Ethico religious concept in the Quran by Toshihiko Izutsu

1. ETHICO-
RELIGIOUS
CONCEPT IN THE
QURAN BY
TOSHIHIKO
IZUTSU
PREPARED BY :
FASIHA BINTI BUSTAMI

2.  This book is a revised edition of author earlier work that
was published in 1959 entitled The Structure of Ethical
Terms in the Koran.
 The author provides a masterful and clear exposition of
the Qur’anic teachings.
 There are few topics that had been explained by the
author such as, from tribal code to Islamic ethical and the
analysis of major concepts in this book.
Introduction

3. Chapter 5 :
The IslamizatiOn
of Old Arab
Virtues

4.  Under desert conditions, the spirit of generosity was
exceedingly high.
 But generosity in the minds of the pagan Arabs was closely
connected with the Jahili conception of 'honor'. Acts of
generosity were held as a proof of genuine nobility.
 Islam denied all value to acts of generosity originating in the
desire to make a show. What is important is not the act of
generosity, but the motive underlying it. A man of true
generosity is he who ‘expends his wealth in God's way’. For
example almsgiving.
 In the Muslim empire after the Prophet's death, almsgiving
developed rapidly into a legalized tax known under the name of
zakat.
 Niggardliness (bukhl) is the opposite of the virtue of generosity.
GENEROSITY

5.  For the Arabs of the desert, the bloodiest fight, whether
tribal or personal, was the very source and mainspring of
life as well as of honor. The time was indeed hard for
weaklings and cowards.
 They will respect who were killed on the battlefield. It was
an unbearable shame to have it said that he had turned
his back upon the enemy on the battlefield and fled before
them.
 In Jahiliyah, courage was something groundless and
without direction.
COURAGE

6.  The Jahili virtue of loyalty, faithfulness or truthworthiness was
largely a matter of kinship by blood. It was mostly practiced
within the hounds of the tribe and within this narrow sphere,
loyalty ruled absolute and supreme.
 The fervent veneration of faithfulness and loyalty Islam inherited
from jahiliyah, in its original nomadic vigorousness.
 This islamization of the nomadic virtue of wafa' was effected in
two distinct but closely related directions ;
Loyalty
 In social relationships.
 In the properly religious.

7. CONT…
 The virtue of wafa’, having been born of a particular
consciousness of blood fellowship produced by a solemn
ceremony of sacrifice, was primarily a tribal or intertribal
affair.
 Secondly, the sacred Covenant connection between different
tribes and clans. Any two tribes that happened to agree on
anything.
 Islam, by breaking down all limitations due to the tribal
pattern or society, put the virtue of fidelity on a wider basis,
transformed it into something supertribal truly human. Wafa’
thus became a moral force capable of operating in an
individualistic society.

8.  Veracity or truth-speaking, and faithfulness (to one's promise,
treaty, or covenant) among the desert Arabs in Jahiliyah will be
clear without any lengthy discussion.
 ‘Truth’ is fundamentally a relationship between two poles, sidq
and haqq.
 Batil is opposed to haqq which means something essentially
groundless, ‘vanity’ or ‘falsehood’.
VERACITY
“God is the Truth, whereas what they [i.e. the idolaters] call upon
apart from Him is nothing but unreality (batil)”.
(Al-Hajj, 22:62; see also Luqman, 31/30)

9. CONT…
 Kadhib, 'falsehood' or 'lying‘. Kadhib, as such a
blasphemous attitude towards God, manifests itself
mainly in two different ways :
 It manifests itself as an open act of lying on the part of
man, concerning God and His revelation.
 It may take the form of ‘giving God the lie’.
1) Iftira’ (al-kadhib) - ‘forging (a lie)’,
2) Takdhib - ‘to declare something a lie’.

10.  During the days of Jahiliyah, patience was part of the
shaja’ah, 'courage‘.
 In the desert where the conditions of living were so harsh,
every man was constantly required to show extraordinary
patience and endurance, if only for his mere existence and
for the subsistence of his tribe.
 Islam transformed into a one of its cardinal virtues by
furnishing it with a definite religious direction ‘patience in the
way of God’.
 ‘Patience’ comes to represent an essential aspect of the
genuine 'belief, iman, in God. ‘Patience’ is that particular
aspect of ‘belief’ which it shows when it finds itself in
unfavorable conditions.
PATIENCE

11. CHAPTER 6
THE BASIC MORAL
DICHOTOMY

12. The Quranic outlook divides all
human qualities into two radically
opposed categories,
‘good’ and ‘bad’
‘right’ and ‘wrong’
 In fact, throughout the Quran there
runs the keynote of dualism
regarding the moral values of man:
the basic dualism of believer and
unbeliever.

13. Kafir Mu’min
(believer)
Al Taghabun
64: 2
Kafir Muttaqi
(godfearing)
Al Haqqah, 69:
48-51
Mujrim (sinful /
guilty)
Muslim (he who
has
surrendered)
Al Qalam, 68:
35
The
Companions Of
Hell
The
Companions Of
Paradise
Al Hashr, 59: 20

14. Sometimes, the Quran seems
to divide men into not two but
three classes, recognizing an
intermediate state fluctuating
between both ends.

15. THE COMPANIANS OF
THE PARADISE

16. In surah 70:22-35, it is stated that the reward of
paradise is promised only to those worshippers,
 Who remain constant at their prayers and observe
them well (vv.23, 34)
 In whose wealth there is an acknowledged portion for
the beggar and the destitute (v. 24-25)
 Who believe the Day of Judgment to be true (v. 26)
 Who fearful of the chastisement of their Lord (v. 27)
 Who guard their pudenda (v.29)
 Who keep faithfully their trusts and their covenant (v.
32)
 Who give right testimonies (v. 33)

17. Surah 13: 20-23 gives the list of Islamic
virtues which is substantially the same
as the preceding one.
Patience is given a place in the
following list of Islamic virtues which go
to constitute the ideal type of Muslim

18. Thankfulness (shukr) and repentance
(tawbah) must also be added to this
list if we are to make it more
complete.
Man = repentence
God = forgiveness
Man ‘turns’ towards God in
repentence, and God ‘turns’ towards
man with His grace.

19. THE COMPANIONS OF HELL

20. The Companions of Hell are those who
are not qualified by any of the ‘positive’
properties, or are even marked by some
of the characteristics that are the exact
opposites of these good qualities.

21.  The Kafirs are thrown into the Fire as the just reward
their fusuq, that is, for their bad conduct in the present
world against the commandments of God. Al-Ahqaf,
46:20
 Those who are related in some way or other with the
Kafirs, that is, those who embody and represent any of
the many distinguishable aspects of kufr.
 The mustakbir is one who is too big with pride to
accept the teaching of the Quran. Al-Mu’min, 40:60
 The fajir is who one, forsaking the commands of God
or the rules of the moral conduct, acts viciously, as
opposed to the barr. Al-Infitar, 82:13-16

22. Qaf, 50:24-26
Kufr
The act of hindering of others
positively from doing such works as
are considered religiously good
Transgression against God’s will
Throwing doubt on the truth of God
and turning to polytheism

23. Al-Qalam, 68:8-16
 Takdhib
 The act of swearing haphazardly, that is, lack of
truthfulness
 Backbiting, which is a special form of ‘telling a lie
(kadhib)
 The hindering of the good
 Transgression
 The rudeness of manner, peculiar to Jahilliyah
 Being of the base, ignoble nature such as is
characteristic of an ‘outsider’ in the tribal system of
society.

24. CHAPTER 7:
THE INNER
STRUCTURE OF THE
CONCEPT OF KUFR

25. DEFINITION
 Literally, the term ‘kufr’ means by ‘covering’. In other
context, kufr means ‘to cover, to ignore knowingly the
benefits which one has received’ and ‘to be unthankful’.
 Kufr is formed from the exact opposite of the act of
‘humbleness’, tadarru’, which are clashed directly with the
idea of taqwa, ‘fear of God’, which Taqwa is the central
element of the Islamic concept.

26. THE ELEMENTS INGRATITUDE OF
KUFR
 Man’s kufr-nature is clearly can be seen during his time
of sorrow.
 In the Surah Al-Isra’ verse 66-67, surah Al-Shura verse
48 and surah Al-Ankabut verse 65-66 showed that how
man prayed to Allah SWT to help them during their time
of distress and not long after that their turn away from
Allah SWT and not being thankful for what they have
been received of God’s favor.

27. KUFR AS OPPOSED TO IMAN
 Doctrine of Resurrection is the object of disbelief which
the doctrine of Resurrection is the one of the central
tenets of Islam.
 Kufr consists of refusal to accept the doctrine that is
completely illogical and bizarre in the point of view of
disbelief.
 This is linked with the doctrine of human reason which
the Kafirs are those who definitely take the side of the
doctrine of human reason and turn away from the
Revelation.

28. THE HEART OF A KAFIR
 The state of hearts of the Kafirs are usually described as
being ’hardened like stones’ or qasat qulubuhum.
 Another characteristic of the kafir’s heart is that it is
‘veiled’ or (fi akinnah), which means there is a veil
between their hearts and the Revelation.
 They remained blind and deaf from the truth of Divine
signs.

29. KUFR AND SHIRK
 Kufr can be equated with polytheism.
 The most usual term for this kind of polytheism is shirk,
which also give the meaning of ‘associates or partners of
God’.
 The Christian doctrine of Trinity constitutes a
representative example of polytheism. It is remarkable
that these central tenets of Christianity are treated as an
act of the Kafirs as opposed with the concept of
monotheism in Islam.
 This category of kufr is under the cases of shirk.

30. KUFR IN THE SENSE OF ‘GOING
ASTRAY’
 The word kufr obviously means ‘going astray from the
right way’.
 The usual word used in the Qur’an for this meaning is
the verb dalla or dalalah.
 The word dalalah is opposed to huda or guidance.

31.  The word ‘shirk’ or polytheism is the one of the most
typical manifestation of kufr and accounted as a case of
dalal.
 Zulm or ‘wrong-doing’ also described as ‘erring’ away
from the right path.
 Those who are ‘in doubt’ concerning the Truth are
already in case of dalal.
 The verb ghawiya or ghawi is the one of the meaning of
‘to go astray from the right course’ as opposed with the
word of muttaqi which means ‘god fearing’.

32. HAWA AS THE IMMEDIATE CAUSE OF
DALAL
 Hawa (ahwa) is the principle and immediate cause of
dalal as mentioned in the Qur’an.
 In theology, the herectics come to be called as the ‘people
of ahwa’ (ahl al-ahwa).
 In the Qur’anic context it means an evil inclination which
is liable to mislead man from the right way.
 The other meanings of hawa or shahwah are ‘desire’,
‘appetite’ or ‘lust’.

33.  Haughtiness or arrogance is one of the elements in the
concept of kufr.
 A kafir is an arrogant , haughty man in a religious sense.
 Istikhbara is a term which is similar with arrogance as its
opposed very significantly with the word taqwa.
THE ATTITUDE OF
HAUGHTINESS

34.  The mocking attitude is pointed out as most
characteristic traits of the Kafirs.
 The Kafirs are mocking at whatever the Prophets has
brought.
 The Qur’an describes repeatedly the Kafirs sneering at
God and all that He send down.
MOCKING AT REVELATION

35.  The Kafirs are born sceptics and rationalists.
 The Qur’an mentions as one of the most characteristic
traits of the sceptically minded to be always putting
embarrassing questions to the Prophet concerning his
mission and wrangling among themselves about the
divine Truth.
CONTENTIOUSNESS

36.  The highest ethical ideal of the pre-Islamic Arabs was
Muruwwah, such as generosity, bravery, patience and
others. Islam purified and freshened them, making their
energy flow into certain channels which it had prepared.
 While, the concept of kufr form the negative side of the
concept of faith or belief and played important role in
order to have clear understanding of the others positive
qualities as mention in the Qur’an.
Conclusion