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Revision 4.10 “On the Moral Teachings of the Qur’an”

Revision 4.10 “On the Moral Teachings of the Qur’an”

Last updated on: August 28, 2020 at 6:32 pm by Dan Peterson

Revision 4.10 “On the Moral Teachings of the Qur’an” 2020-08-28T18:32:09-06:00 Dan Peterson

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An earthly approximation of Paradise, quite distant (in every sense) from the Arabian Peninsula
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

It is on the basis of his or her faith and good works, the Qur’an explains, that the fate of the individual soul is determined.[1] We are assured that life and death were created in order to test us: “We try you with evil and good for a testing, then unto Us you shall be returned.”[2] This test is fairly and carefully constructed, and every man and woman has the capacity to pass it. No soul is asked to do more than it is able to do; none is burdened with more than it can bear.[3]

Then he whose deeds weigh heavy in the Balance
shall inherit a pleasing life,
but he whose deeds weigh light in the Balance
shall plunge in the womb of the Pit.[4]

But this is all generality. What specific kinds of behavior are required in order to reside in paradise rather than hell? Many in the West think that the religion of Islam praises as virtuous behavior a wide range of acts that we would consider bizarre and, at worst, positively evil. Some who really should know better have declared, for instance, that Islam praises the murder of Christians or advocates the general mistreatment of women. This is simply not the case.

Elder George A. Smith said of Muhammad that “there was nothing in his religion to license iniquity or corruption; he preached the moral doctrines which the Savior taught; viz., to do as they would be done by; and not to do violence to any man, nor to render evil for evil; and to worship one God.”[5] Elder Parley P. Pratt agreed:

Though Mahometan institutions are corrupt enough, and need reforming by the gospel, I am inclined to think, upon the whole, leaving out the corruptions of men in high places among them, that they have better morals and better institutions than many Christian nations; and in many localities there have been high standards of morals.[6]

True, the sacred book of Islam does sanction cutting off the hands of thieves and teaches that those who die while fighting for God are saved in paradise.[7] But the behavior commended by the Qur’an is the basic morality also taught by the Bible. For example: Men and women should show kindness to their parents.[8] They should be modest in dress, humble, pious, sincere, and steadfast in prayer.[9] They should keep any promises they make and should never bear false witness. “Speak for justice,” the Qur’an advises, “even if it affects your own kinsmen.”[10] Hypocrisy and hypocrites are criticized throughout the Qur’an.[11] Drinking and gambling are prohibited.[12] The Qur’an’s proscription of usury, the lending of money at interest, has given rise to an entire Islamic banking industry that attempts to function profitably on the basis of principles quite different from those underlying financial institutions in the West.[13]

Muslims should be just, but should soften that justice with kindness and with generosity to the needy and the dispossessed and, above all, to their kinfolk. The Qur’an commends such actions as

The freeing of a slave,
or giving food upon a day of hunger
to an orphan near of kin
or a needy man in misery.[14]

Certainly, people should not commit adultery, nor murder, but should restrain their appetites and passions. (According to the Qur’an, the unrighteous have made their appetites into gods.)[15] Fasting is a specific instance of how the human soul can learn to control the appetites of its physical body. Fortitude and patience in adversity and trial are highly esteemed virtues in the Qur’an, essentially as they were in pre-Islamic Arabia. “Do not swear,” the Qur’an advises believers. “Honourable obedience is sufficient.”[16] Crowning these practical virtues are what might be called theological virtues: The truly righteous will hold to a monotheistic belief in God, the Last Day, the angels, and the scriptures and the prophets. They will worship no other god but the one true God and will believe in and fear the just judgment of God at the end of time.

In some respects, the detailed rules of the Qur’an seem reminiscent of the laws of Judaism. For example, carrion, blood, and the flesh of swine are forbidden to Muslims by the Qur’an, as is the flesh of strangled, beaten, or gored animals and the meat of animals killed by predators or by a fall. This prohibition extends as well to flesh dedicated to other gods and to meat that has been sacrificed to idols.[17] Believers are told by the Qur’an to eat only of meat that has been consecrated in the name of God.[18] The fact that these dietary rules are similar to those of the Jews was not unknown to the Muslims, for the Qur’an itself links the two, saying only that Jewish rules are stricter because the Jews were unrighteous and were therefore punished by God with a more rigid dietary code.[19] But it is not only in matters of food that Islam seems to echo Jewish regulations. In another note reminiscent of Old Testament legislation, the Qur’an lays out forbidden degrees of kinship in marriage.[20]

[1] 2:82, 277; 5:9; 7:42; 11:23; 14:23, 22:23; 29:7, 9; 30:15; 31:8; 40:40; 41:8; 47:2; 103:3.

[2] 21:35 (Arberry); compare 18:7; 67:2.

[3] 2:286; 7:42; 23:62. Compare the assurances given at 1 Corinthians 10:13; Phillipians4:13; 1 Nephi 3:7.

[4] 101:6-9 (Arberry); compare 7:8-9; 21:47; 23:102-3

[5] Journal of Discourses 3:31.

[6] Journal of Discourses 3:41.

[7] 5:38; 47:4-6. I well remember a conversation with a Muslim lawyer many years ago. Yes, he agreed, the punishment of thieves stipulated in the Qur’an is harsh. But, he said, it rarely needs to be carried out. And he contrasted that with the very high prison population in the United States.

[8] 6:151; 17:23-24; 29:8; 31:14; 46:15. Representative general texts on Qur’anic morality and ethics include 2:1-5; 3:133-136; 6:151; 9:112; 13:19-24; 16:90-91; 17:32-33; 23:1-11, 57-61; 25:63-76; 27:62; 31:18-19; 33:35; 52:15-19; 70:22-35.

[9] 24:30-31.

[10] 6:152.

[11] 61:2-3.

[12] 2:219; 5:90-91.

[13] See 2:275-76; 3:130.

[14] 90:13-18 (Arberry).

[15] 25:42.

[16] 24:53. Compare the words of Jesus at Matthew 5:33-37.

[17] 2:173; 5:3; 6:145. Compare the counsel given by the apostles at Acts 15:19-20, 28-29.

[18] 6:118, 121.

[19] 5:5; 6:146.

[20] 4:23.

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