'I' is for ... an Islamic perspective on conscience

Abstract

There has been extensive use of the modern Arabic word damir for the English word conscience. An invitation is made to discernment of intentional use of the word damir in this way, by some authors, to emphasize interfaith experience and establish a uniting linguistic bond between people of different religious belongings. After due consideration of damir, we proceed to a fully Islamic perspective on conscience by examining material from four sources: the Qur’an, Traditions of the Prophet and Islamic scholarship past and present. Highlighted in the latter canon are writings from giants of antiquity such as Ibn al-`Arabi and al-Ghazali. Ghazali’s Anatomy of the Soul also known as ‘the family of internal aspects’ will be seen as the foundation of Islamic moral psychology and psychopathology. Specific intersections of Islamic aspects of conscience with the several domains of conscience as explicated by the Indiana University Conscience Project can be discerned while preserving the integrity of their divergences.