Go back to Foundations of Faith: Ethics and Values of Islam
Ethical Guidance from the Imamat on Selected Topics
Education
The Poor and Aged
The Environment
Material Wealth
Freedom and License
Technology and Social Media
Harmful Social Habits
“World and faith are inseparable in Islam. Faith and learning are also profoundly interconnected. The Holy Qur’an sees the discovery of knowledge as a spiritual responsibility, enabling us to better understand and more ably serve God’s creation. Our traditional teachings remind us of our individual obligation to seek knowledge unto the ends of the earth – and of our social obligation to honor and nurture the full potential of every human life.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Dhaka, Bangladesh, May 20, 2008
“Ignorance, arrogance, insensitivity – these attitudes rank high among the great public enemies of our time. And the educational enterprise, at its best, can be an effective antidote to all of them.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Evora, Portugal, February 12, 2006
“Islam’s ethics establish an inextricable link between spiritual and material life, Din and Dunya. Consequently, my responsibilities as spiritual leader and interpreter of the faith are coupled with a deep commitment to improving the quality of life… Our duty is to try to free people from poverty. And to me, poverty means being without shelter, without protection, without access to healthcare, education, or credit, and without hope of ever controlling one’s own destiny. This means condemning one’s children and grandchildren to unacceptable living conditions. A voluntarist and innovative strategy is needed in order to break this chain of despair and total imprisonment.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Antananarivo, Madagascar, November 27, 2007
“There are those… who enter the world in such poverty that they are deprived of both the means and the motivation to improve their lot. Unless these unfortunates can be touched with the spark which ignites the spirit of individual enterprise and determination, they will only sink back into renewed apathy, degradation and despair. It is for us, who are more fortunate, to provide that spark.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Mumbai, India, January 17, 1983
“People are living longer and the aged are increasingly finding themselves isolated from their families and from society. We would like to develop a programme to create a capacity to care for these people. Since extended families are becoming less common in the industrialised world, it is now important to look at this issue. Through this programme, we will try to help the aged live an honourable life.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Interview with Gulf News, April 18, 2008
“I believe that the Islamic faith has played a particular role in the development of Islamic architectural expression. For our faith constantly reminds us to observe and be thankful for the beauty of the world and the universe around us, and our responsibility and obligation, as good stewards of God’s creation, to leave the world in a better condition than we found it.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Ottawa, Canada, November 27, 2013
“Everywhere in the world today, people are searching for ways to reduce the threat of global warming both by limiting greenhouse gas emissions and by fighting the blight of deforestation. The key to both efforts is to move away from plant and fossil fuels, and to depend instead on renewable energy sources. Hydro electric power fulfills that goal. It is ‘clean’ energy - advancing sustainable development while minimizing its environmental impact… We feel deeply that environmental goals and development goals must be part of a Complementary Agenda - we can serve one set of goals only if we also serve the other.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Kampala, Uganda, August 21, 2007
“Wealth and power are not objectives in themselves, but are to be used in the service of others.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Ishkashim, Tajikistan, September 28, 1998
“We have no notion of the accumulation of wealth being evil. It’s how you use it. The Islamic ethic is that if God has given you the capacity or good fortune to be a privileged individual in society, you have a moral responsibility to society.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Vanity Fair Magazine interview, February 2013
“Freedom, in any area of human activity, does not mean the moral license to abuse that freedom.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Nairobi, Kenya, March 18, 2010
“A passion for justice, the quest for equality, a respect for tolerance, a dedication to human dignity – these are universal human values which are broadly shared across divisions of class, race, language, faith and geography. They constitute what classical philosophers – in the East and West alike – have described as human ‘virtue’ – not merely the absence of negative restraints on individual freedom, but also a set of positive responsibilities, moral disciplines which prevent liberty from turning into license.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, New York, USA, May 15, 2006
“Perhaps, too, it is ignorance which has allowed so many participants in this discussion to confuse liberty with license – implying that the sheer absence of restraint on human impulse can constitute a sufficient moral framework. This is not to say that governments should censor offensive speech. Nor does the answer lie in violent words or violent actions. But I am suggesting that freedom of expression is an incomplete value unless it is used honorably, and that the obligations of citizenship in any society should include a commitment to informed and responsible expression.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Evora, Portugal, February 16, 2006
“New digital technologies mean more access, but they also mean less accountability. The advent of the internet and the omnipresence of mobile telephony seem to promise so much! But so, once, did television and radio – and the telegraph before that – and, even earlier, the invention of the printing press. Yet each of these breakthroughs, while connecting so many, was also used to widen cultural gulfs. Technologies, after all, are merely instruments – they can be used for good or ill. How we use them will depend – in every age and in every culture – not on what sits on our desktops, but on what is in our heads – and in our hearts.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Toronto, Canada, October 15, 2010
"We see more people everywhere these days, standing or sitting or walking alone, absorbed in their hand-held screens. But, I wonder whether, in some larger sense, they are really more ‘in touch?’ Greater ‘connectivity’ does not necessarily mean greater ‘connection.’”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Brown University, March 10, 2014
“The greatest danger to every Muslim citizen – I have not the least hesitation in saying it – is alcohol. Time has shown that it is an injury to you; an injury to your person; an injury to your health. It is forbidden because it carries greater evil than good. Believe me, in a community like yours, alcohol is a very grave danger. Once you got into the alcohol habit, I do not know where it would lead you. A handful, here and there, of the weak, or of the unhappy, find their way to this terrible poison. Avoid it at all costs.”
Mawlana Sultan Mahomed Shah, Johannesburg, South Africa, August 12, 1945, quoted in Aga Khan III: Selected Speeches and Writings edited by K.K. Aziz, p. 1211
“Anything to do with drugs is to be rigorously avoided.”
Mawlana Hazar Imam, Ishkashim, Tajikistan, September 28, 1998
“Any substance abuse which interferes with the normal functioning of the mind is a greater violation of the ethical code for it amounts to self-inflicted loss of personal dignity and of the ability to fulfil one's responsibility to oneself, to one's family and to society. ‘Do not be cast into ruin by your hands’, is a recurring admonition.”
‘Ethic of Sound Mind’, AKDN: An Ethical Framework