Islamic law and Islamic ethics: Interrogating the relationship

Abdulmajeed Hassan Bello

Department of Religious and Cultural Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Uyo, Nigeria.

E-mail: abdulmajeedhassan@uniuyo.edu.ng/abdumajeedbello@gmail.com
+ 2348037199987, + 2348022121928.

Accepted June 20, 2016

The question of how the law became known has occupied the minds of Muslim jurists for a long time. In the early centuries, the heated debates centred on the place and role of ethical principles and reason in the development of the religious tradition. In Islam, Islamic law is concerned as much with ethical standards as with legal rules indicating not only what man is entitled or bound to do in law, but also what he ought, in conscience, to do or refrain from doing. Thus, Shari’ah is not merely a system of Law, but a comprehensive code of behaviour that embraces both private and public activities. The paper adopts textual analysis methods and findings revealed that Islamic law and ethics is not only a few obligations but a law for life that guides the human acts and conduct. Thus, Islamic law and ethics compose of the commandments which refer to the requirements of Quran and Sunnah, and jointly constitute the Shar’iah. Though, Muslim jurists focused much on the punishments and not on the behaviour or conduct that warranted the penalties. The paper thus concludes that Islamic law and Islamic ethics are complementary and do not contradict to each other.

Key words: ethics, al-akhlaq, equity, virtuous deeds and Shari’ah.

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