A Different Approach to Good Morals (View Book) The Caliph's Journey: From the Corruption of Jinn to Conscious Evolution

Moral and conscience development is an important area of study in psychology. This field, which began with pioneers such as Sigmund Freud and Jean Piaget, deepened with Kohlberg's work on moral dilemmas. Kohlberg investigated how children and adults interpret the rules that govern their behavior (Gürses and Kılavuz, 2016).

Moral education is critically important for ongoing moral development, especially in the first years of university (Sılay, 2014). This education not only transmits knowledge to students but also aims for them to think ethically and evaluate their actions morally (Bakioğlu and Sılay 2011). The fundamental question asked since Aristotle and Confucius remains the same: "What kind of people do we want our children to be, and how should we educate them to achieve this goal?" Morality always lies at the heart of this question.

Kohlberg identified six universal stages for the development of justice: 1) Obedience and Punishment, 2) Individualism and Self-Interest, 3) Interpersonal Concordance, 4) Law and Order Orientation, 5) Social Contract, 6) Universal Ethical Principles (Althof and Berkowitz, 2006; Seymen and Bolat, 2007).

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said, "I was sent to perfect good morals." This indicates that humanity's most fundamental problem is good morals. When science and technology are used without moral guidance, they have led to disasters such as global warming, wars, and ecological crises, by recklessly consuming resources. The fact that developed countries cause more harm to nature is a clear indication that humanity has failed in moral education.

The current global education system, by disregarding humane and faith-based values, traps humanity's intellectual richness within the finite and material boundaries of science. In this approach, while science should be a part of humanity, humanity is made a part of science. The truth is, science and the entire universe cannot transcend the mind and heart (intellectual life energy) of a developed human; they are a part of it.

Therefore, it is more appropriate for science, which increasingly proves the truths declared by Islam, to be learned in an integrated manner with Islamic values (Demirkuş and Bilgin 2017; Demirkuş and Bilgin 2018). The purpose of a true education system is to prove the superiority of living honestly and morally over all other ways of life. When the shroud of science changes hands, that is, when it passes into the hands of morally upright people, humanity can expect to be collectively more at ease.

In moral education, locality and nationality are the "numerator," while universality is the "denominator." Without the numerator (originality), the denominator (universality) becomes meaningless. As stated in Surah Al-Hujurat, Verse 13, "O humanity! ... We have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another." Each nation is a unique and valuable piece of the human puzzle.

In this context, awareness of the following concepts is important: Destructive ideologies such as Chauvinism (assimilating other nations into one's own for political purposes) and Zionism (assimilating people of other religions into one's own for political purposes) should not be confused with a healthy nationalism or understanding of religion.

The universal common denominator of humane morality includes principles such as justice, honesty, integrity, moderation, helpfulness, sharing, and conscience, which all nations would accept. The harms caused to humanity by past and present moral weaknesses should be emphasized with historical examples to convey the importance and awareness of humane moral education.

• Local, national, and universal moral values, along with their philosophies and historical examples, should be presented under separate headings in the education system.

• While emphasizing the importance of good morals in Islam, it should be historically exemplified that people of other faiths can also possess good morals.

• It should be proven with examples from the 19th-21st centuries and alternative solutions that science and technology will bring more harm than good to humanity unless moral education is provided.

• The necessity of both knowing one's profession well and possessing good morals, and that one cannot be beneficial to humanity without both conditions, should be conveyed.

• It should be emphasized that science is a tool for deciphering nature and creatures, and can only be used correctly by people with humane morals.

• It should be proven as a philosophical and moral discourse that major problems such as world wars and global warming are primarily rooted in a moral problem.