Divine Ethics

4. Moral Concept of Islam ~ 63 ~ him on trial in this world. God has given man such freedom to prove whether he has the will and capacity to remain on the straight and narrow path. That is why the Prophet took care to urge his fellow men to “follow divine morals.” The Islamic ethic is based on the concept of morality being a universal reality. God has determined similar standards of conduct both for man and for the rest of the universe, and nature in its entirety serves as a model for human conduct. What Miguel de Cervantes has said about a good painter is also true of a good man. He says: Good painters immitate nature, bad ones vomit it. The part of nature distinct from man is obliged by divine decree to abide by – in scientific language – the law of nature. The existence of this law is confirmed by the Qur’an when it speaks of the earth and the sky being subject to divine dictates. The Qur’an further makes it obligatory for man to follow these same dictates. There is, indeed, a single divine law to be observed by men and nature alike. Where man has to do this of his own free will and