Moral values are always adopted by choice. If you adopt morality by your free choice, you will be rewarded. Only then will you be considered as having adhered to moral values. Otherwise, it has no meaning at all. Even an animal would follow what you say if you whip it. If an animal is passing through a green field, it would try to eat the harvest. If the owner whips the animal, it would stop eating. When an animal is flogged, it would stop eating from someone else's field. But the animal won't receive moral credit for its behaviour. If the same happens with a human being: you get political rule in your hands, make your own government and then flog people so that they follow moral values, then this is an example of animalization of man. Such morality is of no use. Following moral values in this way is useless. Moral values or moral character is that which you adopt by your own choice, without compulsion.
Some people associate moral values with political rule. They say if political rule is not in the hands of Islam, no one will adopt moral values. This is why, they believe we must have political rule in our hands. I consider this idea completely baseless. The truth is if moral values are imposed, they won't be moral values any more. If you flog and compel someone to speak the truth, then that is not following of moral values.
Moral values are always adopted by choice. If you adopt morality by your free choice, you will be rewarded. Only then will you be considered as having adhered to moral values. Otherwise, it has no meaning at all. Even an animal would follow what you say if you whip it. If an animal is passing through a green field, it would try to eat the harvest. If the owner whips the animal, it would stop eating.
When an animal is flogged, it would stop eating from someone else's field. But the animal won't receive moral credit for its behaviour. If the same happens with a human being: you get political rule in your hands, make your own government and then flog people so that they follow moral values, then this is an example of animalization of man. Such morality is of no use. Following moral values in this way is useless. Moral values or moral character is that which you adopt by your own choice, without compulsion. Compulsive morality is nothing. Compulsive ethics are nothing.
This is why, associating morality with political rule is very un-Islamic. It has no relation to Islam. Enforcing morality by the power of political rule, by flogging people, is uncivilized. It is like applying the law of the jungle to human life. Trying to acquire political rule is not the real task. You should try to instill the moral spirit in people. It is useless to supply support to moral values through political rule. The case of political rule is completely different from that of moral conduct. All our emphasis should be on trying to educate people, train them and prepare them. We should try to inculcate moral values in people. We should lay emphasis on this.
