Moral Religious foundations and Shifting Moral Zeitgeist Theory – An Analytical Study

Right from the beginning of human race, all the human societies entailed norms and values on which the society functioned. The moral basis of the Muslim societies therefor is also very consistent and well established. The Prophet of Islam reintroduced the very basis of the Arab society where moral corruption was evidently at an astonishingly high rate, tribal assassinations, gender discrimination, financial corruptions and a cruel ruling system ran the Arab society before Islam. All of that changed drastically after the advent of Islam in the Arabian-peninsula and the very humane values at which even the modern world functions were introduced at that time in the Muslim Arab 14 centuries ago. Effectively, it is understood that the moral values of the Muslim Ummah therefor are based on revelation and tradition regardless of the time, place and ethnicities of the presiding humans in a society.

But lately, a theory which is mostly framed by atheistic and non-religious values called the “Shifting Moral Zeitgeist” sparked controversy all over the world. This theory marks the non-participation of religion in making of the society’s morals. Zeitgeist includes the notion of evolving values with the passage of time and rejects the idea of religion dictating the morals based on divine scriptures. This papers finds inconsistency of zeitgeist and analyzes the Islamic values in the light and perspective of different societies, examining the atheistic values and ideas and their reliability in the context of the human nature and prosperity.