REPRESENTATION OF ETHICS AND SOCIAL CHANGE IN MUSTAPHA LUTFI AL-MANFALUTI’S AL-KHULQ (MORAL)

Abstract

Ethical virtues, moral values and social change are issues discussed in the context of reconstructing, recovering, and reviving societal norms in shaping human conduct. Religiosity or fervent religiousness, as a law guiding virtues, dictating the right or wrong aspects of behavior, imposes didactic norms on every individual. Ethics and morality, as a pair, serve as a powerful catalyst for social development. This expediency is discussed in this paper as a system of ethical principles which could apply to society as a whole. This study argues that ethics purifies the heart and guides actions, not just in worship but in daily conduct and also aims at developing husn al-khuluq (good character), promotes justice and upholds human dignity. This paper, built on Aristotle’s ethical framework, known as eudaimonia, which translates to flourishing or well-being, serves as a concept of achieving good life, highlighting how Al-Manfaluti uses his work to reinstate morality in individual and societal life. While it focuses on interpretative research design, motif is employed as a core literary narrative embedded in the text. This makes the study researchable and locates social freedom in the capacity to reconstruct society through which it defines what counts as ethics, morality and social change.