As a jurisprudential authority of Islam and a reformist ideologue who utilized all his physical and mental energies in pathology of Islam’s great society particularly of Iran and improving societal relations on the basis of pure teachings of Islam, Imam Khomeini gives special importance to ethics in the individual and social behavioural system.
As an inheritor of the school of the prophets, a major portion of his successes can be traced to his pragmatic and morally upright personality. Of course, it needs to be pointed out that proper action and behavior at the highest levels and in the sphere of multiplicity of societal issues are derived from knowledge and faith al though at the elementary level, they have their origins in the nature and character of human beings.
For this reason, Imam Khomeini (s) paid greater attention to his scientific and ethical works rather than to the rest of his scientific works. His ethical works can be divided into two theoretical and practical works respectively.
The Imam’s theoretical works are topics that he has discussed as mystical discussions or ethical points and guidelines, while his practical works are those dispositions and methods that he has applied to his social and political life and from which we draw ethical deductions. The volume of each of these two categories is such that mentioning any one of them restrains the writer of this article from mentioning the others.
The ethical thought and method of Imam Khomeini (s) possessing worthwhile features of other methods themselves incorporate prominent and unique points because at the first step, the element of ethics in Imam Khomeini’s teachings derive the essence of their message from the sacred Divine religion and are intensely influenced by Qur'anic concepts so that all over the Qur'an, the heavenly spirit and words of the Infallible Imams (AS) are the greatest fountainhead that quench the thirst of the Imam and augment his soul.
The great spiritual and religious leader of the Muslim world emphasizes the utilization of spiritual enlightenment instructions and recommendations as well as experience, sacred struggle, self-abstinence and worship of God.
These teachings are filled with affectionate preaching and promptings to brief and eloquent phrases. Gnostic ethics is a specialty of the Imam’s moral doctrine – a moral doctrine that the Imam teaches and mentions them in his words and writings while it is automatically a prelude to attainment of gnosis. We briefly mention the Imam’s ethical method and thought as well as some of their unique features:
• Universality and all-round perception
One of the distinctive features of the Imam’s ethical thought and method is that in devising and presenting ethical, formative and intellectual issues, he had a comprehensive and all-embracing view. The Imam considered Islam to be a comprehensive religion and the human being a multifaceted creature.
In his ethical methods, he focused on all existential dimensions of the human being and strongly regretted those who by overlooking other human aspects, made him out to be a disharmonious and an abnormal creature.
“Islam is everything; Islam has come to build human beings – and the human being is everything; the human being is the entire universe. The one who rears human beings must be familiar with the entire universe…in order to succeed in reaching this human being to the levels that he enjoys.”
The great Imam considers good moral practices and attitudes as source of salvation and prosperity for the individuals and societies.