Ethics of Islam

they abandoned Islam. The fact, however, is that all the
prohibitions of Islam are within the meaning of zulm, (which is
translated into English in such terms as tyranny, oppression,
etc.). When you do something which Islam prohibits, it makes no
difference whether by doing so you have harmed only yourself or
others as well; everything which is harâm is zulm at the same
time. Oppressors are mostly well-to-do and occupy higher
positions. Most of the oppressed, by contrast, are poor people.
Those who follow the medium way are the ones who try to do
justice.
All the virtues are in average proportions. Every habit which
is in excessive or deficient proportion becomes a vice. Perhaps
many languages do not possess words to describe all the vices.
But, if one contemplates and ponders over them their meaning
will become clear.
There are some virtues which are necessary for human beings
to possess. People assume that the more abundance of them you
have the higher will you be in goodness. That is not the case,
though. Every virtue has its limits and beyond those limits virtue
turns into a vice. That it is a vice to have less of a virtue than the
amount prescribed by Islam requires little thought to realize.
Examples of this are shajâ’at (courage) and sahâwat (generosity).
Excessive proportions of these two habits are rashness
(tahawwur) and spending wastefully (isrâf). Ignorant people and
especially people who are unaware of ethics of Islam think that
spending extravagantly constitutes generosity and thus praise
those who do so. In their view people who are rash and
impetuous are brave and courageous. On the other hand, no one
considers a pusillanimous person as brave or a stingy one as
generous.
There are other habits which a person should possess which
people think are better when they are possessed in a proportion
below average. When they are in excess, however, their
wickedness becomes flagrant. A good example of them is
humility, which means not having conceit (kibr). If this exists in a
less than necessary amount, it constitutes excessive humility
(tazallul). It is difficult to discriminate excessive humility
(tazallul) from humility. In fact, many people mix humility of a
beggar with that of a scholar (’âlim) because freedom from
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