Yes I’m raking up an old topic once more but we never seem to get to the bottom of it.
What are our values? Call them islamic or what you will, but what are they? Are there universal values? What are the things we hold sacred? what are concepts we base our actions and life on? Before we speak about what we want others to do, let’s talk about what we want for ourselves. WHAT DO WE BELIEVE???
Thank you for bringing up the topic Shirin, I’ve been going through the “How do you know whats right and wrong?” post by Scarface, (http://www3.pak.org/gupshup/Forum46/HTML/000120.html) and its an interesting topic, not in the least because it is so confusing.
I think we have values based upon a society’s definition of what is constructive (good) / destructive (bad) to the infrastructure of the respective society. This would most probably include governmental institutions and the judicial systems, which implement and uphold the values of the collective society (as well as to maintain law and order), and these values are relative. But I suppose the underlying and most basic factor dictating social values is purely ideological.
Individually, we all aspire to what I believe to be “absolute” and hence universal values, e.g. honesty, respecting an individuals right to life, property, amenities necessary for life, etc.
What I am not sure about though, is whether these absolute values are innate, or are some sort of primary conception of the mind. And this point I think needs to be debated in the light of philosophical notion of knowledge and ethics.
~@~Kul de Khair Mangdi~@~
Freedom Without Responsibility is Disastrous
Let's cite examples.. it'd make things more clear, taking situations in daily life and how much our 'set of values' govern our behavior.