the soul that determines human him, the study of akhlaq includes the study of right actions. It is neither the soul nor the action. Such actions towards Allah, family members, and society. character could be acquired through training and Thus, the scope of akhlaq, according to al-Ghazali, is practice. (Abdul Rahim, 2013). In addition, to very wide (Omar, 1991). In addition, Islamic ethics differentiate between the words character and action, deals with the ways to sustain virtues at their best level, character is the internal and hidden state of the soul, i.e., to avoid misconduct and to do what is precise and while action is its outward manifestation. Character or pleasing. The scope of Islamic ethics is numerous, far akhlaq is the inward cause while action is its outward reaching and comprehensive because Islamic ethics consequences. A good character hence begets good deals with the relationship between man and Allah, man action whereas a bad character yields bad actions and his fellow men, men and other creatures of the (Omar, 1991). Al-Farabi defined Islamic ethics or universe, and man with his innermost self. akhlaq as „a science that studies the state of human soul‟. Besides al-Farabi, Ibn Miskawayh in his work Rule of Law and Islamic Ethics Tahzib al-Akhlaq defined akhlaq as „a state of the soul Meanwhile, the two primary sources of Islamic which causes it to perform its actions without thought ethics are the Glorious Qur‟an and Sunnah of the or deliberation‟ (Omar, 1991). Prophet Muhammad (May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Al-Glorious Qur‟an is the most Copyright @ 2018: This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non commercial use (NonCommercial, or CC-BY-NC) provided the original author and source are credited. Publisher: East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya 111 Shettima Mustapha & Babagana Umar.; East African Scholars J Edu Humanit Lit; Vol-1, Iss-3 (Dec, 2018): 111-118 significant source given by Allah for the human being The rules of the shari’ah have been designed to refer to pertaining to human conduct besides the to produce goods (masalih) and remove evil (mafasid) Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad (May the peace and and these are certainly their ends and objects. And the blessings of Allah be upon him)as the role model to be masalih are those which promote the preservation and imitated. Both the Glorious Qur‟an and the Sunnah of fulfillment of human life, and the realization of all that the Prophet Muhammad (May the peace and blessings the human nature, animal and rational demands, till one of Allah be upon him) are called the scriptural morality. is happy in every aspect (Ansari 1991). This statement There are some elements in the Glorious Qur‟an which clearly shows that the objective of the Shari’ah is to can be considered as fundamental problems of ethics, secure the balanced well-being of man as well as to such as, fulfill man‟s comprehensive needs as a human being. Al-Shatibi also discussed the priorities of the Shari’ah. i) The nature of right and wrong, ii) Divine justice and power, and Apart from the discussion of the objective and iii) Freedom and responsibility (Abdul Rahim, 2013). priorities of Shari’ah, Muslim jurists also discussed about the levels of obligation, and the factors that may With regards to the first problem, the Glorious upgrade or downgrade the obligation of individual acts. Qur‟an uses a whole cluster of terms to denote the There was also a discussion on motive and its affect on concept of moral or religious goodness, such as, al- judgments regarding actions and the recompense khayr (goodness), al-birr (righteousness), al-qisr and thereupon, here or hereafter. The last source of Islamic al-iqsat (equity), al-adl (justice), al-haqq (truth and ethics is Islamic mysticism. There are three categories right), al-ma’ruf (known and approved), and al-taqwa of the Islamic mysticism writings. (piety). Pious actions are normally referred to as salihat, whereas impious or sinful actions are termed sayyi’at6. Some Salient Features of the Ethics of Disagreement The term like m’aruf, khayr, and al-birr which occur in during the Time of the Prophet Muhammad (May many verses (Qur‟an; 2:263, 3:104,114-115) express the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) the moral and religious spirit of the Glorious Qur‟an. 1. The Companions, (May Allah be pleased with them) The second fundamental ethical issue in the Glorious tried as much as possible not to disagree. They did not Qur‟an is regarding the divine justice. There are several make much about marginal issues but treated the verses in the Glorious Qur‟an that are related to the matters that posed controversy in the light of the divine justice such as, verses that enjoin justice, Prophet„s guidance. This manner of dealing with actual disapprove of the unjust, and love the equitable and situations normally does not leave much room for pious in which to show that Allah is not an unjust dealer argument, let alone dispute and discord. with His servants. Meanwhile, the third ethical problem 2. If differences occurred despite attempts to avoid in the Glorious Qur‟an is regarding the human them, the Companions would quickly refer the disputed responsibility (Fakhry, 1991). issue to the Glorious Qur‟an and to the Prophet, and any controversy would be quickly dispelled. The term used is yus’alu in which it is used in 3. The Companions reacted with a ready obedience and passive voice in a morally neutral sense that would be commitment to the judgment of the Glorious Qur‟an referred as the meaning of „liable to question‟ such as and the Prophet and their complete and total submission responsible or answerable for doing or believing that to it. which is clearly reprehensible. In some of the verses, 4. The Prophet used to point out to his Companions the unbelievers or polytheists are stated to be what was right and what was wrong with regards to answerable to Allah for their misdeeds or disbelief on controversial questions open to interpretation. On their the Day of Judgment while in others this answerability part, the Companions had mutual trust in the is expressed much broader terms that illustrate the genuineness of each other„s judgment. This approach general imperative of moral responsibility. guaranteed the preservation of mutual respect among fellow Muslims who differed, and also kept fanaticism On the other hand, Islamic jurisprudence also and bigotry at bay.