THE RISE OF ETHICAL AWARENESS

In pre-Islamic Arabia, the prevailing moral code was one of equal retaliation—repaying good with good, and bad with bad. A common principle was: “We deal with people just as they dealt with us.” One tribal poet boasted about his tribe’s revenge on rivals:

“We left no type of hostility undone—we gave them exactly what they gave us.” (falam yabqa min al-ʿudwan dunnahum kama danu)

But when the Prophet of Islam arrived, he transformed this moral outlook. Instead of advocating equal retaliation, he taught a higher ethic. He said:

“Treat well the one who mistreats you.”
(Mu’jam Ibn al-Arabi, Hadith No. 1507)

Another hadith expresses this principle more fully: “Do not be one who says: ‘If people treat us well, we will do the same; and if they wrong us, we will retaliate.’ Rather, prepare yourselves to treat others well if they are good to you, and even if they are not—do not act unjustly.” (Sunan al-Tirmidhi, Hadith No. 2007)

One of the Prophet’s enduring traditions was to elevate people’s awareness—to raise their sense of ethics and uplift their behaviour in all aspects of life.

To elevate the human standard—intellectually, morally, and spiritually—is one of the most important missions. It benefits both the individual and the society as a whole. This work of raising moral and human awareness is a prophetic tradition—and reviving it is an act of reviving the legacy of the Prophet.