CULTURAL PERSONALITY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ISLAM - THE QUR’AN

ABSTRACT

The major changes in the world situation in recent years are more or less related to Islam and the Arab world. The extremist actions of some groups of Muslims have negatively affected the view of many people about Islam. Islam, which originally encourages its followers to be more active and seek ways to increase its power, is propagated as a religion that goes against the course of historical development and is associated with poverty and backwardness. The content of the Qur’an is very diverse, covering concepts of world’s view and philosophy of human life, serving as a guideline for the faith life of the Muslim community, and has greatly contributed to creating changes in many aspects. A comprehensive understanding of Islam will contribute to eliminating prejudices (if any); and in this work I also hope to make a small contribution to the understanding of beauty (although only in one aspect and is still very sketchy) about Islam.

АННОТАЦИЯ

Основные изменения в мировой ситуации за последние годы в большей степени отразились на исламе и арабском мире. Экстремистские действия некоторых групп мусульман негативно повлияли на мнение многих людей о данной религии. Ислам, который изначально поощряет своих последователей быть более активными и искать пути увеличения власти, пропагандируется как религия, идущая вразрез с ходом исторического развития и ассоциирующаяся с бедностью и отсталостью. Содержание Корана очень разнообразно, оно охватывает концепции мировоззрения и философию человеческой жизни, служит руководством для религиозной жизни мусульманской общины и вносит значительный вклад в создание изменений в разных сферах. Всестороннее понимание ислама будет способствовать устранению предрассудков (если таковые имеются); в этой статье я постараюсь объяснить значение красоты ислама (только в одном аспекте и кратко).

Keywords: Mahathir Mohamad; Malaysian Prime Minister; Islam, Cultural Personality, Qur’an..

Ключевые слова: Махатхир Мохамад; премьер-министр Малайзии; Ислам, культурная личность, Коран.

Introduction

The major changes in the world situation in recent years, more or less, are related to Islam. These fluctuations are not simply economic, political, and social conflicts, but also reflect cultural and ideological conflicts. Islam, which originally encourages its followers to be more active and seek ways to increase its power, is propagated as a religion that goes against the course of historical development and is associated with poverty and backwardness. Meanwhile, good values ​​in Islam are similar to Western values and common values ​​of humanity. Limited knowledge combined with negative, one-sided information has created prejudices that are difficult to eliminate.

To have a correct understanding of Islam requires us to have an overall, objective view and avoid a one-sided approach. To do that, it is necessary to study in depth the cultural and ethical values ​​in Islam - the Qur’an. In Islam's doctrine, there are no commandments like in Christianity, but the Qur’an also lists similar points such as: Respect parents and love family; Respect for human rights,... They occupy an important place in Islamic moral thinking. The following article focuses on analyzing the following issues: 1) Clarifying some basic concepts of personality and cultural personality; 2) Presenting cultural personality from the perspective of Islam - Qur’an.

1. The concepts of Personality and Cultural Personality

1.1. Concept of personality

Etymologically, the term “personality” originates from the ancient Latin word “persona” and the medieval Latin word “personalitas” meaning “mask”, referring to the appearance of an individual, from totem and ancestor worship of primitive people. There have been many debates and theories come up in search of a complete explanation of personality. These are theories such as S. Freud’s Psychoanalysis of Personality, A. Adler's Superiority and Compensation,...

Later on, personality was approached from many different angles.

 From the perspective of psychology, humans are considered a product of the living and creative activities of the species. When representing a species, it is called an individual, when being a member of a social organization, it is called a person, and when being the subject of some form of creative activity, it is called personality.

From the perspective of philosophy, personality is the concentrated expression of human subjectivity. Only with personality as the subject of activity do humans have personality. And only people with independent personalities can become true subjects. Marxist-Leninist philosophy views personality as "individual human beings whose personalities are the products of social development, the subjects of labor, communication and cognition, determined by the conditions of history - specifically of social life" [5].

With their own personality, each individual has the ability to be self-aware, take control of their life and choose their own functions, joys, and responsibilities for specific activities in society. Among them, morality is the most important component and the root of personality. As a form of social consciousness, morality is a set of rules to regulate and evaluate human behavior in relations with each other and with society, implemented by personal beliefs, tradition and the power of public opinion.

To understand personality, we must analyze based on the activities of the subject as activities are the basis of personality. The study of personality must originate from the development of activities, specific types of activities and the relationship of that individual's personality with others.

From the perspective of sociology, personality is a relatively late product of social development. The individual must become a subject, that is, it must go through a process of development to become a personality. According to Karl Marx, personality is "born", and similar to consciousness being born, personality is created by the social relationships in which the individual participates in their activities. Personality is a specialized human structure, a self-conscious review of one's own activities.

To sum up, personality can be generally understood as a system of behavior towards the outside world and towards oneself of each person, thereby expressing qualities and abilities, demonstrating their concept of a scale of moral values.

From the research base of different typical academic schools interested in studying personality in the world, we can come to the following conclusion about personality: Personality appears when an individual has interactive activities with the social community and personality is influenced by numerous issues that are both personal and social.

1.2. Concept of Cultural Personality

Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies edited by A.A. Radugin introduces personality: “The sacred secret of personality, its metaphysical existence is the spirit of freedom, creatively promoting the development of culture starting from previous generations. The vocation (purpose meaning) of personality is to realize one's own spirit, turning culture into the starting factor and development step of creativity" [4, p. 12]. It can be said that the above definition by A.A. Radugin is the bridge that leads us to a cultural concept called "cultural personality".

Because cultural personality is a cultural issue, before studying it, we must understand clearly: What is culture? Culture is a concept with a broad appearance and diverse content. To this day, more than four hundred definitions of culture have been counted. According to author Tran Ngoc Them, there are two ways to understand culture which are in narrow sense and in broad sense: "In the narrow sense, culture is limited in depth or width, in space or time. Limited in depth, culture is understood as its quintessential values ​​(cultural lifestyle, artistic culture,...). Limited by width, culture is used to refer to values ​​in each field (communication culture, business culture...). Limited by space, culture is used to indicate the characteristics of each region (Central Highlands culture, Southern culture...). Limited by time, culture refers to the value in each period (Hoa Binh culture, Dong Son culture...). In a broad sense, culture is considered as something created by humans" [4, p. 27].

While there are numerous understandings and approaches to culture, UNESCO has defined it as follows: “Culture is a dynamic system of creative activities in the past and present. Over the centuries, those creative activities have formed a system of values, traditions and tastes - factors that determine the unique characteristics of each nation" [4, p. 28]. Thus, culture can be understood as all issues related to human life.

According to many different academic schools, each personality who lives and operates in their social environment has a personality. However, in order to consider whether that personality is a cultural personality or not, we must put it into the cultural frame of reference. That means that personality must converge four elements: systematicity, value, historicality and humanity. If one of the above four elements is missing, for example,  depraved personalities that have no value, then those personalities still exist but are not  cultural personalities.

Culture is the environment where personality appears and matures. Therefore, cultural personality only appears in the social environment. Cultural personality is the behavioral characteristics of people in the community and has lasting value. When an individual's personality has cultural characteristics, that personality is called cultural personality. Therefore, terms such as: "cultural personality of Mahathir Mohamad", "cultural personality of Ho Chi Minh"... are reasonable and convincing..

Cultural personality is a system of a person's dignity assessed from their interrelationship with the surrounding natural and social world with a view throughout the past, present, and future. Cultural personality is built and formed during the entire time a person exists in the world and still remains after that person has passed away, like the way that Ho Chi Minh's cultural personality has become the name of an entire era – the Ho Chi Minh era. Or like the cultural personality of Buddha transformed the character of the Sakya Republic from a warlike people to a benevolent and gentle one...The cultural personality of Gandhi and Nelson Mandela had certain impacts on their national character in their time and possibly the cultural personalities of these great men still even have an impact on their national character in the long run. It shows the inner qualities of human beings but also brings a deep sense of sociality.

To discuss cultural personality is to emphasize the positive aspects and good qualities of people. As the ancients often said "human beings are imperfect", no person is saintly, flawless, "perfectly refined" or only full of strengths. Inside every human being there are always both positive and negative attributes intertwined. Those aspects create their character and personality. There are people whose inferior and negative personality traits somewhat overwhelm the positive ones - those characters are not enough to reach the level of a complete personality. Cultural personality is a concept used to refer to people who have a high concentration of superior and noble human attributes, carrying the full value of a human dignity.

A person with a cultural personality is often the one who most centrally demonstrates the core, basic, typical values ​​of the community and the good qualities that are approved and admired by the majority of community members. In addition to moral attributes, the most outstanding characteristic of cultural personalities is manifested in their creative capacity. That creative activity has a profound influence on the community, possessing the ability to develop over time and constantly expand in the space of existence.

To be creative, people with cultural personalities often must possess the standard value system of contemporary society. Therefore, cultural personality is not only a creative subject but also a representative of the accumulation and consumption of values ​​passed down by previous generations.

People with culture always harmoniously combine two basic elements:

One - Behaving properly, always being courteous and polite, being respectful to seniors and juniors, respecting habits and customs, promoting the good and fighting against the bad, and being responsible citizens.

Two - Acting practically to promote a beautiful, highly knowledgeable lifestyle but must know how to spread the value of knowledge to the community.

Thus, knowledge and lifestyle create the complete personality of a cultured person, but the root is still perceptive humanity.

It can be said that cultural personality is the most complete development of personality. That is the goal and the result of the process of personality development aimed at the values of Truth - Goodness - Beauty. The cultural personality of each person and individual can only be completed and fully developed in a healthy cultural environment of the community. Cultural personality is the goal that our society is aiming to build.

2. Cultural personality from the perspective of Islam – Qur’an

2.1. Cultural personality of an individual in the Qur’an

First, people need to identify their ego and distinguish between good and evil. By following the path outlined by Allah in the Qur’an, men have done good deeds, and in that process of developing dignity, they have come closer to Allah. Goodness is always consistent with morality, and morality in religions always includes two basic aspects expressed in two relationships, which are the human to supernatural world and the human to human relationships.

Human virtues are requirements in behavior between people such as charity, justice, love... Human virtues are a consequence of divine virtues. Mohammed often emphasized: No faith pleases Allah if that faith is not associated with love between people. The good that Allah wants is that faith in Him must be accompanied by generosity and charity. Many verses can be found in the Qur’an that talk about the relationship between human virtue and divine virtue. Goodness is the result of the combination of those two virtues.

This is clearly shown in the famous definition that is accepted by both Christianity and Judaism, and it is like an Islamic Creed: "Righteousness is not in turning your faces towards the East or the West. Rather, the righteous are those who believe in Allah, the Last Day, the angels, the Books (of Allah), and the prophets; who give charity out of their cherished wealth to relatives, orphans, the poor, “needy” travelers, beggars, and for freeing captives; who establish prayer, pay alms-tax, and keep the pledges they make; and who are patient in times of suffering, adversity, and in “the heat of” battle. It is they who are true “in faith”, and it is they who are mindful of Allah” [3, pp.34-35].

Goodness is a moral value and for every Muslim, it is at the same time a means and a path that leads believers to the ultimate goal of achieving fulfilling happiness in Allah. The opposite of good is evil. Evil is not a value and does not belong to the category of value, but it is considered in relation to good for the purpose of determining its characteristics, it is also a means for people to find goodness while trying to fight against evil.

The Qur’an says that although humans were created by The Beneficent, and have a tendency to seek goodness, the Qur’an also repeatedly mentions human vices. As humans, each person is also a weak and fragile being [3, p.35].

Evil is not only an excessive response to the demands of the body and earthly needs, but evil also manifests itself in the form of unrighteous spiritual demands. In terms of spirit, the Qur’an says that the worst sin is the desire to turn oneself into God. And then, it considers itself capable and entitled to decide everything, including determining the good and evil as well as the life and death of others. Evil is created by the instigation and practicability of unjust desires, because people are always "chasing after worldly pleasures and becoming sinners." Many sins and evils in all aspects are listed in the Qur’an. Among them, “worshiping polytheism along with Allah, being unfilial to parents, murdering innocent people, deceiving, being licentious and committing adultery are considered the greatest sins. However, evil does not just “appear”…. because of the corrupt acts that humans have committed, the malice that lies inside the heart is even more ferocious” [3, p.36].

If secular ethics tends to evaluate good and evil from the perspective of behavior and consequences, the evil in the concepts of religions including Islam is contained even in the secrets of people's hearts. Therefore, the power of religious moral ideas to regulate behavior cannot be replaced.

Thus, the Qur’an describes goodness as a typical moral value that needs to be promoted; Evil is the opposite of good and must be eliminated. To encourage believers to do good, the Qur’an not only praises goodness, but also promises happiness to those who do good deeds.

2.2. The concept of happiness in the Qur’an

According to the Qur’an, Allah created man so that they could participate in His perfect happiness. Islamic theology believes that happiness is an emotional (psychological) state when people achieve harmony between themselves and God, thanks to their efforts to reach God. Happiness is affirmed as a value - something that people seek in the human world. If other moral values ​​involve choice, then happiness is the goal. The object of choice is always the path to take, but happiness is not the path but the destination of all paths themselves.

Islamic intellectuals are proud that the Qur’an also describes happiness in the same way. Similar to the concepts of many other major religions, the Qur’an believes that as mortal life is only temporary and life after death is eternal, the happiness of earthly life is only relative and temporary; absolute happiness is only found in Heaven.

The Qur’an mentions happiness as a reward for those who believe in Allah and do good deeds. Happiness is the gift of God to those who believe (in the Qur'an) and to those who are Jews and Christians..., those who believe in Allah and the Last (judgment) Day and do good deeds will be rewarded by their Lord; and they will not be afraid nor miserable. For those who do good things, they will be friends of Heaven which is an eternal good place [3, p.39], where Heaven is so beautiful and blissful that they want nothing more. Humans were created to achieve absolute happiness. Absolute happiness is the state in which people truly feel fulfilled in their human form, experiencing all the magnificent and holy emotions that Allah wants to give to people. There, the glory of the Exalted made them ecstatic. Meeting and complete union with Allah is the ultimate mortal happiness. Absolute happiness is expressed centrally by the Qur’an in the concept of Heaven.

Mortal happiness is described by the Qur’an as an emotional state when moral obligations are fulfilled. Those who believe, entrust in Allah and do good deeds will have inner peace and relaxation, they will not be afraid or miserable.

The apocalypse will be terrifying for those who do evil, but the happiness that the benefactors will receive is joy, they do not need to worry when facing death or the doomsday. Each step and each day of their life will be peaceful; They will live long in the land that Allah has generously given them. Good people will also receive the happiness of having plenty of children which is a blessing that Allah gives to parents. Allah also takes care of their material lives, they will have assets to ensure their lives and to spend on charity, because doing good deeds is also a form of happiness. Faithful believers live in a peaceful and prosperous community - a loving community [3, p.43]

Such a revelation of happiness has great encouragement, creating great hope for Islamic believers; motivating soldiers to bravely go to battle and people to accept suffering with an optimistic attitude, making the tragedy of mortal life become poetic. An enormous faith combined with great hope in the compensation in Heaven has made Muslims rise up through the generations, shocking the whole world.

Even so, we cannot deny that the concept of happiness in the Qur’an contains numerous things that are well grounded in terms of mortal life. Not only people living on the Arabian Peninsula in the past and present, but the entire humanity can draw from their life experience that man's tragedy is like to put one foot in the finite and the other in the infinite. Human desire to find perfect happiness, but in contrast to it is the reality that is not always completely satisfactory.

Because mortal life is, without exception, a deficiency (when we understand it in all aspects), the desire to reserve a place in another world is inevitable and necessary. A world where people are compensated to the maximum will help them to know how to accept limitations, suffering in the mortal world and the unexpected things, to sacrifice for others and for righteousness. That death is not the end allows people to live peacefully without despair when death approaches, nor to fight for life at all costs. Thus, the hope for happiness in the next life cannot make people weak and contented; it plays a significant role in helping people be optimistic, happily carrying out moral obligations with full of hope. Therefore, religions are concerned when secularization takes root in the lifestyle of their followers, not because the religion will be weaker or even vanish, but the behavior between people in terms of morality and humanity will be corrupted. Therefore, the common point that can be found among major religions is the encouragement of afterlife over mortal life, which contains profound human values.

From the perspective of moral philosophy, the happiness mentioned in the Qur’an comes to humans through a state of completeness. However, people do not buy it at the price of perfection, but grow towards it by perfecting themselves, becoming a better person and being more suited to their humanity. Happiness is right in that growing process - Aristotle as well as the Gospels acknowledge that. The Qur’an approaches the idea that in the journey to absolute righteousness, humans are in possession of happiness and that happiness grows to its fullness through the virtuous efforts of their ego.

2.3. The concept of justice in the Qur’an

The Qur’an refers to justice in a broad sense: in the sense of both judgment and human integrity. Justice is giving a person back what is theirs or what they are entitled to.

As with other concepts of moral values ​​in the Qur’an, Allah is also the standard system and reference of Justice. One of the characteristics expressed in the names of Allah recited numerous times in the Qur’an is the fairness and integrity of Allah. He is the Utterly Just and the Impartial One when judging, He does not favor men or women in rewards [3, p.53].

Justice goes hand in hand with goodness and practicing it means growing human dignity to perfection, bringing great values ​​to each individual and community on the path to reach Allah. Justice is the affirmation of a moral value that demonstrates humanity. The Qur’an mentions justice in many aspects of behavior as well as its consequences.

Because Allah created humans equally (although He did not ignore particularities), the Qur’an requires fairness from believers with behaviors in relationships. Islam pays great attention to marriage and family life, so the ethical rules applicable to this area occupy an important position. Therefore, the virtue of justice mentioned in the Qur’an for relationships such as parents with children, people with society... is not as much as the relationship between husband and wife. Although recognizing and allowing the existence of polygamy in Islamic society (each man can have up to four wives), the Qur’an requires husbands to treat their wives equally. Allah allows men to “marry the women you please with, two, three, or four. But if you are afraid of not being able to treat them (wives) equally, then just marry one... That is more suitable for you so that you may avoid unfairness. If a man is not qualified to marry a free woman, he can marry a faithful female slave and must also treat his wife fairly, not as an object based on her origin.

Fairness must be exercised in dealing with issues of community life. When elected as an arbitrator to resolve disputes, one must not show favoritism to help others do wrong and must stand firm and steadfast in testifying, as well as not testify about what one does not know [3, p.54-55], thus practicing the virtue of justice.

The second aspect of justice is shown in dealing with issues of property. Property is an external object, but it is a useful means to test a person's integrity. A fair person knows how to restrain themselves from being greedy for other people's property. The greed for other people's property is described in the Qur’an in many ways such as: lending with double or more interest, cheating in measuring, defrauding for property appropriation, merging the orphans' assets with one’s own to exchange their bad things for their good things... The person who divides the inheritance must be fair and righteous, as well as the one who witnesses the partition according to the testament, not being biased and distorting the truth. Likewise, businessmen must not use their superior economic power to oppress their business partners. Thus, fairness is a strict requirement of morality as it not only protects material rights, but also human dignity.

Justice is a value established on the unity between content and form, between what is deep in the soul and external manifestations. The Qur’an has repeatedly condemned “those who use their plausible tongues to appropriate other people's property, oppressing others under the guise of benevolence. Hypocrites in every situation always make excuses for themselves, seeking profit while not accepting the truth”.

To encourage believers to be fair and righteous, the Qur’an continues to develop the value of justice expressed in the self cause-effect relationship. People living every moment of the present are also creating their own lives, what they will become depends on the nature of their thinking, speaking and doing. Although humans are small before God and the vast universe, it is still a world - closed but lively. In every situation, people always tend to build their own world, and the law of cause and effect is an orientation for how people must build that world.

Thus, the Qur’an emphasizes the maturity of personality in moral life. Because a mature personality always knows how to take responsibility for what they have done. Morality in the Qur’an, in the form of religion - the revelation of Allah, has practiced and built the qualities of the people it directs. Although many verses in the Qur’an promote predestination, perhaps we should understand the concept of predestination in certain situations, contexts and intentions. Soldiers on the battlefield need to have faith in Allah's predestination for life and death to be brave and courageous in the face of danger; for those who are always competing to satisfy their mortal desires, it is necessary to understand predestination to live peacefully and know how to respect themselves and others...

The description of justice in the Qur’an not only meets the demands of the contemporary social context, but also participates in the value scale of humanity. an orderly society must operate on the basis of compliance with a common principle, that principle must be guaranteed to be fair, that is, it must protect the common interests of the community as well as each individual. Human dignity is witnessed in the light of justice, forcing each individual to respect others as well as their ownership, especially property.

There is no doubt that the concept of justice in the Qur’an contains many universal values. The Qur’an reminds every Muslim to always remember that they are the ones loved by Allah and given the complete truth. Therfore, they must become worthy of Allah's expectations placed on them; they must be the representations of ultimate truth, as well as bring it to those who are not aware of it. Allah wants believers to look up to Him out of love for Him to do everything on earth. And therefore, the prohibitive laws are not torture for humans, but they are a path of joy, through which believers seek happiness to its fullness.

Conclusion

Thus, the Qur’an has provided a system of ethical principles (including what should be done and what should not) in order to guide the Muslim community in general as well as each member of the community to perfect happiness. Accordingly, absolute - supernatural happiness depends on the steps taken on earth, and those moral standards are the guiding light. Similar to Judaism and Christianity, belief in Islam is not only communal (the shared belief of the whole community) but also personal conviction. And the Qur’an requires the life of faith in each individual to fully promote initiative with a free spirit, yet that freedom is only good when following the law of righteousness. The moral principles in the Qur’an, by regulating behavior in personal life as well as with others, did not only serve the requirements of the social situation on the Arabian Peninsula during the period, but also contained many ethical aspects consistent with the morality of humanity.

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