Islam As It Is
man, know theyself!
~ 28 ~
being no human will or intention behind them. The
second category, however, is very different in
nature because it covers a wide range of actions the
rights and wrongs of which must be taken seriously
into consideration before being carried out. This is
known as the ethical category.
Imagine walking along a mountain road with
ledges of rock projecting above your head.
Suddenly a piece of rock detaches itself, falls on you
and injures you. Do you strike the mountainside
and bear a grudge against it? Of course not. The
stone falling down and hurting you was purely a
matter of chance. But suppose a man picks up a
stone and throws it at you with the clear intention
of injuring you. Won’t you then become enraged
and feel like throwing stones back at him? You
would be quite right in feeling that he should be
punished, because what he did was intentional.
Here, it is not just a question of some accidental
happening, but of right and wrong action, good and
bad intentions, in a word—of ethics.
The examples chosen to clarify this point are of a
very simple nature, in that the result of the action
