Al-Ghazali: The Golden Rule of Morality

Abstract

The Golden rule is one of the most ancient moral commandment,whose roots can be found in the middle of the first millennium B.C.E. and which is represented in all known great cultures. And nowadays it not only maintains its role, but as­sumes ever greater importance as a mediating factor and a general humanistic foundation of the dialogue and cooperation of people of different cultures. The article takes the ideas of Al-Ghazjali, one of the most prominent and re­spected till our days medieval thinkers (died in 1111), and analyses the specific approach and understanding of the Golden rule within the Islamic tradition. In Islam the Golden rule, formulated as one of the Muhammad’s Hadiths, a) is seen in the context of the faith in God (Allah)as its extension and the criteria of its in­tegrity; b) it does not have self-sufficient meaning and directly connected with the observance of the certain norms of human behavior, prescribed by the Koran and Sunnah; c)a person as a believer themself defines an unlimited circle of the neighbours, embraced with the sphere of one’s considerate actions; d) the correct attitude towards the other is realized in the prescription not to put oneself higher than the other and even not on the same level with them, but to consider oneself lower than they. Al-Ghazali gives such an interpretation of the Golden rule which excludes the so-called paradox of a masochist, because he understands it not as a foundation of morality, but as its display.