The Moral Conscience in Atheistic Thought and Islam's Position on It: A Comparative Analytical Critical Study

The Moral Conscience in Atheistic Thought and Islam's Position on It: A Comparative Analytical Critical Study
 
Fatma Nabil Shaaban Mourad Hussein.
Department of Creed and Philosophy, Faculty of Islamic and Arabic Studies, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt
Email: fatmamourad.el20@azhar.edu.eg
Abstract:
Islam emphasizes all the factors and reasons that help establish and refine ethics. Among the most prominent of these factors is what has recently been termed the “moral conscience.” This research aims to clarify the position of the moral conscience in both Islamic and atheistic thought and to compare them. Therefore, the integrative approach has been followed in this research. The Holy Quran and the purified Sunnah have indicated this moral sense. Also, Islamic scholars and thinkers have paid attention to this divine gift, through which they seek righteousness. In atheistic thought, this moral sense is confined to terms that cannot match the role assigned to the conscience in the field of ethics; it is either an inherited psychological trait through genes or the influence of educators that cannot be changed or refined, or readiness acquired from society and imposed by the collective mind on the individual, who has no choice but to blindly obey. Therefore, the moral conscience in materialistic atheistic thought leads to subjective and relative ethics, resulting in the collapse of nations and societies due to the absence of absolute ethical values and principles. On the other hand, the Islamic approach has taken care to nurture this divine gift; therefore, the moral conscience in light of the Islamic approach and thought is considered a constructive and effective factor in establishing objective absolute ethics, and an important and effective mechanism in building wise human consciousness.