نوع مقاله : پژوهشی

نویسنده

• حامد شیوا پور

استادیار گروه الهیات، دانشگاه مفید، قم، ایران

چکیده

 یکی از دستاوردهای بسیار مهم اخلاق و فرهنگ بشری، این قانون کلی است که باید با دیگران چنان رفتار کنیم که انتظار داریم آنها با ما چنین رفتار کنند و از سوی دیگر نباید با دیگران چنان رفتار کنیم که دوست نداریم با ما رفتار کنند. این قانون که صورت مثبت آن با نام «قانون زرین» و صورت منفی آن با نام «قانون سیمین» اخلاق خوانده می‌شود در دل یک قانون اخلاقی بزرگتر قرار می‌گیرد که بر اساس آن انسان باید چنان رفتار کند که بتواند به رفتار خود صورت یک قانون کلی ببخشد. این قانون تحت عنوان «ضابطه جهان‌شمول اخلاق» نامیده می‌شود و در بسیاری از ادیان و فرهنگ‌های گوناگون نشانی از آن را می‌توان یافت.
این قانون اخلاقی جهان‌شمول را در متون دینی اسلامی یعنی قرآن و روایات معصومان علیهم‌السلام نیز می‌توان جستجو کرد. در این مقاله، شواهد متعددی از تعالیم اخلاقی قرآن که از منظر ضابطه جهان‌شمول اخلاق می‌توان به آن‌ها نگریست، بررسی خواهد شد. نتیجه این بررسی، ارائه چشم‌اندازی جدید در نگریستن به تعالیم یا نظام اخلاقی قرآن خواهد بود.

کلیدواژه‌ها

• اخلاق در قرآن
• قانون زرین اخلاق
• قانون سیمین اخلاق
• ضابطه جهانی اخلاق
• اخلاق و دین
• اخلاق جهان‌شمول

موضوعات

• مطالعات قرآنی

عنوان مقاله [English]

The universal law of ethics from the perspective of the Qur'an

نویسنده [English]

• Hamed Shivapoor

Assistant Professor, Department of Theology, Mofid University, Qom, Iran.

چکیده [English]

Introduction
One of the most important achievements of human ethics and culture is the general rule that we should treat others as we expect them to treat us, and on the other hand, we should not treat others as we would not like them to treat us. The positive form of this rule is called the "Golden Rule" and is expressed as follows: "Treat others as you would like them to treat you," and its negative form is called the "Silver Rule" and is expressed as follows: "Do not treat others as you would not like them to treat you." These two rules are at the heart of a larger and more general moral law that is expressed as follows: "Behave as you would like your behavior to become a universal law." Evidence of this law can be found in many different religions and cultures; but Immanuel Kant is the first philosopher in the contemporary world to talk about this law in detail and to organize his moral philosophy based on this law. Harry Gensler, a contemporary philosopher of ethics, has called this Kantian law the “formula of universal law” and has tried to present it in a more modern way.
This universal moral law can also be searched for in Islamic religious texts, namely the Quran and the Hadith to find evidence of the moral teachings of the Quran that can be viewed from the perspective of the universal moral code. Accordingly, evidence from the verses of the Quran is presented in several categories according to which man is obliged to act in such a way that he can turn his action into a general law. In this article, I have categorized these cases into four parts:

The Golden (and Silver) rule of Ethics: Some of the moral commands of the Quran can be viewed from the perspective of the Golden and Silver rule of Ethics. One of the famous examples of this rule in the Quran is verse 267 of Surah Al-Baqarah. In this verse, God commands humans not to give to the needy things that they would not accept if they were in their place, and this means that in helping the needy, we should treat them in a way that we would like to be treated if we were in need ourselves.
Rejection of double standards: One of the obvious areas of application of the universal code of ethics is avoiding having double standards in any behavior. Someone who tries to follow the same standards in all his/her behaviors has actually acted in such a way that his/her behavior tends to become a universal law; but someone who is plagued by double standards in his/her behavior has violated the universal code of ethics. Double standards include both our internal behaviors such as belief and faith, judgment, positive and negative emotions such as friendship and hostility, etc., and external behaviors such as dealing with others. This article provides examples of the Quranic moral injunctions on the absence of double standards in both internal and external behaviors.
Thought experiment and hypothetical situation: Another group of Quranic verses depict hypothetical situations and ask people to imagine themselves in these situations and be prepared to generalize any opinion they have about these situations to all similar cases.
Consistency of belief, behavior, and speech: Another group of Quranic verses are related to the consistency of human belief, behavior, and speech. The inconsistency of human belief, behavior, and speech shows that they have not been able to transform their behavior into a general law and generalize it to all aspects of their personality.

All of these cases have in common that consistency in behavior and moral judgment is achieved when we can generalize our behavior; But the denial of the golden and silver rules, the existence of double standards of behavior, the lack of readiness to generalize hypothetical situations in thought experiments, and the lack of proportion in personality areas, all have in common the fact that in all of them, consistency in behavior and moral judgment, and as a result, the universal law of morality, has been violated.
Research background
So far, I have not come across any independent research that has precisely researched the "universal moral formula" in this specific sense in the sacred texts of religions, including Islam, i.e., the law that "act in such a way that your work becomes a universal law." What will be researched in this article is an analysis of the moral teachings of the Quran from precisely this perspective.
Research method
The method of this article is library-based.
 
 
Result
The author's goal is not to raise a new issue, but to draw a new perspective in looking at the moral system of the Quran. From this perspective, there are also some questions and problems that are worthy of consideration and attention from another perspective; but examining the controversial cases of incompatibility between the universal moral standard and some verses of the Quran is an important discussion that does not fit the limitations of this article and requires a wider space.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

• Ethics in Quran
• Golden Rule
• Silver Rule
• formula of universal law
• Ethics and Religion
• Universal Ethics