MORAL AND ETHICAL DEVELOPMENT IN SOCIETY — Inter-faith Partnership

Love and Compassion There is a famous saying of Jesus Christ: Love your enemy. NEW TESTAMENT, Luke 6: 35 It means: love all, including your enemy. Likewise, the same teaching is to be found in the Quran. The Quran in one of its chapters gives this guidance to its believers: Good deeds and bad deeds are not equal. Do a good deed in return for a bad deed and you will see that your enemy has become your dearest friend. THE QURAN, 41: 34 In a family, all its members live with a sense of oneness, which inculcates the spirit of unity and harmony. Love or compassion is the greatest social value; it is the basis of all moral teachings or moral requirements. And it is also a fact that this teaching is found in every religion. If you study the various religions, you will find that all of them try to promote a ‘culture of love’ in society. To build a love-based society is the sole target of every religion. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you The Prophet of Islam once said: Do with others what you want others to do with you. Hadith–Sahih Muslim, 12 The same maxim is to be found in Judaism. Rabbi Hillel the Elder is known to have said: “What is hateful (or hurtful) to you, do not do to any other man.” (Talmud-Shabbat, 31a) This is a universal teaching, which you can find in almost every religion, in one verse or the other. This religious teaching gives us a very simple criterion for living as a good member of society. Everybody knows what is good for him and what is bad for him. Apply this personal experience to all other members of society. If everyone observes this formula of moral conduct, the whole of society will emerge as a good society. This common religious rule is the simplest for social construction.