The Relationship between Ethics and Religion from the View Points of Allama Ṭabāṭabāʾī and Shahīd Moṭaharī

Although the philosophy of ethics has not been much considered by Muslim thinkers and their topics are mainly related to ethics, Allama Ṭabāṭabāʾī and Shahīd Moṭaharī are among the few Shiite scholars who have simultaneously considered ethics and philosophy of ethics and have discovered innovative topics in this field. The topics of these two thinkers, although different in some cases, are generally complementary. One of the topics considered by the two is the relationship between ethics and religion. Allama Ṭabāṭabāʾī and Shahīd Moṭaharī have considered the relationship between ethics and religion from different aspect sand have presented a comprehensive view based on philosophical principles and documented Qur'anic and narrative evidence. Accordingly, the present study employs descriptive-analytical and library methods to examine the opinions of these two thinkers in the field of ethics and its relationship with religion. It is concluded that the negation of the conflict between ethics and religion, the role of religion in justifying ethical requirements, the extremity of religion over ethics, and religion as the only executive guarantor of ethical behavior are among of the most important relations between ethics and religion from the perspective of these two thinkers. Also, the result of this relationship is that contrary to the view that basically considers belief in God Almighty incompatible with ethical action, for these two persons, there is a kind of constructive interaction between ethics and religion in the promotion of religious beliefs and ethical behaviors.