Character & Honour Part 1
Nawaz
Preservation of life is an animal instinct; not so is the preservation
of honor. The concept of honor is unknown to the animal world. In fact
it forms the line of demarcation between the Animal and the Man. Honor
is a specific human value. Preservation of human values elevates the
level of life, from the animal to the human. Character may, therefore,
be defined as who so preserves human values against animal instincts
is a man of character. Human values might have different meanings.
Take the word honour. “God has saved my honour,” means that I have not
been disgraced before my friends. “She gave her life to save her
honour” here honour signifies chastity. But the meaning of chastity
itself might differ from people to people. In the East if some one
casts an evil glance at a veiled lady, her father or brother would not
hesitate to shoot him. In the West, however, if a girl flirts
publicly, her father or brother, instead of having any qualms, would
feel proud of her as a popular society girl! Again one society might
attach the greatest importance to a particular value which in the
estimation of another society might not be a value at all. We respect
and honour our parents, but there have been tribes with whom eating
them up constituted a sacred duty. The Puritans saw nothing wrong in
stealing Negro children and shooting the Irishmen. The Jews thought it
bad, even criminal, to levy interest among themselves but permitted it
in the case of non-Jews. In an island of the Pacific there is a tribe
with whom dishonesty is the best moral conduct and among whom the
cleverest cheat is held in the highest esteem. Thugs felt proud of
killing poor wayfarers. Nationalism is recognized the world over as a
political and social creed and one who helps the well being of his
nation by exploiting the other nations, is regarded a patriot worthy
of being immortalized in metal and marble. In the words of Rumelin.
“Self regard is its (State's) appointed duty; the maintenance and
development of its own power and well-being is the supreme principle
of all politics. The State can only have regard to the interest of any
other State so far as this can be identified with its own interest.
The maintenance of the State justified every sacrifice and is superior
to every moral rule.
Since human values vary with different societies should character mean
harmonizing oneself to the values which a society might stress for the
time being? In days gone by Spartans viewed theft a virtue and held
the smartest thief in the high-test esteem; today theft is a crime and
a thief a criminal. With us conception of a virgin is a disgrace for
the family, in the West sexual intercourse between a willing couple is
neither an evil nor a criminal offense: even homosexuality between
willing parties is condoned there. Is there then no universal standard
of character?
In part 2 of the artilce, we will share that how Islam see and define
character. It will give you the true picture for comparsion with the
rest!
Thanks
Nawaz
Religion Islam
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