A considerable debate was carried on in classical Islam over two central and related questions of ethics.

A. A question of ontology: What is the nature of ethical value concepts such as the good and the just?

B. A question of epistemology: How can man know the presence and force of these concepts in particular situations? These are philosophical questions, and to some extent they were argued in terms of truths determinable directly by human intellect. But the debate was mainly conducted by Muslim theologians and jurists who did not always distinguish direct arguments from arguments on the corresponding questions of scriptural interpretation: what does the Qurʾān teach on the nature and knowledge of ethical value concepts? The present article attempts to answer the latter questions only, by a study of the Qurʾān in its own context.

As a framework for study it will be useful to set forth in schematic form those answers to the two questions which may be considered historically possible in the age of the Qurʾān, leaving out many modern ethical theories which do not satisfy this condition. (‘Right’ will be taken here as the standard concept, but we shall be dealing also with ‘just’, ‘good’, ‘wrong’, ‘unjust’, ‘evil’.)