ISLAM AND ETHICS
Islam pays attention to the education of people both in moral and spiritual ways. Because well-educated people can rise the economic system of the society. Therefore the ethical and religious structure of the community has to be matured.
We can say that socio-cultural structure of the society is more important than its economic structure. So, Islam desires to make rise the moral of the indivudials of the community. In fact, the Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) reports that the reason he was sent to humans was to bring to perfection to the high moral norms.
The Quran declares that man is not left out of control and honorable angels that observe him write his deeds. Islam, which places man in an environment that is full of such spiritual sanctions, does not want him/her to behave well only among people and under pressure but wants him/her to become an individual that fulfills his/her duties no matter where he/she is and under any conditions.
The spiritual values of Islamic economy surround the economic activities and lead them. Those values make not only members of society direct a happy moral life but also act upon the whole economy positively, and affect economic activities such as production and consumption, preventing them from being floated into harmful channels. They avoid show-off expenditures and wastefulness especially in the developing countries and enable savings to be directed to investments focusing on social prosperity.
The Quran and hadiths ban all ways of unlawful earnings and encourage people to do business based on unity and honesty. Therefore, a Muslim cannot say:“Business and religion are different topics. They have no relations themselves at all.” The World and the Hereafter are not two things that have no connection. In the Muslim community, business and trade are certainly desired to be based on the high moral values of Islam.
Capitalism and socialism are generally considered as neutral to moral values in the economic matter, the social market economy is based on the Christian values, which are shared in full by Islam. Because they are of the same origin after all. These are dignity –a life in dignity for all is the Christian vision, based in God’s promise to care for all, including the weakest-, justice -the fair distribution of prosperity and the equitable sharing of possessions-, freedom -not as the right of the strongest but as the freedom of all to take part in shaping their own life, community and society-, peace -the ability to solve disagreements without using force and to make international communities on this basis-, sustainability -one world has to include not only humankind but also all non-human beings; the whole creation shows the grace of God; sustainability also means keeping faith with future generations-, responsibility -the world cannot be divided into two categories as powerful and powerless people; sharing power among people, districts and nations and using power in a responsible way is a condition for globalization to bear good result-, solidarity -understanding that all parts come from the same body, that is community, and share the same human dignity; it is necessary to balance the resources of creation and prosperity arised from using them for the objective of healthy, peaceful living together- and subsidiarity –needs society to ease and encourage the ability of individuals and small communities to have the freedom and self confidence to improve in their own way.
