Islamic Ethic

KULIYYAH OF ISLAMIC REVEALED KNOWLEDGE AND HUMAN SCIENCES

ISLAMIC ETHICS (RKUD 3020)

SEM 1, 2011/2012

Article Review on “Sound Mind” and related it with al-Ghazali’s definition of character

NAME                 : RAUDHAH RAZAK

MATRIC NO      : 

INSTRUCTOR   : DR. CHE AMNAH BT BAHARI

GROUP              : 4

INTRODUCTION

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim..

From my reading on the article “Sound Mind” by Josephine Brouard, I found that this article is very interesting and everyone should read it. This is because; in this article it addresses the real life problem that a person will face in his or her life. The lessons in this article are applicable to all and it is clear that he speaks from the heart and his own experience in life.  Before I go further, I will tell the definition first. What is means by the sound mind? According to the lectlaw.com sound mind can be defined as the state of a man's mind which is adequate to reason and comes to a judgment upon ordinary subjects, like other rational men. Then, according to businessdictionary.com sound mind is legally, having the capacity to think, reason, and understand for oneself. Adults by nature are considered in general to be in sound mind, but through certain circumstances can be rendered as being not in sound mind, due to intensive brain damage or other major incapacities. Thus, from this writing, the writer is actually wanted to bring us on how to confront with this problem when our beloved mother is no longer of sound mind. Actually his mother has Alzheimer’s disease and his father has been looking after her on his own since her diagnosis four and a half years ago. But then, the writer who is the oldest and the one with the most flexible life in her family took this responsibility by helping her father to take care of their mother. So, based on my understanding of al-Ghazali’s definition of character, I will relate it with the writer’s situation for this assignment. Hopefully, throughout this assignment it can help me much better to perform a better life than before. 

From my reading understanding on this article, I found that the main idea or the message in this article is to promote moral principal and ethical to other. To be more specific, this article is actually addressed about our moral duties and obligations to the society which is our family and parents. Relating to this story, the writer’s situation which is confront the problem of having a mother who is no longer sound mind had improved my understanding of al – Ghazali ‘s definition of character.

Al- Ghazali’s definition of character is the establishment state of the soul from which action proceeds easily, without any need for reflection and deliberation. A good character produced from the good action of the state that is praised by reason. For example, from this article, when the writer received the e-mail and telephone call that mentioned about her mother condition, she knew that she had to go back to her parent house immediately in order to help her father taking care of her mom. Thus, it shows that, her actions and responds to this matter no need to reflect and deliberate. For her, as the oldest and the one with the most flexible life in her family, she felt that she should take this responsibility as children. Her action here can be called as good character because it fulfils the requirements of stability, easy and spontaneous. Means that, she is not take too much time to think whether she should to fly home or not.  So, from my understanding of this definition, it assists me to understand the writer’s situation.

Then through mortification, self training and habituation also it help me to understand the writer’s situation. As we know, mortification, self training and habituation is the act of taking pains to perform those actions which proceed from good character until they become habitual and pleasant. So, this is same goes happened to the writer. In her article, she said that, it is not easy task caring for anyone who is chronically ill. Plus, she not ever has had children. Thus, she doesn’t know what it is like to take care of a person around the clock.  It acquires generosity and needs to train herself with this character until it becomes nature to her. The act will be considered to have become her nature and habit if she feels pleasure in performing it. That is what I understand from the al-Ghazali’s definition of character.

The purification of the soul is important because the problems of man’s nature and his moral aim are connected with his soul. For character refers to man’s inward form, good character means his good inward form. As we know, man’s soul comprises of four faculties of knowledge, anger, desire and justice. If the four faculties of the soul are sound, the four virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance and justice will exist in the soul. So, based on writer’s condition, I can see that, she practices the virtues of wisdom because she able to distinguish right from wrong in all voluntary actions. For example, it can be seen when she is planning to send her mother to palliative care residences. At the first, it is hard for she and her family to made a decision whether to send her mother or not but after think deeply and ponder upon on this matter, she and her father don’t has any regrets because they did the very best that they could.

Besides, in terms of al Ghazali’s ethics of duties also I got to know the situation of the writer. As we know a duty is the obligation of the individual to satisfy a justifiable claim made upon him by some other individual or members of the community. According to al - Ghazali‘s general principle on how to behave towards them, in all our dealing with people, we must treat them as we would be pleased to be treated by them. That is because, in one of the hadith Bukhari it narrated that; “the faith of a worshipper is not complete until he loves for other people as what as he loves for himself “. So, in this article I can see that, the writer is trying to perform her duty as children by take care her mother who has Alzheimer’s disease. As an individual she also seen to has an attitude of ihsan to her parent. She tries to fill her parent hearts with happiness.

Then, lastly I found that, this article promotes us to be kind, honorable and humble to our parents. As we all know, the paradise located under the feet of our mother. So, in order to enter the paradise, one should treat their parents nicely because Allah’s blessing is according to our mother’s blessing to us. In surah al Isra’ Allah mentioned that “thy Lord hath decreed that ye worship none but Him, and that ye be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in thy life, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honour. (Quran 17:23 ) And, out of kindness, lower to them the wing of humility, and say: "My Lord! Bestow on them thy Mercy even as they cherished me in childhood." (Quran 17:24) 

How your understandings of Al-Ghazzali’s concept of wast can assist you in dealing with the elements of hasad (envy) and su’zan (prejudice)?

Concept of Envy

Envy (hasad) means that you hate a blessing that Allah blessed someone with and like for it to go away, and if you could make it go away, you would do that. Envy is a nasty disease of the heart that leads to bad conduct and behavior, all of which are sins and evils. Envy leads to animosity, evil thinking about others' intentions, backbiting, spreading rumors, lying, turning back on each other's, parting with bad terms, it may also lead the envious person to inflict physical damage with the envied person and even murder may Allah forbid. It is a bad seed for a terrible tree of diseases. For this reason, the scholars consider it from among the most dangerous, destructive, inner diseases, and the most destructive for religion (deen) and worldly life.

The messenger of Allah, Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) forbade us in the authentic hadeeth that is reported by Imams Bukhari and Muslim, "Do not envy one another and do not hate one another, and do not turn your back on one another (in discontent) and be the servants of Allah like brothers."Allah (S.W.T.) also ordered his prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.) and all the believers to seek refuge from the evil of the envious person and envy, so He says in surah Al-Falaq, what can be translated as, "Say: ‘I seek refuge with (Allah) the Lord of the day-break," and at the end of the surah He then says, "And from the evil of the envier when he envies." Allah (S.W.T.) scolded envy very much and its bad results in the Qur'an in many places for examples in surah Al-Ma’idah: 27-30, and surah Yusuf: 8-9.

The fact is envy is dangerous for your deen because with envy, you hated Allah's predestination and hated his blessings that He divided among his servants, and you hated His justice that He established in His world for wisdom, so you contested that and objected it, and this is against the true oneness and belief. In addition to that, you would have shared with Iblis and the rest of the non-believers with their love for the crises to fall upon the believers and for the blessings to go away from them. These are evils in the heart that eat up the good deeds and erase them like the night erase the day. And the fact that envy is dangerous upon your worldly life is that because you suffer from your envy in this life and you are tortured by it, and you will always be in sorrows every time you see the blessing of Allah (S.W.T.) on the envied person.

And as to the deeds that would treat envy, you should control yourself, so everything that you did in the process of your envy for someone else like any saying or action, you should now strive to do the opposite; if envy had driven you to say something bad about your envied person, then strive to make your tongue complement him, and if it had driven you to look down upon him, then act with humility and apologize to him, and if it had driven you to stop doing good things for the envied person, you should push yourself to do good things for him.

Concept of Wast

Wast is a term extracted from the Arabic which means "middle of the road", and "center of the circle". Wast is said to be the midst of extremes such as hot and cold, rich and poor,  tall and short, big and small, empty and full, generosity and stinginess, courage and cowardice. In English, it means moderation, mid-ground, and centrism. In the Holy Quran it means justice, righteousness, and goodness. Al-wastia concept emphasizes balance in life. No extremism. Just balance. The essence of wast is the avoidance as well as the rejection of extremes and radicalism. According to Al-Ghazzali, mean (wast) is the faculties of human soul should remain in order that good character may be achieved. So the observance of mean results in the virtue of: wisdom, courage, temperance and justice. Another meaning of wast is justice.  Justice refers to the state of the soul in which anger and desire are controlled under the dictates of reason and adheres to the teachings of Shari`ah. Justice therefore, is the equilibrium state of the faculties of desire, anger and action. Justice in this sense of equilibrium is often used by al-Ghazzali to denote the mean state of the soul. Wast or moderate means to acquire the ability to perform man’s proper function like seeking knowledge, doing good deeds and avoiding evils. If a man is moderate   in satisfying his desire for food he feels neither the heaviness of his stomach nor the pain of hunger. It is as if the man”forgets his stomach”.  Such a state is conducive to knowledge and good deeds.

Concept of Prejudice

Meanwhile a prejudice is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover". The word prejudice is most often used to refer to preconceived judgments toward people or a person because of race, social class, ethnicity, age, disability, obesity, religion, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristics. It also means beliefs without knowledge of the facts and may include "any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence." Prejudice is often accompanied by fear, ignorance, or hatred, as well as attempts at psychological bolstering or even real-world gaining of status by building attachment to an in-group and trying to separate one from out-groups. For that, we must always assume good to everything that has Allah set to His servants so that we will be included to those who are lucky. Prejudice brings no good because it can mislead and often make us misjudge a person. And not only that, but it is also one of the significant elements that destroy the relationship (ukhuwwah) among the Muslim.

People who enjoy and succeed in life will not think badly of others. He always saw himself and everything around it with positive thoughts and good thoughts; even he may not be as great or beautiful like others. Prejudice also can be based on physical attributes, geographical location, financial status and many more. Normally, prejudice is come from our sense of envy. Envy and prejudice are related to each others. This is because; when we have the feeling of jealous to a person, automatically the sense of prejudice will develop in our self.  For example, when we envy to someone because of his financial status is higher than us, we can easily start to have bad perception or unwarranted assumption especially to Allah. If we are not satisfied on what we got, it means that we prejudice with what Allah’s determination to us. This is the worst thing that we should avoid from dealing with it. Thus,it shows that we have lost the character of qanaah. As we know, qanaah means receiving enough on what we got and be grateful on what Allah swt gave to us.

Based on the Surah Al-Hujurat, verse 12, Allah forbids us to exploit prejudice.

   O you who have believed, avoid much [negative] assumption. Indeed, some assumption is sin.

Dealing with the Element of Envy

In dealing with element of envy (hasad), the concept of wast or mean is just correct. As a human being, we have limited intellect which is incapable of comprehending the higher good intrinsic in Divine ordainments. All subscribe to this idea and everyone sets forth an argument to prove it according to his own knowledge and intelligence. If the faculty of envy is at the extreme of excessive it can lead someone to foul conduct and bad behavior such as prejudice. The one who feels jealous of others and desires for the loss of a good enjoyed by another and harbors spite against those who possess it in his heart, should know that he does not believe that it is in his own interest that Allah Almighty has not bestowed upon him that favor. Our limited understanding fails to comprehend the wisdom of His determinations. He should realize that he does not have faith in Divine Justice and the justness of His apportioning.

            But then, if the faculty of envy is at the extreme of deficiency it can lead to laziness which is has no interest to do anything for a better life. If a person don’t have envy at all, he will not has desire to improve and promote himself for a better life in the future.  In accordance with the Divine instincts inherent in him, man by nature is a lover of justice. Modesty and reverence before justice and hatred and rebellion before injustice are rooted in his nature. However, if an opposite attitude is observed, it is because of a defect in his premises. If he is angry at the advantages enjoyed by others and is contentious about the Divine apportioning of bounties, it is on account of the fact that lie does not consider it as just, but, God forbid, regards it as unjust and cruel. It is not because he considers the divine apportioning as just and is yet resentful of it. It is because our faith is not complete and the intellectual proofs have not crossed the limits of reason and intellect to enter the realm of the heart.

So, in accordance with the concept of wast according to Al-Ghazzali, if the faculty of envy is at the mean it can lead us to good behavior such as be grateful. Because we believe everything belongs to Allah, so there is nothing to envy to. Just because someone has superiority, does not mean that we have a reason to be envy to.

“There is no envy except in two cases; the first is a person whom Allah has given wealth and he spends it righteously according to what Allah has ordained in a just and right manner. The second is a person whom Allah has given wisdom and acts according to it and teaches it” (Ibn Mas’ud)

Dealing with the element of Prejudice

As we know, in order to deal with the element of prejudice it must go through the concept of moderation. Prejudice can be either positive or negative. If the faculty of prejudice is at the extreme of excess it can lead to discriminate. This is because, discriminate can be happened when we preconceived judgment or opinion that usually based on limited information or    knowledge about a group or groups of people. For example, when people have misinformation about groups to which they do not belong, they may create stereotypes based on these omissions. The most common types of prejudices that can we see nowadays are those based on race, gender, sexual orientation and disability. In this below quranic ayah, Allah has warned us that, we must always beware on our thinking, saying and action especially when we have not enough knowledge or information about the thing that we want to deal with.

And do not pursue that of which you have no knowledge. Indeed, the hearing, the sight and the heart - about those entire one] will be questioned. (al-Isra:36)

Next, if the faculty of prejudice is at the mean which is balance between excess and deficiency it can achieve the justice. Through practicing moderate in all aspect of our life, it can help us to have an objective attitude likes be open minded, do not be quick to pass decision and judgment, learn to be accepting and tolerant of other’s differences. So, it is clear that by always to be in the middle, it can help us to try to understand our own inclinations. Understanding our self will go a long way in helping us to avoid prejudice. Justice presupposes knowledge and freedom (the ability to choose what is good rejected what is wrong). So, in order to be tolerant is to adopt a moderate, balanced attitude towards a person or an idea. Even if we don't agree with a brother or sister, we can at least control our emotions and give him or her right to say his or her piece.

Then, if the faculty of prejudice is at the extreme of deficiency, it can generate bias. Bias can be generated when we are extremely not too prejudicing to a groups or groups of people even we know that these people had done something bad.For example, if someone was cheated to a people, and then we as a witness could not do anything to help that person, it can be considered as bias.To be a credible witness means to know and embrace the truth, to have the courage to tell the truth, and to defend it against its enemies among the ignorant, liars and pretenders. A witness should not hide the truth or choose to be indifferent. It is true that, we must always be husnuzon (positive thinking) but in certain cases, it is good to have prejudice as long as we know on how to balance it. Means that, we must not prejudice too much and not to not has prejudice at all. No one is perfect. Every one of us must have done something bad in their life. We just can condemn or penalize a person based on their physical morally bad, but not what inside in their heart.

Conclusion

So as the conclusion, the concept of mean is very important principle or guideline for Muslims to understand, practice and internalize in their daily life so as to achieve happiness in this world and the hereafter. No doubt, there will be no peace in the world unless there is peace among the religions; and there will be no peace among the religions until the wast concept dominates man's behavior belonging to any religion. In one Hadith, S. Aisyah reported that the Messenger of Allah saws said: "The most pleasing of actions to Allah is that which is done continuously (consistently) though it is little." In this Hadith, Rasulullah saws give us the secret of moderation and success, which is consistency and steadfastness. Do a little at a time, but do it continuously or regularly.  Thus, from this study, it is clear that al –Ghazali’s concept of wast very important and useful in order to assist us to deal with the element of envy and prejudice. We cannot ever discern people by prejudices or envy, but we must to discern them by piety.