MORALITY AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO HUMAN NATURE: ESSENCE AND IMPACT ON THE INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY

الأخلاق وعلاقتها بالفطرة - حقيقتها وتأثيرها على الفرد والمجتمع

Abstract

The connection between morality and the natural human disposition (fitrah) has always occupied a prime position in the human and Islamic thinking. It was never considered secondary or trivial, but since ancient times, scholars have been in discussion on its nature, epistemic authority, and as a source of evidence in both fundamental (usuli) and subsidiary (furu'i) issues. This is a critical topic that is closely related to the human action and its impacts on a person and society, and this paper explores this topic using inductive and analytical approaches. Ethics is a subject of everyone irrespective of religious beliefs and worldview, and therefore, each tradition understands it in relation to its intellectual and spiritual values, and as such, there are different ways and conceptualizations. Similarly fitrah holds a critical place, as it is an inborn element of human nature implanted by God in every individual, and associated with knowledge and epistemological thinking, to the point of being even called a kind of implicit knowledge itself. The Islamic scholars have played a key role in establishing the meaning of fitrah and ethics, their theoretical model, and their authority in the law and jurisprudence as evidenced. But the fact that there is no obvious textual basis has resulted in academic controversy, which has led to ijtihad and contemplation to discover how they should be interpreted. This paper is a continuation of that tradition to discuss this intimate relationship.