ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Contemporary Topics of Islamic Thought On Islam And Ethics Various questions have been raised about the relationship between religion and ethics, and more specifically, about Islam and ethics, to which this article is a response.[^1] These questions arise from the fact that both religion and ethics seem to have ascertain sort of autonomy or independence.

Because religion is established through divine revelation, it seems to some that moral considerations must be excluded from it. If the dictates of religion and moral conscience coincide on various judgments, it would appear to be a happy coincidence, for where there is conflict, religion claims absolute authority. On the other hand, moral conscience makes its own absolute claims, independent of religion.

Where the judgments of moral conscience are clear and firm, if there is conflict with a religious teaching, the moral conscience demands that the religious teaching be rejected. For example, moral conscience demands us to reject any religion that commands cannibalism. The apparent independence and absolute character of both religious and moral claims poses a difficulty for religious people.

Religious people believe that they should be moral, and that this is pleasing to God, while they also must accept the absolute authority of revelation. In what follows a rough attempt is made to chart the interpenetrating currents of religion and ethics. "Religion" is a notoriously difficult term to define. There is a persistent controversy among scholars about the roots of the Latin word, religion.

From ancient times there were differences of opinion about the derivation of the word, and contemporary scholars continue to express contrary opinions.

Nevertheless, it seems that the fundamental meaning in Latin had to do with the turning of one's attention to matters of worship, being observant in the performance of rituals as opposed to being negligent.[^2] At the same time, many Latin authors and subsequent writers have understood the word as signifying "binding" in the sense of being bound through religion to the gods or God, and although this etymology is considered dubious by modern scholars, it has had considerable influence on the understanding of the concept of religion in the West.

If we turn to the Arabic word, din , we also find that there has been some controversy about its etymology.