TRANSLATOR’S NOTE
The Ethics of Islam is a very difficult subject. A person who wants to read and understand this
book has to have certain background or prerequisites. Anyone who attended high school or
college knows that one cannot take a course unless meets its prerequisites. Actually required
prerequisites are very long for this book. Basically, one has to be quite learned about the Islamic
religion. We employed various techniques and strived very hard to make the book readable by
those who do not have the required prerequisites. Those who don’t have the background have to
approach this book like taking a difficult course in the school. Getting a good grade from a
difficult course requires lots of time (unquantifiable by us) and studying. Understanding and
learning ethics of Islam also requires much time and studying. We can assure the reader that if
you read this book like a novel, you will not gain anything. Knowing the difficulty involved, we
have used simple words while constructing the sentences. When some words did not have
corresponding English versions, sometimes, we added simplified explanatory phrases and used
them instead. When certain words were repeated often, using their simplified explanations again
and again was very difficult (e.g., Ahl al-bidat, Amr al-maruf, Fard, Halal, Haram, Wajib, Jaiz,
Makruh, Tanzih al-Makruh, Tahrim al-Makruh and the like). We have put these simplified
explanatory phrases at the beginning of the chapter as "Keywords" so that the reader may refer to
it and we could use the keyword in the text. In other instances, certain terms were used in their
original form, e.g., Sunnat, Hadith, Jihad, Fitna, Amr al-maruf or Nahy anil munkar. Another
difficulty involves citing an action as permissible or forbidden or the like. During the past 1400
years of Islamic history, judgements were passed by the scholars or qualified judges of their
times almost on every action of a person. This book also repeats various kinds of judgements
after explaining an action or affair. These judgements are different from an ordinary judgement
passed by a judge in the sense that these have connotations of bringing rewards or punishments
in the next world. The reader must learn their meaning before advancing any further in the
subject. A good strategy might be, reading the chapter once and then coming back and reading it
again. The translator, where appropriate, added explanations within a curly parenthesis, e.g.,
{...}. Also, to make the subject matter easier for those who are familiar with Arabic, we have
included Arabic terms along with their English versions.
The Ethics of Islam is a very difficult subject. A person who wants to read and understand this
book has to have certain background or prerequisites. Anyone who attended high school or
college knows that one cannot take a course unless meets its prerequisites. Actually required
prerequisites are very long for this book. Basically, one has to be quite learned about the Islamic
religion. We employed various techniques and strived very hard to make the book readable by
those who do not have the required prerequisites. Those who don’t have the background have to
approach this book like taking a difficult course in the school. Getting a good grade from a
difficult course requires lots of time (unquantifiable by us) and studying. Understanding and
learning ethics of Islam also requires much time and studying. We can assure the reader that if
you read this book like a novel, you will not gain anything. Knowing the difficulty involved, we
have used simple words while constructing the sentences. When some words did not have
corresponding English versions, sometimes, we added simplified explanatory phrases and used
them instead. When certain words were repeated often, using their simplified explanations again
and again was very difficult (e.g., Ahl al-bidat, Amr al-maruf, Fard, Halal, Haram, Wajib, Jaiz,
Makruh, Tanzih al-Makruh, Tahrim al-Makruh and the like). We have put these simplified
explanatory phrases at the beginning of the chapter as "Keywords" so that the reader may refer to
it and we could use the keyword in the text. In other instances, certain terms were used in their
original form, e.g., Sunnat, Hadith, Jihad, Fitna, Amr al-maruf or Nahy anil munkar. Another
difficulty involves citing an action as permissible or forbidden or the like. During the past 1400
years of Islamic history, judgements were passed by the scholars or qualified judges of their
times almost on every action of a person. This book also repeats various kinds of judgements
after explaining an action or affair. These judgements are different from an ordinary judgement
passed by a judge in the sense that these have connotations of bringing rewards or punishments
in the next world. The reader must learn their meaning before advancing any further in the
subject. A good strategy might be, reading the chapter once and then coming back and reading it
again. The translator, where appropriate, added explanations within a curly parenthesis, e.g.,
{...}. Also, to make the subject matter easier for those who are familiar with Arabic, we have
included Arabic terms along with their English versions.
