Rehabilitating Islamic Ethics

Abstract

The debate between modernity and postmodernity in western discourses about law and morality calls for a similar debate in contemporary Islam. For Islam, the question is whether a rehabilitation of its classical discipline of ethics (`ilm al-akhlaq) may contribute to international morality even as it disabuses Islam of privileging Islamic jurisprudence (`ilm al-fiqh), which conceives of the Shari`ah as merely law. Islam’s strong tradition of ethical discourse is similar to the West’s classical and contemporary formulations of virtue ethics. Such a renewal constitutes a postmodern opportunity for contemporary Islam as it faces the globalization of western values and jurisprudence.