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ABSTRACT
MORAL PROGRESS - IN CONTEXT OF ISLAM
Meenu Khan
The single most important malady of the world today is the absence of virtuous life. One is often confronted by the question - are we proceeding in the direction of moral progress? Compared with ancient and medieval moral life the individual today has more opportunities to indulge in immoral activities. Actually, it should be noted here that a mechanist civilization, physical culture, urbanisation, industrialization, atomic energy etc, have no essential relation to moral ideals and neither is its development, as an indication of moral degeneration. All these are means which can be used in reference to any ideal. In a true sense, more emphasis upon internal rather than external virtue is an indication of moral progress because ultimate morality is dependent upon the individual's virtue and virtue is intrinsic. So deepening of moral insight is a sign of moral progress. The ideal of self realization is superior to the search for pleasure. Towards the achievement of this ideal, all religious faiths do their best to deepen the moral insight into an individual.
Islam, literally means peace, has always been more interested in morals and matters of conduct than in ethical theories because Islam insists on Good or righteous deeds as well as on good intentions. Slowly and steadily by leading a virtuous life man has to take his soul towards perfection so that it might be able to attain the knowledge of God and consequently Divine love, which is the summum bonum or the Highest Good in the world. This will lead to the beatific vision in the world to come. Helped by God i.e. Taufig,
this way the individual proceeds to exercise virtues which gradually raise the heart igher and higher up towards the ideal.
This paper is based on the sacred scriptures of the Islamic philosophy and nditions which are the basic kernels of islamic message of righteousness i.e. moral deeds the world at large.
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