Integrity
has been a hot discussion among philosopher, educated people, consumers,
employer and people from various field of knowledge. People are trying to
define integrity as it should be, but because of its abstractness people cannot
have an absolute meaning of it. As we all are aware that human being is
possessed a different level of understanding and they do perceive things differ
to one another. Thus, even genius person cannot give an absolute meaning for
term so called “INTEGRITY”.
Integrity according to
MacMillan dictionary is defined as the quality of always behaving according to
moral principles so that people respect and trust you. While, the Oxford
dictionary has viewed it as the quality of being honest and having strong moral
principles. Moreover, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has defined integrity
in various aspects which can help people to have a better understanding about
integrity. We start our discussion with the thorough explanation of integrity
cited on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as presented latter.
When used as a virtue term, ‘integrity’ refers to a quality of a
person's character; however, there are other uses of the term. One may speak of
the integrity of a wilderness region or an ecosystem, a computerized database,
a defense system, a work of art, and so on. When it is applied to objects,
integrity refers to the wholeness, intactness or purity of a thing—meanings
that are sometimes carried over when it is applied to people. A wilderness
region has integrity when it has not been corrupted by development or by the
side-effects of development, when it remains intact as wilderness. A database
maintains its integrity as long as it remains uncorrupted by error; a defense
system as long as it is not breached. A musical work might be said to have
integrity when its musical structure has a certain completeness that is not
intruded upon by uncoordinated, unrelated musical ideas; that is, when it
possesses a kind of musical wholeness, intactness and purity.
Integrity is also attributed to various parts or aspects of a
person's life. We speak of attributes such as professional, intellectual and
artistic integrity. However, the most philosophically important sense of the
term ‘integrity’ relates to general character. Philosophers have been
particularly concerned to understand what it is for a person to exhibit
integrity throughout life. Acting with integrity on some particularly important
occasion will, philosophically speaking, always be explained in terms of broader
features of a person's character and life. What is it to be a person of
integrity? Ordinary discourse about integrity involves two fundamental
intuitions: first, that integrity is primarily a formal relation one has to
oneself or between parts or aspects of one's self; and second, that integrity
is connected in an important way to acting morally, in other words, there are
some substantive or normative constraints on what it is to act with integrity.[1]
There is also an explanation related to integrity which has caught
my attention because of its uniqueness even it was a short definition of
integrity. The definition or the words was uttered by Yg. Bhg. LT.Gen. (B) Dato
Seri Abdul Ghani Abdul Aziz during his talk on IIUM Integrity Week with a title
of Integrity in Islam which he was saying that “Integrity is a building built in the heart of a person”. Even
there was other definitions cited by him, I more interested to have a thought
about the former meaning uttered by him. This definition of integrity has made
me to relate it with one of the hadith of our beloved Prophet narrated on the
authority of Umar bin al-Khatab states:-
“Actions are
judged by motives, so each man will have what he intended. Thus, he whose
migration was to Allah and His Messenger, his migration is to Allah and His
Messenger; but he whose migration was for some worldly thing he might gain, or
for a wife he might marry, his migration is to
that for which he migrated”[2]
As we are concerned, as a Muslim, motives
or intentions is something vital for us in doing everything. Before perform our
daily prayer, we have to double check our intentions because we do not want to
misplace our devotion towards others except ALLAH. Moreover, there are many
verses in Al-Quran which mentioned about the heart. As example in surah
Al-A’raf verse 179:
“Many
are the Jinns and men We have made for Hell: they have hearts wherewith they
understand not, eyes wherewith they see not, and ears wherewith they hear not.
They are like cattle- nay more misguided: for they are heedless (of warning)”
In my point of view, I recognized
that integrity is derived from one’s heart. If his heart is purified from
negative elements, there is surely a presence of integrity on one’s conduct/
behavior. If his heart is filled with negative elements, we could say that
there will be an absence of integrity. I would like to attempt on defining the
meaning of integrity. I would like to suggest that integrity is a state where
people behave accordance to Shariah’s principles and placed the two most
important sources that left behind by our Prophet at the top of everything.
They will always refer to these sources if there are any situations that they
cannot find the solution. Additionally, integrity is a subset to taqwa, which
means taqwa is more broaden and integrity is sum of some taqwa’s values.
I would like to interpret the
meaning of integrity from the conventional point of view which means to
describe a character or behavior of a person of acting in a good manner even
there is no one there to supervise or watch them. They have a high standard of
discipline and moral conduct to abstain themselves from committing or breaking
the rules. This definition best to describe that person who has integrity
valued his dignity as something they will not play with.
Everyone is trying to inculcate the integrity among them in an
organization or company. This essay is my attempt to discuss about the
integrity in university which we consider as a place to instill knowledge and
moral conduct of students. When we were in the secondary school, we were
encouraged by many people to further study in higher education institutions
such as public university, college and as well as private institutions.
Previously, I do not pay attention
on the integrity matters when I was a student in secondary school and before I
involved myself to various programme in the university. However, I am changing
my thinking behavior as I attended talks, conferences, observing the situations
internally and externally and sometimes I am trying to think differently from
others. These experiences are too valuable for me because they teach me how the
real life is all about.
University should be a place where
students acquire knowledge as well as a place to educate students about the
moral behavior and ethics which can build the good manners of behavior. In
Islamic perspective we assume the good manner of behavior is
akhlaq(ethics/morality). Akhlaq literally means a natural and innate
disposition or temper. It refers to a person’s moral character, his inner
state, nature and peculiar qualities or attributes. It also means morality and
ethics. Ethics is the study of human conduct, not as it is, but as it ought to
be.[3] Lack
of moral values may leads people to greed, corruption, mismanagement, bribery
and misuse of authority. University should be able to overcome these situations
from happening, but why these situations have been increasing recently? Is it
our university syllabuses have outdated? To whom we should place the blame on?
These questions have captured my interest to discuss in more detail.
Nowadays, many organizations,
institutions and other entities started to promoting everything which related
to integrity. I do appreciated the effort done by them, however, there is
something that make me want to criticize those who are shouting about integrity
but they are the one who are violating integrity concept. For example, I did
involve with one programme which has taught me that there are some people who still
do not understand the concept of integrity. I was in a bureau which responsible
in booking tent and preparation things. We requested and submit the form
requesting tents and preparation things before the programme commence, if I am
not mistaken one month before the programme. Then, in the week where our
programme, that is 2 or 3 days before we start our programme, we got a bad news
from the department which should supply us with the tents. They said that, the
tents have been given to others party whom organize the programme with the same
date as ours.
We have to find person who can
supply us with tents and we did find it but it costs us almost four thousand
Ringgit Malaysia. Based on this situation, we can see that, there are certain
people who do not practice integrity in their work. I do come out with three
assumptions related to the integrity on this situation.
Firstly, I assume that those people
are not doing their work as they should. Which means they love to do last
minute work and they did not check properly check upon accepted the request. If
they check it thoroughly, there will not be a redundant in requesting same
things.
Secondly, because lack of moral
behavior, they may misuse their authorities that has given to them. It is
possible to say that the other organizer has a good relationship with the upper
level from that department, thus they have given the priority to other
organizer besides us.
Thirdly, it may due from
miscommunication between the sender and the receiver about certain matters. If
this situation happens, it not only tarnish the integrity concept but also
affected the level of confident and people’s perception. Even though we could
argue that the miscommunication is not related to our topic of discussion, its
effect later on will show that we have lack of integrity.
These are only my assumptions and
how I view this situation. These assumptions are not as a tool to condemn those
staffs or whosoever. I hope my view is perceived positively rather than
negatively. There are many corruptions happening in organizations which if we
do not fight today will become a tradition for the future generation.
To sum up, I would like to express
my opinion regarding this matters, most of university still lack of integrity
in its management and the authorities who should enforce integrity are fear to
fight those who break the integrity concept due to afraid of losing their
position, afraid of being sued and so forth. I urged those who are responsible
on integrity matters should be stricter in carrying it because I see there is a
need to combat and make people valued integrity more than anything as well as
strengthen the taqwa in Muslim community.
Prepared
by:
MOHD
HAFIZULLAH BIN ABU BAKAR
BACHELOR
OF ECONOMICS
INTERNATIONAL
ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA
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