JUSTICE AND ETHICS: THE MAJOR CONTRIBUTION OF IMAM REZA

Humanity, throughout its history has struggled to uphold justice andregulate human conduct through teaching of ethics. Ethics has functioned as amajor source of interpersonal relationships in all areas of human activity.More pertinently, ethics has functioned as the major source of divineendowment in human nature and constitution. The Qur an declares in nouncertain terms that God has inspired humanity with conscious awareness thatevaluates all human acts in terms of their being right or wrong. It is not anexaggeration to assert that the Qur anic worldview is built around humanability to be morally perfected and to perfect the environment with a keensense of right and wrong to reflect God s deputyship on earth. The mission ofthe Prophet Muhammad is summed up in a declaration that describes thepurpose of his Prophethood as perfecting the human morals by [teachingthem] to adorn their lives with virtues. The Prophet left two sources ofeternal guidance for his community: the Book of God, and His Progeny, theAhlul-Bayt. Contemporary Muslim communities around the globe areendeavoring to rediscover the original mission of the Prophet for the world.The core value that seems to have been misplaced today is justice ( adala),which is intertwined with the moral philosophy of doing the right andshunning the wrong. Justice is not an empty slogan for Islam. It promisesthe well-being of the entire humanity. Today humanity is in crisis becausebehind the claim to absolute power by the most powerful there lurks a chainof injustices that generates fresh calls and cries for redressing the wrongscommitted by the corrupt powerful. It is not only wealth that is at the serviceof the powerful to abuse the downtrodden; today it is also the cyberspace thathas been invaded by the technically most advanced to further their corruptinterests. Islamic history reveals without a shadow of doubt that the Ahlul Bayt, the rightful leaders of the community, were not only committed touphold the truth of justice through the Qur an and the Surma; they also madegreat sacrifices to preserve the sense of fair treatment and distributive justiceamong people, doing away with discrimination and all kinds of racial andcreedal dehumanization. Imam Reza, the eighth Imam in the line of the AhlulBayt lived at the time when Islamic teachings about the right leadership werebeing ignored. The fact was that it was the rightful Imam who remained not only the symbol of human conscience; but he was also the embodiment ofdivine mercy and justice. This paper will undertake to highlight the methodadopted by Imam Reza to preserve the sense of human dignity whichfunctioned as the main criterion for demanding social justice in society

کلیدواژه ها:

Justice ، ethics ، Imam Reza ، human dignity