Ethics from the Viewpoint of Asharites and Separatists

Ethics is about good and evil and it constantly circles around these two issues whether when it is discussed with regard to beliefs or sensual qualities or deeds. In the present paper, ethics has been examined from the viewpoint of two theological schools of thought, i.e. the Asharites and the Separatists. The Separatists believe good and evil to be inherent and intellectual characteristics of deeds and they consider this to be an essential element of Divine Justice. They take all Divine Acts to be good and fair and maintain that God never does any vice acts and never hesitates in doing something necessary. The attribute of ‘justice’ is related to the attributes of Divine Will and Divine Omnipotence. These attributes lead to the knowledge of the oneness of God and all of the Divine attributes. The knowledge as to the oneness of God and the substantiation of the eternity of God are dependent upon the humans’ will and freedom of will in their acts and the validity of these issues are dependent upon intellect and not tradition, for, otherwise it would lead to the collapse of the social system, the invalidation of the law of causality, as well as the destruction of the Revealed Law and the religion.In contrast to this view, the Asharites believe in the Divine and lawful good and evil of the acts. They also believe in Divine justice but with a different definition from that of the Separatists; they believe that whatever God does is pure justice. Therefore, they do not believe good and evil to be inherent in acts and as a result, they do not consider any role for intellect in the discovery of good and evil; rather, they believe God and his Divine Orders to be the creator of good and evil. The Asharites also believe that good and evil of acts is dependent upon the Divine Will and Omnipotence which are both considered as Attributes of the Essence. Another point worth considering is that both schools have the same stance on the intellectuality of certain meanings of good and evil; yet, sooner than later they will have a controversy, but only on the merit of praise and reward and rebuke and penalty. Finally, in the theological system of the Separatists, and based on their interpretation of good and evil of acts, their focus is more of an anthropocentric nature, while in the theological system of Asharites the emphasis is more of a Divine and theocentric nature.