The Jordanian thinker, Dr. Fahmy Jadaan, expressed his reservations about putting Muslim preachers, preachers, imams of mosques, Christian clergy, and others on hold with "moral crises", and people's abandonment of religion and morals called for by monotheistic religions, and their adherence to the conviction that morals are specifically religious values and morals and nothing else.
In his view, the truth is that man is inherently devoid of a set of values that many philosophers, thinkers, and scientists believe are embedded, or are embedded in human nature, and religions came to reinforce them and add new values to them. He pointed out that the distinction between religious foundations and philosophical foundations, or the natural mentality, remained in place because not all people are believers, but it does not mean that non-believers are without morals, as the innate natural moral values are present everywhere, along with religious values.
And he counted among the nutrients of natural morals “instinct, reason, conscience, society,” while religious values are based on “text and revelation.” Pointing out that we can attribute to the first the Western space, and to the second Arab societies, but the issue cannot be approached by launching from the doors of Western spaces despite the influences that perceive our atmosphere, but the Arab space has its own conditions, and its historical extension in the present constitutes a different situation, as the cultural data Religious, ethical, jurisprudential, legal, and historical circumstances impose provisions, visions, and considerations that do not follow the path of Western data.
Jadaan confirms that he did not, and will not, stop repeating the claim that the greatest problem that governs the cores and joints of contemporary Arab society lies precisely in the network of values. And that he rose several times in the face of the thesis, whose proponents of the “extravagant rationalism” claimed that the whole issue lies in the “Arab mind”, and that its solution is represented in the uniqueness of the mind and its installation as an imam in everything, and that, of course, this will only be achieved through passage. By “criticizing” this reason, whose critics applied it to being a superstitious, or demonstrative, or “prior to logic” or “Hermetic”…etc., from the despicable features that degrade the nature of this reason and its value in playing a positive role in Arab renaissance.
He made it clear that his position was, and still is, that this vision, despite its sound realistic basis, remains inadequate to encompass the entirety of the problem, because there is another, structural aspect of this problem that lies in the deep imbalance that possesses “action”, that is, values, that is, a system. The prevailing active values and the structure of the “ladder” that governs and controls these values. This is the face of a witness in the sentence of actions that come out of us in our daily lives. The phenomenon is certainly not new.
And he goes to the fact that looking at the facts of the Arab moral life yesterday and today clearly testifies to the moral imbalance in this life. Arab philosophers noticed this in the past, so Abu Bakr Al-Razi wrote his book “The Spiritual Medicine” to reform morals and souls. Yahya bin Uday noticed the same problem in “Refining morals,” and Miskawayh followed them up in “Refining morals and purifying races.” And in the actions of these and others, morals were exposed: vanity, lies, envy, hypocrisy, injustice, seeking prestige and worldly positions…, as well as “soul diseases” and pains, such as sadness, fear of death, grief, and others.
And he expressed his regret that things did not turn around in modern times, as they are getting worse and worse, and they are heading with the “act” of capitalism, utilitarianism, individualism and globalization, to more corruption of values and the spread of antitheses to “virtue” according to the old term, the term of Plato and Aristotle and those who followed them among the Arab philosophers. And Islam.
Presented by: Ali Al-Rubai @Al_ARobai