The Call of the Quran
4. Moral Concept of Islam
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him on trial in this world. God has given man such
freedom to prove whether he has the will and
capacity to remain on the straight and narrow path.
That is why the Prophet took care to urge his fellow
men to “follow divine morals.”
The Islamic ethic is based on the concept of morality
being a universal reality. God has determined
similar standards of conduct both for man and for
the rest of the universe, and nature in its entirety
serves as a model for human conduct. What Miguel
de Cervantes has said about a good painter is also
true of a good man. He says:
Good painters immitate nature, bad ones
vomit it.
The part of nature distinct from man is obliged by
divine decree to abide by – in scientific language –
the law of nature. The existence of this law is
confirmed by the Qur’an when it speaks of the earth
and the sky being subject to divine dictates. The
Qur’an further makes it obligatory for man to
follow these same dictates. There is, indeed, a single
divine law to be observed by men and nature alike.
Where man has to do this of his own free will and
