Islamic Ethics

What are Islamic ethics and where do we find them? Everything in Islam is based upon the Koran (what Mohammed claimed that his god, Allah, said) and the words and deeds of Mohammed (called the Sunna). A Muslim repeats endlessly, “There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.” The Koran repeats again and again that Mohammed is the model or pattern for the ideal Muslim. A Muslim is not someone who worships Allah. A Muslim is someone who worships Allah exactly like Mohammed worshipped Allah. So every Muslim is a Mohammedan. There are absolutely no exceptions.
And where do we find Mohammed’s words and deeds?
1. The Traditions (or Hadith) are collections of everything Mohammed did and said. The best and most honored Hadith is by Al Bukhari.
2. The Sira is the biography of Mohammed and is written by Ibn Ishaq. The Sira is to Mohammed as the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are to Jesus.
There was not enough information in the Koran to create Islam. The Sunna (Hadith and Sira) define almost all of the doctrine of Islam.The collection of Koran, Sira, and Hadith is called the Islamic Trilogy. The Trilogy contains the complete political doctrine of Islam. Christians have two sacred texts—Old and New Testament. Muslims have three sacred texts. For 1,400 years, these three texts have only been read by Islamic religious and political leaders, but today these texts have been made easily understood (see the Book List at the end of this pamphlet).
The Trilogy overflows with ethical statements such as these from Bukhari’s Hadith.)B9,85,83 Mohammed: “A Muslim is a brother to other Muslims. He should never oppress them nor should he facilitate their oppression.”B8,73,70 Mohammed: “Harming a Muslim is an evil act; killing a Muslim means rejecting Allah.”
B5,59,369 Mohammed asked, “Who will kill Ka’b (a Jewish poet), the enemy of Allah and Mohammed?”Bin Maslama rose and responded, “O Mohammed! Would it please you if I killed him?”Mohammed answered, “Yes.”Bin Maslama then said, “Give me permission to deceive him with lies so that my plot will succeed.”Mohammed replied, “You may speak falsely to him.”
A Muslim should be a brother to other Muslims (not the rest of humanity). A Muslim should not kill another Muslim. A Muslim may lie to non-Muslims to advance Islam.So, for Islam, the ethical statements are:
Do not kill another Muslim.
Do not steal from another Muslim.
Do not deceive another Muslim.
Islam divides the entire world into Islam and nonbelievers and has two sets of ethics, one for Islam and another for the rest. The Golden Rule has the equality of all humanity as its basis. It is not: Do unto some people, as you would have them do unto you, but do unto all people as you would have them do unto you.
Islam denies the universality of the Golden Rule because Islam starts with the division of the entire world, all humanity, into two different groups—Islamic and non-Islamic. Every aspect of Islamic ethics is based upon this separation. Having two distinct groups leads to two different ethical codes. Said another way, Islam has dualistic ethics.
Deceit, violence and force are optional actions against the unbelievers. Believers are to be treated as brothers and sisters. Islam’s ethics are based upon:Good is whatever advances Islam.Evil is whatever resists Islam.The Origin of the Politics of Islam
Mohammed preached for 13 years in Mecca and only acquired about 150 followers. Following the death of his protector and uncle, the wealthy class of Mecca ran him out of town. He left with his followers and went to Medina, a town located less than a hundred miles from Mecca in what is now Saudi Arabia. There he preached for another year and obtained a hundred or so more followers.
In order to support himself and his followers, he sent men out to rob caravans from Mecca and generously distributed among them the wealth they brought back, keeping a portion for himself. Part of the wealth obtained from these raids were captives which Mohammed also distributed among his men as slaves and in some cases as wives. Slaves who agreed to convert to Islam were freed. Mohammed was never motivated by money as much as by power. He considered money a tool that could be used to fund jihad and to support his followers. These are all political actions.
Mohammed moved into a profoundly political mode. Suddenly the new Islam became popular. It was not simply a religion that would assure the poor a place of honor in a gilded paradise, but a political system that could provide them with wealth, sex and power, all to be had for the taking from the Free.
The word of Allah, as received and reported by Mohammed, is divided into two records. The Koran of Mecca was based on religious precepts. The Koran of Medina, however, became clearly political in scope and direction.
The belief that only Muslims are protected by Allah meant that non-Muslims were not afforded the usual considerations of morality, such as equality, honesty and compassion. Examples we see from Mohammed’s life show that non-Muslims can be mocked, raped, cursed, threatened, tortured, killed, robbed, or enslaved to advance the cause of Islam.
This dual system of ethics paved the way to jihad: war undertaken as an Islamic duty, [See Page 7] and are reflected in the Islamic world view:
dar al Islam, land of submissiondar al harb, land of war
In contrast, the prevailing non-Muslim world view is that all people at some fundamental level are equal, although they are not necessarily the same. Not all people are of the same ability, although all deserve to be treated fairly, compassionately and honestly. The ultimate ethical statement is: “Treat others as you wish to be treated.” In this view “others” and “self” are equal and all of humanity is to be accorded the same consideration. This is the ideal. We frequently fail to live up to the ideal, but is the ideal nevertheless.
The dual ethics of Islam are not as simple as a separate set of ethics for the non-Muslim. What makes political Islam so effective is that it has two stages of ethics for the non-Muslim. It has the ethics of the Meccan Koran (early, religious text), and the ethics of the Medinan Koran (later, political text). Islam can treat the non-Muslim well, but as an inferior (Koran of Mecca), or treat him as an enemy of Allah (Koran of Medina). Both actions are sanctioned as sacred in the Koran. Islamic apologists always refer to the Meccan ethics.