Islam - Its Meaning for Modern Man — Page 235
235 The lowest grade of vice is conduct that causes injury to others; for instance, all trespass against the person, property, interests, or honour of a fellow being. Most of these are crimes; the rest are civil wrongs and are punishable or remediable as such; all of them are moral offences. Legal effort at the regulation of human relations exhausts itself at that level. It is only moral effort that can carry the matter further. The next step in moral development is to avoid all conduct which, though not amounting to trespass and causing injury, would occasion annoyance to others and would offend their feelings. Examples of this are bad manners and various other kinds of social misbehaviour. These two classes of evil are manifested in external action, but the source of all evil is the mind, where evil designs are initially harboured and later issue into action. The third prohibition relates to all such thoughts and designs. It is only when these are controlled and barred that a person safeguards himself completely against evil. Similarly, three grades of virtue or righteous action are prescribed. The first (lowest) is described as equity, or equitable dealing. This means to do good equal to the good one receives from others; furthermore, it means that when one suffers a wrong, one should not impose, or insist upon the imposition of, a penalty in excess of the wrong suffered. This lowest standard of virtue finds expression in what is