INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC

UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA (IIUM)

UNGS 2050 :
ETHICS & FIQH FOR
EVERYDAY’S LIFE
ASSIGNMENT 1:
MORAL EDUCATION & CHALLENGES OF MODERNITY

ANAS FAHMIE B HELMI ZAKUAN (0819345)

KAMAL B AHMAD

SECTION 3 ; DR KABUYE UTHMAN SULEIMAN

TABLE OF CONTENT

1.0 INTRODUCTION 1
(by Anas Fahmie HZ )
2.0 MORAL EDUCATION 2
( by Kamal Ahmad )
3.0 THE CONCEPT OF MODERNITY 5
(by Anas Fahmie HZ)
4.0 CHALLENGES OF MODERNITY TOWARDS THE EXECUTION OF MORAL EDUCATION 6
(by Anas Fahmie HZ)
5.0 CHALLEGES OF MODERNITY TOWARDS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MORAL EDUCATION 9
(by Anas Fahmie Hz)
6.0 CONCLUSION 11
(by Anas Fahmie HZ)

1.0 INTRODUCTION
 Morality has become one of the major issues that lately seems to be seen as unimportant as it is
seems as an orthodox thing to be considered as important. However, through the modernity of the
world, where globalization take place, the morality of the society had somehow becomes so low, as
if they weren’t born with aql. Here is where moral education should play its major role, in order to
make sure the society would behave under the good manner and good code of conduct. However, it
seems like modernity has become a big challenge to the moral education, especially in the context
of to the teenagers, youngsters and children. Therefore, this assignment would discuss about the
moral education, its importance, the concept of modernity and how modernity can become a
challenge to moral education.

2.0 WHAT IS MORAL EDUCATION?

 2.1 Introduction to Moral Education
Moral education is the base of general education in Islam. Islam bases the education of man
on the refinement, purification and cleansing of the heart 1. Islam has set up its education
system and programme on principle which are natural principle, principle of faith national
principle and the principle of reward and punishment. We as a Muslim have already given a
convincing account as to how and why Islam based the education on these principles. We
can, on the basis say with confident that moral education forms the pillar of general
education then causes the progress in a modernity and civilization of society. We can
conclude that good moral education produces good individual who gave shape to a good
society and thereby paves the way to human progress and prosperity. It is vice versa with
the bad moral education on its impact to individual and society. The return of good moral
education is high-quality and successive generations.

2.2 The importance of moral education    

ATTAIN HIGH DEGREE OF BELIEF IN ALLAH
High objective behind the moral education in Islam is to help the Muslim to attain high
degree of belief in Allah and thereby practice virtuous acts to avoid vices 2. Happiness of one
individual will lead to the happiness of the whole society. In addition, happiness of the
individual, according to Islam, depends on the happiness of the society. In Quran, happiness
also known as success. Success in Islam is the stage when a Muslim does selfless service and
offer sacrifices to earn pleasure from Allah. Allah says in Surah An-Nisaa: 4:115.

“There is no good in many of their conferences except the conferences of such as enjoin
charity or goodness or making of peace among men. And whose does that seeking the
pleasure of Allah; we shall bestow on him a great reward”.

CLEANSING AND PURIFYING THE HEART

1
Asmau Imam Abdul Kabir, Approaches Used By Islamic Education Teachers To Integrate Moral Values In Their Teaching: A
Case Study At Ansarul Islam Secondary School, Ilorin, Kwara Statenigeria.(Kuala Lumpur : IIUM Press, 2008) 14

2
Ibid, pg 48
We need moral education as cleansing and purifying the heart, following the path of good
and virtuous behaviour and obedience Allah. This is also the idea behind the making the
prayer compulsory. Allah says in surah An-An kabut 29: 46

Which means” Recite that which has been revealed to thee of the Book, and observe Prayer.
Surely, Prayer restrains one from indecency and manifest evil, and remembrance of Allah
indeed is the greatest virtue. And Allah knows what you do”. These is some of example that
show moral education can purify and cleanse one heart and elude one from shirk.

SELF-EVIDENT THAT GOOD EDUCATION FOR THE PHYSICAL, MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
It is self-evident that good education for the physical, mental and emotional development of
the individual necessarily means good education of the society obviously because society is
a group living together. Therefore if the education is useful to the individuals it is certainty
useful to the whole society. Allah said in An-Nisaa 4:36:

 In this verse Allah said “Worship Allah, and do not associate anything with Him. Be good to
your parents and relatives, orphans and the very poor, neighbors who are related to you and
neighbors who are not related to you, companions and travelers, and your slaves. Allah does
not love anyone vain or boastful”.

Clearly, Allah advises people to always be tolerant, understanding, compassionate, and

respectful toward their parents, especially toward their mothers.  He also reminds us of the
difficulties that mothers suffer while giving birth and raising their children. All efforts made
by revealed religions and even by the unrevealed schemes made by men for education were
and are certainty meant for the individual only. The subject of every good education is to
produce good and enlightened citizen in body, mind and character in order to serve his
country, society and himself to the best of his ability and capability. Therefore, good
education aims at improving the lot of the individual and the society and for that purpose
tries to bring about an excellent and well balance society and bring prosperous in their life.

  ISLAM ASK MUSLIM FOR MODERATION

 Islam ask the Muslim for moderation and satisfying this needs and desires, thus Islam permit
the Muslim to satisfy his natural desires in a judicious manner rising above his desire. For
that purpose Islam gives a set of rule which does not permit a Muslim to give himself to
asceticism or to monasticism.

ISLAM ASK MUSLIM TO SEEK KNOWLEDGE

Islam asks the Muslim to seek knowledge. In fact the first revelation of Islam is on seeking
knowledge. The very first word in order of revelation in the glorious Al-Quran is "Iqra". Iqra
is an Arabic word literally meaning "Read". The word Iqra appears in the Sorah "Al-Alaq".
Following is the English translation of a verse from the same Sorah. Allah said in Al-Alaq 96:1

“Proclaim! (or Read!) In the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created”.

Holy Quran and the Sunnah, repeatedly urges the Muslim to seek knowledge. Knowledge as
a basic principle of moral education in Islam undoubtedly, is one and permanent importance
aspect to the individual and to the society because it is the knowledge that puts the society
on the road of progress of successive society as what the prophet Muhammad (peace be
upon him) want. Knowledge is useful to the individual as well to the society.     

DEVELOPMENT OF SPIRITUALISM

Spiritualism also forms a basis of moral education in Islam 3. It is in the nature of man from
Prophet Adam until today to discover the Creator for his own satisfaction and for the
understanding of the process of creation itself. Alternative to unseen serves as a safety to
the individual. This makes the man careful in his behavior because he believes that he is
watched by some unseen power.

3.0 THE CONCEPT OF MODERNITY

3
Asmau Imam Abdul Kabir, Approaches Used By Islamic Education Teachers To Integrate Moral Values In Their Teaching: A
Case Study At Ansarul Islam Secondary School, Ilorin, Kwara Statenigeria.(Kuala Lumpur : IIUM Press, 2008) 14
 Modernity can be literally defined as the state of being modern 4. In this context, modernity is
resembled in some forms where each of it represents the excohidity of modern world 5 .

Modernity is majorly resembled in three major forms, which is first the Mass Media which
includes first; broadcasting, or in the narrow sense, the radio and television, secondly, the magic
box – computer, followed by internet, fourthly the film which is most often used for
entertainment and spreading of ideologies, fifthly, the mobile phones which can be used for
rapid breaking news and entertainment ; sixthly, video games which have developed into a mass
form with the invention of Play station 1,2,3, Xbox and Wii and last but not least the printed
media which is the medium that disseminates printed matter (newspapers, magazines,
billboards, posters and so on)6.

Secondly modernity is resembles through the Modern Economy where everything that matters
is matter or in a simple word, materialism, which is the state when everyone have a desire for
wealth and material possessions with little interest in ethical or spiritual matters. This modern
economy only concerns on who earns more money, who got a bigger contract, who scores a
bigger profit, and it is all stand on the basis of Monetary Achievement 7 rather than the sole
objective of economy activities itself which is for the well-being of all of the societies, as
promoted by Muhammad SAW . In order to achieve this, human have been intensely used,
putting them in the condition where ; work is everything, leaving the family back home to work
on 9-5 basis is a norm and the children were abandoned under the care of the strangers while
their parents are out from home, working hard in order to sustain for living. These are some of
the issues that were carried along with modernity, as seen from economy perspective.

Thirdly, is the Modern Culture, where in this modern world, there is a culture that is practiced
by large group of people in every place in the world , whatever they do, wear, say, and act is
perceived as ‘Modern’ and the main idea of this culture is secularism 8, where god and religion
are separated from everyday’s life. As opposed to that, this so called modern culture majorly
stands opposite to the moral values and ethics. It can be clearly represented and measured in

4
Richard Mcburgh, Collins Cobuild Advanced Dictionary (New York :Harpers-Collins Publishers ,2009) pg 473
5
Arjun Appadurai, Modernity At Large : Cultural Dimension &Globalization (New York : Bryant Park Press ,1996)
p19
6
Marlowe P (2001). The Role of Media In Y2K Century. Journal of Publication Research, 11, 54–55.
7
Appadurai, A. op.cit. p31
8
Arjun Appadurai, Modernity At Large : Cultural Dimension &Globalization (New York : Bryant Park Press ,1996)
p19
 the form fashion, lifestyle, words and their daily actions, for example indecent wear, wild
parties and nightclubs, overdose eating habit, alcoholic drinks , bad words & slang’s and many
more that has been generally accepted as ‘modern’ and it has become a norm to the societies all
around the globe.

Therefore, from this page onwards, we will discuss about the relationship between Moral
Education and Challenges of Modernity or it can be simply put as “how modernity affects moral
educations” in terms of its (moral education) execution and its effectiveness to the target group.

4.0 CHALLENGES OF MODERNITY TOWARDS THE EXECUTION OF MORAL EDUCATION

Modernity has become a threat to the execution of the moral education, by which execution
means every inch of efforts and measures putted and applied in order to ensure that moral
education is implied to the targeted group. In some ways, modernity has obstructed the process
of executing moral education to the targeted group, especially the youngsters as the saying goes
"To bend a bamboo, do it while it's still a shoot".

The tension of the modern world right now has put everyone in the state where they have to
strain every bit of their muscles in order to sustain their life and their families’. This had also
affects the whole societal institution, especially family institution, which is the basic unit of a
society. As it is generally noticed recently, the tension of modernity had forced men and
women, father and mother to go out, working to earn for living and also to achieve other
purposes. This trend has become a norm in every family all around the world. This is totally
different if compared to the life pattern fifty years ago where men would go out working and
women would stay at home, teaching and taking a good care of the children.

However, nowadays, the roles of women have been transformed, from home to office and from
educating to working. When they go out to work, alongside with their husbands, the children
were left at home. There would be only a small allocation of time for their children after long
hours of working, given that if a mother works starting from her children wake up early in the
morning and she come home when her children already go to bed at night. The question is,
when is the time for both father and mother to educate their children on morality, ethics and
even religion? This resulting the parents to leave their children under the care of maid or nanny
or preferably defined as a stranger to carry the responsibilities of teaching and educating the
 children and ensuring them to keep their toes in line, while Islam already highlight the premier
responsibilities of parents is to educate their children, as mentioned in one hadith that says.

“Children are like pieces of white cloth...its up to us as parents to ascertain the colours..”

This doesn’t mean that the idea of letting the maid or the nanny to carry out the duties in educating
the children is bad, but it is just that the role of parents in carrying out this duty seems to be more
effective and the children would feel more close to their parents. Educating and teaching the
children on morality and ethics is not just merely by telling them to do this and that but also it can be
represented through actions, words and mind setting of the parents themselves . As parents, it is
their responsibilities to show a good life-size example (qudwatul hasanah)9 to the children so that
the children can easily weigh which is good and which is not, which one is morally bound and which
one is morally unacceptable. But, how can possibly these things can be done if parents are rarely at
home, spending their time with kids? This is how modernity has taken its toll on family institution,
thus destroying the efforts of parents to teach and educate their children on moral education and
ethics in life.

On the other hand, the media has taken over the duties that should be carried by the parents. Given
the situation where every home in this modern era would have any of these – television, computer
with internet connection, radio, and even video games console. The moral education of the children
had become completely fiasco with the existence of these medias. Every single day the children
would be exposed to the things which are totally going against moral values and ethics 10, and
television, internet, radio, and so on becomes the primer medium that glorifies all of these bad and
false values. These media don’t expose anything but bad values to the children. Sexual explicit
materials have become part of the main ingredients of these media and it is freely exposed to the
children every single minute, hours and day, leaving behind the fear of this would affects the
morality of the future generations.

In relation to that, it seems like the mass media nowadays, be it electronic or printed have a very
huge tendency to become an enemy to morality, For example, television. Eventhough there is
classification of viewers (PG 13, U, 18SX and so on), but still, the parents is not there to monitor and
educate their children on what they see on television. Let alone the internet, where everything can

9
M.Y.Reemawi ,Methodology Of Ethical Education In Islam ( Hampshire : Ingrid-Pole Press , 1998) p76
10
Dario Salas Summer , Moral of the 21st Century (New York : John Baines Inc , 2005 ) p174
 be easily accessed without any restrictions. Apart from them, the printed media like entertainment
magazine, where it shows the juiciest gossips and life of the celebrities which is mostly immoral – no
restriction between men and women, wild parties, indecent clothing and fashion style, and so many
more which nowadays had become the must-have printed materials to among our youngsters
nowadays. They worship these magazines , name it – Hot, Limelight, Galaxie, Hot Goss, People, and
many more which in a way, it urge them to follow blindly and accept the immoral things that are
depicted in those magazines. This somehow had distracted the execution of the moral education to
them in the sense that at the same time they were exposed to these kind of things and they blindly
abide to laws and whatever that is depicted in these mass media. As the saying goes, “pouring
water to the sand, pointless…”

This allows the media to become the prominent educator to the children and youngsters 11 by which,
ironically, it educates those things that later on would direct them (the children, youngsters) to the
forbidden paths. Therefore the idea of parents go out working for living and televisions/computer
that sits permanently at home take charge of educating the children. This is how the modern
economy and the mass media nowadays become the biggest threat of all to the execution of moral
education to the youngsters.

Therefore, it is clear that modernity had destroy the efforts on executing the process of educating
the targeted group (especially children and youngsters) on morality, ethics and even religion.

11
Charles Larmore, The Morals of Modernity (Melbourne : Cambridge University Press, 1996) p97
5.0 CHALLENGES OF MODERNITY TOWARDS THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MORAL EDUCATION

Modernity is not merely a threat to the execution of moral education; it is also becomes threat
to the effectiveness of the moral education. In this context, the effectiveness of moral education is
measured in a way that whether the moral education could give positive impact in shaping the young
generation or not. This would later determine how modernity becomes a threat to the effectiveness
of moral education to the youngsters.

Nowadays, the effectiveness of moral education to the youngsters seems to be decreasing, as it is

threaten by a few elements. One of it is the so called modern culture that is widely practiced all
around the world, due to globalization. The main ingredient of this modern culture is secularism,
where religion is strictly separated from everyday’s life, resulting the people whom practice this
culture to have a huge tendency to do something immoral. This is because if ones hold tightly to the
teachings of his religion, he would be bounded to the moral codes of conduct and tends to steer
clear from the evil pathway12.Even Prophet Muhammad once believed to have said ;

“Religion is good conduct….”

This means that without religion, ones would have tendency to steer himself to the evil pathway and
this is what happened to the modern culture. And to make it worse, most of our youngsters
nowadays practice this kind of lifestyle in their everyday’s life. Wild parties, drugs, alcoholic drinks,
adultery and so on are some of the major manifestations of this modern culture. This modern
culture has make the moral education that had been instilled to these youngsters to fade away as
they live in the parameter ( friends, family, community, and so on) where they are surrounded with
the practices of this culture, till it becomes something that is normal and they practice it in
consequence of the peer pressure.

In addition to that, the effectiveness of moral education to the youngsters is also threatened by the
mass media, where the mass media nowadays continuously fails to play its original role which is to
convey information and knowledge 13 . This is because, instead of that, mass media tend to glamorize
false culture and negative culture that would put our youngsters in a condition where they would
behave immorally. As we can see nowadays, he mass media injects these false cultures, this immoral

12
M.Y.Reemawi ,Methodology Of Ethical Education In Islam ( Hamshire : Ingrid-Pole Press , 1998) p 29

13
Marlowe P (2001). The Role of Media In Y2K Century. Journal of Publication Research, 11, p61
culture through music, music video and so on. For example the radio and the television keep on
broadcasting music that has the element of sex, wild party and evil-inclined elements. These
elements lingers around our youngsters nowadays, making them to feel normal about it and
shockingly, even some of them are so influenced by that negative culture till to the extend they
practice it in their life . We can even see the effects it brings – adultery, child abortion, child
dumping, having child out of wedlock and so many more that are totally out of moral code of
conduct. This is all because of the tendency of mass media in glamorizing negative culture and
immoral practice.

This eventually make the moral education that is supplied to the youngsters by their parents,
teachers, dai’e and so on become ineffective, as the saying goes …”It’s like pouring water to the
yam’s leave”, as in the negative power that modernity brings through mass media has ‘killed’ the
moral education that is conveyed and given to the youngsters, steering them away from the rightful
path. That is the challenge of modernity towards the effectiveness of moral education.
6.0 CONCLUSION

As for the conclusion, moral education nowadays is threatened by modernity of the world, where its
execution and the effectiveness ( of moral education) is threatened by the soldiers of modernity
which are mass media, modern economy, and modern culture. This had made the process of
educating the community and the society in becoming a society that is morally bounded becomes
hard and even harder with the presence of the soldiers of modernity, as mentioned above. However,
as the vicegerent on earth, by putting morality as the main code of conduct would prevent us from
committing something that would later steer us away from Allah S.W.T.