In this essay, we present how:
- The Prophetic ﷺ declaration that he had been sent “only to perfect noble traits of character” confirms our empirical experience that although the ethical impulse—the love for what is good—is natural to all human beings, we need revelation to guide and perfect it.
- Disagreement and confusion about the goal and nature of good character are rampant, and misguided ethical beliefs have inspired the most horrific evils in human history.
- Secular modernity, which claims to provide ethics without revelation, has tried to “smuggle” in religious values, but has failed in providing meaning to individuals and restraint against exploitation. Today’s ecological crisis is an irrefutable judgment against modern hegemonic ethics of capitalism, secularism, and liberalism, and the Islamic alternative is urgently needed.
- Divinely revealed norms are confirmed and enhanced by rational ethical reflection.
- To fail to acknowledge and thank the Creator is a great ethical failure.