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Islamic values naturally emerge from Islamic beliefs and practices, and from Arabic tradition.
Respect for Human Life
Muslims consider human life to be precious and sacred in all its forms from embryo to advanced old age, regardless of whether a person is healthy, sick, or disabled. From this belief come the teachings concerning abortion, physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, and suicide.
Abortion. Abortion is never permitted except under rare circumstances in Islam. According to the Qur’an, “Do not kill your children for fear of poverty – We shall provide for them and for you – killing them is a great sin” (17:31; 6:151). It doesn’t matter whether the pregnancy was planned or not, or whether the baby will interfere with the mother’s lifestyle, education, or career. It is not allowed when pregnancy results from adultery that is not coerced. The only exception after four months of pregnancy is if the pregnancy or delivery will cause grave risk to the mother’s life (BBC, 2009). Abortion is forbidden after four months of pregnancy even if there is a confirmed untreatable fetal anomaly. All schools of Islamic law agree on this position.
Assisted Suicide or Euthanasia. Nowhere in Islamic law is the “right to die” found. Physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, or the shortening of life for any reason is forbidden. Withdrawal of life support from a person determined to be in persistent vegetative state is not clear (Sarhill et al., 2001; Hassaballah, 1996). Life support, however, may be discontinued if only the equipment is keeping the person alive (although this must be clear). While do-not-resuscitate orders are permitted, even this is not straight forward (Rehman, 1993). The Qur’an is very clear on that physician-assisted suicide is strictly forbidden: “Do not kill each other, for God is merciful to you” (4:29), and “If anyone kills a believer deliberately, the punishment for him is Hell, and there he will remain: God is angry with him, and rejects him, and has prepared a tremendous torment for him” (4:93). A recent thorough discussion of end-of-life decision making that addresses ethical issues in Muslims that come up at this time can be found elsewhere (Chamsi-Pasha et al., 2017).
Suicide. Suicide is haram (forbidden in Islam). The Qur’an and Hadith are clear on this. The Qur’an says: “…do not contribute to your destruction with your own hands, but do good, for God loves those who do good” (2:195). Likewise, the most respected and reliable of all Sunni Hadiths, Sahih Bukhari, indicates:
“The Prophet said, “He who commits suicide by throttling shall keep on throttling himself in the Hell Fire (forever) and he who commits suicide by stabbing himself shall keep on stabbing himself in the Hell-Fire”” (Bukhari 2/23/446).
“The Prophet said, “Whoever purposely throws himself from a mountain and kills himself, will be in the (Hell) Fire falling down into it and abiding therein perpetually forever; and whoever drinks poison and kills himself with it, he will be carrying his poison in his hand and drinking it in the (Hell) Fire wherein he will abide eternally forever; and whoever kills himself with an iron weapon, will be carrying that weapon in his hand and stabbing his abdomen with it in the (Hell) Fire wherein he will abide eternally forever”” (Bukhari 7/71/670).
Family and Community
Besides faith in God, Muslims prioritise family relationships, kin and community responsibilities above all others. The Qur’an reinforces this in many places:
“…Worship none but God; be good to your parents and kinfolk, to orphans and the poor; speak good words to all people…” (2:83)
“They ask you [Prophet] what they should give. “Say,” whatever you give should be for parents, close relatives, orphans, the needy, and travellers. God is well aware of whatever good you do” (2:215)
“Worship God; join nothing to him. Be good to your parents, to relatives to orphans, to needy, to neighbours near and far, to travellers in need, and to your slaves” (4:36)
Children are responsible for respecting and supporting their parents, especially when old, which is considered a religious practice and a good deed to be rewarded here and in the afterlife:
“… be kind to your parents. If either or both of them reach old age with you, say no word that shows impatience with them, and do not be harsh with them, but speak to them respectfully and lower your wing in humility towards them in kindness and say “Lord, have mercy on them, just as they cared for me when I was little”” (17:23-24)
“We have commanded man to be good to his parents… “Lord, help me to be truly grateful for Your favours to me and to my parents…” (46:15)
Marriage
Marriage is sacred in Islam, and Muslims believe that God will reward those who marry and are faithful to their partner. While the Qur’an doesn’t forbid celibacy, it does not encourage it. Says Islamic theologian Fazlur Rahman (1998, p 103): “The Qur’an definitely encourages marriage and discourages celibacy, but the general prevalent notion among Western scholarly circles that it prohibits celibacy is false.” Similar to the care of parents, the Qur’an views marriage and care for the family as a religious practice: “Husbands should take good care of their wives, with [the bounties] God has given to some more than others and with what they spend out of their own money. Righteous wives are devout and guard what God would have them guard in their husbands’ absence” (4:34). Thus, husbands are to care for their wives and wives are to safeguard whatever their husbands produce, whether the husband is present or not. Adultery is explicitly forbidden, as the marital bed is not to be defiled: “And do not go anywhere near adultery: it is an outrage, and an evil path” (17:32). The Qur’an prescribes severe punishment for doing so: “”Strike the adulteress and the adulterer one hundred times. Do not let compassion for them keep you from carrying out God’s law – if you believe in God and the Last Day – and ensure that a group of believers witnesses the punishment” (24:2). Muslim mem are allowed to have up to four wives, although they must treat each wife the same, which is difficult to do. The Qur’an says: “You will never be able to treat your wives with equal fairness, however much you may desire to do so…” (4:129). In reality, few Muslim men have more than one wife (5% or less in the Arab world on average) (Chamie, 1986; Ozkan et al., 2006).
Work
Islam encourages people to work and do their part, contributing to the support of the family and the community (Ahmad & Owoyemi, 2012). The Qur’an says: “Has he not been told what was written in the Scriptures of Moses and of Abraham, who fulfilled his duty: that no soul shall bear the burden of another; that man will only have what he has worked towards; that his labour will be seen and that in the end he will be repaid in full for it… (53:36-41). As a result, pride is taken in the ability to support oneself and others, and those who work hard and treat others with respect are admired and looked up to. Mohamad Kamal Hassan (1988) describes five attributes that characterise Islamic work values (cited in Ahmad & Owoyemi, 2012, and paraphrased here):
1. Employees must fulfill their jobs as a societal obligation with the purpose of serving God.
2. Trustworthiness as an earthly representative of God with regard to all aspects of living.
3. Perform their duties as if they were a religious obligation (again); doing so will be rewarded in the hereafter.
4. Workers must be diligent and efficient and fair as they serve the interests of the community.
5. The relationship between employer and employee must be based on the principle of equality, independent of ethnic background, language or wealth.
The Environment
The Qur’an emphasises that people should not destroy the beautiful creation that God has placed humans in, and encourages them to clean up any contamination in the environment that may spoil it. Emari and colleagues (2017) list over 60 separate verses in the Qur’an on environmental consciousness, and have developed a 19-item scale (the Islamic Environmental Consciousness Scale) to assess this.
Treatment of Others and Self-Esteem
Individuals are judged in Islam only on things they have control over. All persons are equal regardless of tribe, language or country, except to the extent they choose to deviate from prescribed Islamic beliefs and practices and persist in doing so. This influences their emotions and self-esteem and may affect motivation toward self-improvement and toward prosocial activity, factors that could counteract feelings of worthlessness or lack of meaning and purpose in life.
Islam encourages downward comparisons with regard to possessions (comparing to those who are less fortunate), but upward comparisons regarding family, community, and theological matters, all of which promotes satisfaction and virtuous living. At the top are values such as faith, fairness, justice, and care for the poor. These are all strongly supported by the Qur’an and encouraged for everyone, which helps to counteract inferiority and increase self-worth.
Self-esteem is very important to Muslims, particularly those from the Middle East and Arab world. Islam emphasises that it is OK to make mistakes, but that we need to learn from them, not keep making the same mistakes over and over again. Muslims believe that God is tremendously merciful and ready to forgive, but there are consequences for repeatedly deviating from the life that is described in the Qur’an.
Positive Attitudes
The Qur’an promotes positive attitudes to everything that happens in life, even when things are not going well. Muslims are to always trust in God. The Qur’an says, “Who is it that answers the distressed when they call upon Him? Who removes their suffering? Who makes you successors in the earth? Is it another god beside God?” (27:62). Life on early is described as a test (29:2-3), especially when hard times and trials come along. Islam encourages people to expect such trials, since all persons in every time period have had to deal with them (especially the Prophets): “Do you suppose that you will enter the Garden without first having suffered like those before you? If they were afflicted by misfortune and hardship, and they were so shaken that even their messenger and the believers with him cried “When will God help arrived?” Truly, God’s help is near” (2:214).
Islam emphasises that one of the greatest of sins is to give up because a person does not feel that God listens or cares. The Qur’an insists that God does care, and even if a person makes many mistakes, he or she can always be forgiven: “[Prophet] if My servants ask you about Me, I am near. I respond to those who call Me, so let them respond to Me, and believe in Me, so that they may be guided” (2:186). Such beliefs promote positive attitudes that increase motivation to push ahead in the face of hardship.
Conclusions
Muslims hold high values in terms of respect for human life, importance of the family, reverence for the sanctity of marriage, necessity of work and productivity, care for the environment, respect for others, and positive attitudes grounded on the belief that God has a purpose for everything. These values are likely to positively impact mental health in numerous ways that include reducing the frequency of stressful life events, coping with stressful life events when they occur, and having support from family and community to help when needed. These high values also place Muslims at higher risk of being disappointed in themselves when they fail to live up to these high expectations, possibly affecting risk for depression or anxiety. We examine this more closely in the next chapter.