The Islamic Charity Ethics

In today’s society, the economy develops rapidly and steadily and the standard ofliving improves gradually. However, the excessive speed of development also bringsa variety of problems to the society.‘There has been great progress in the cultureconstruction, along with the development of the economy and the society and thepromotion of the democracy and legal system, since the Reform and Opening-up inour country thirty years ago’ said Wen Jiabao. At the same time, we should clearly seethat current culture construction, especially the construction of moral culture, is still ashort leg compared with the development of economy. Social charity, as one of thedirections in the moral culture construction, is a topic of conversations which alwayscauses heat discussion.From the philanthropy ethics foundation in China and foreign countries, westerncharity ethics thoughts have distant source and rich connotation, and produce activeand profound impacts on the formation and development of the contemporaryphilanthropic thoughts. It experienced a long process of development, which couldroughly be divided into four stages (Ancient Rome, the Medieval West, the westernmodern philanthropy ethics thoughts and the western contemporary philanthropyethics thoughts), before the formation of the ultimate ethical thoughts. The Chinesephilanthropy ethics foundation could also be explained from three aspects; Taking‘benevolence’ as the core is the basic ideological characteristic of the human charityover the years in Chinese ancient societies. Confucian thinks that each person hassympathetic compassion for others and everyone should care for each other and helpothers, from the perspective of human conscience and dependent relations. Saving theliving of others with the mercy heart and helping the weak by the strong are all theideological characteristics of the human charity in ancient times in China. There are many records in ancient works in this respect.In contemporary society, the development of charities is an important way topromote social progress and construct the Harmonious Society. Yet, the religiouscircle is an indispensable and effective strength in the charities. Developing thereligious charity positively is not only the need of religion itself, but also the need ofsocial development. Encouraging and guiding the religious circle to take part in thecharities, such as poverty alleviation and disaster relief, donation and grant, medicalcare and pension and so on, helps the religious circle to play an active role in theconstruction of the Harmonious Society.Discussing the ethical issues of the religious charity could help us to knowdifferent moral bottom lines of different groups of people. And researching into theindividual with the free will could wake the ‘good’ nature of human beings andstrengthen the good social atmosphere.To understand the religious charities from the perspective of the religious ethicsis not just a category of social ethics. On one hand, it expresses the moralconsciousness of the religious organization as a kind of widely recognized by society,generally respected values and ethics; On the other hand, it is specific religiousculture behavior which not only makes up the lack of government functions to acertain extent and helps to solve some public crises and social problems, but bringsgood moral atmosphere to the community and promotes the transmission anddevelopment of the religious culture.This paper starts with the background above, the view of ethics and the guide ofreligious charitable theory in China and foreign countries, and then makes acomprehensive and profound study of the religious philanthropy with the example ofMuslim charity and the major premise of China. The article is divided into thefollowing four parts: Part One, Introduction, describes the background, research significance, ideas,methods, innovations and deficiencies.Part Two, uses the example of Muslim charity in China and the organization ofthe concept and nature of the philanthropy to specifically elaborate and analyze thesummary of the religious charities development in China in the context of thereligious charities ethics.Part Three, ponders on the social functions of the religious charities and thebasic ethical problems in the context of ethics.Part Four, Summary, induces and summarizes the study we make.