Is ethics a part of religion or religion is a part of ethics? Well, different people have different opinions. But I think ethics is part of religion as every religion has included ethical values but faith is not necessarily to be included in ethics. However we had an interesting class about Islamic ethics in this week 6.
Historical overview and various types of Islamic ethics were described according to Islamic holy book “Quran” and also according to “Hadith”, verse of Prophet Mohammed, in the class by the lecturers. Among all the ethics that were discussed I would like to emphasize on “Akhlaaq” which have different meaning such as ethics, characters and so on. As a Muslim these values are not new to me although my knowledge is not so rich. In the lecture I learnt about some new matters and also experienced some contradictory thought with some of my classmates.
First of all, there was a question about confusion on Sufism and Islam which is one of the most complicated issues among the Muslim Scholars. “Sufism has been defined as “mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God.” (http://www.religionfacts.com/islam/sects/sufi.htm) From my family I have been taught that Sufis have manipulated Islam in different ways so they are not real Muslim. On the other hand one of my classmates said that he thought Sufis are very good Muslims. While the discussion was going on, Mr Hamid (Lecturer) said one important thing that “What important is your opinion not mine”. I really like this opinions and I also believe in that.
During the lecture an interesting question was asked by one of my classmates which was “Is it ethical to wear scarf on hot weather?” Then the lecturers open the floor to answer the question and one of my friends gave an example that made me feel bad. His concept of the answer was good but his example made many students in a dilemma. He compared the women who wear scarf (cover themselves) with the packed chocolates and women who do not wear scarf with unpacked chocolate. This answer led me to ask a question to myself- “Is woman a product like a chocolate?”
I strongly believe that they are not. So my answers of the question that was asked by my classmate are- it’s up to the woman who is wearing scarf, if she believes that it is ethical for her to wear scarf, then it is ethical and another answer is –Islamic ideologically it is ethical as it emphasizes on covering up women’s body as part of their protection.
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