Raising Standards

Raising Standards

1990 5 May 13 Raising Standards (277) There are two levels of character – the ordinary and the superior. An ordinary character is based on the principle of ‘do as you would be done by’. This might be termed the ‘knee-jerk character’, for one who is possessed of such a character offers only reflex responses to treatment by others, breaking with those who break with him, wronging those who wrong him, and harming those who harm him.

In ancient times a code of ethics based on the principle of tit for tat was prevalent in Arabia. A poet belonging to the pre-Islamic era says of his own tribe, vis a vis rival tribes. “We have never been found wanting in retaliation. We have always meted out what was meted out to us.”

With the advent of the Prophet of Islam this concept of ethics was radically transformed. The eye-for-an-eye principle had to yield pride of place to superior ethics, that is, to the principle of doing good even to those who wrong you. A saying of the Prophet to this effect is as follows:

“Never debase your character by saying that if people treat you well, you will treat them well, and if they harm you, then you will do worse to them. Rather, become accustomed to being good to those who are good to you, and not wronging those who harm you.”

(Mishkat al-Masabih)

One tradition of the Prophet is to raise people’s consciousness thereby raising the standard of their character. He himself left no stone unturned in working towards their uplift.

The most important task before us today is, therefore, to raise human standards from the intellectual, academic and moral point of view.