The Ethical Structure in Omani Society between Innate Disposition and Prophetic Guidance: A Study of the Value-Based and Political Discourse of Omani Delegations

Abstract

This study provides an expanded exploration of the concept of ethics through linguistic and terminological definitions, its sources in Islamic thought, and its interpretations in Western philosophy, while emphasizing its impact on the social and political structures of early Omani society. It demonstrates how Muslim scholars such as Ibn Miskawayh, al-Jurjānī, al-Fārābī, and Ibn Sīnā conceptualized ethics as innate dispositions or acquired habits rooted in faith and reason, while Western philosophers including Kant, Locke, Hume, John Stuart Mill, and William James approached ethics through frameworks of duty, rationality, utility, and pragmatism. The article further highlights the ethical manifestations embodied in the Omani delegations to the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which reflected values of hospitality, dialogue, unity, and prayers for the homeland. These delegations reveal an early political and moral consciousness that integrated religion, identity, and nationhood, showing that ethics in the Omani experience functioned not only as individual conduct but as a collective project reinforcing unity, security, and justice within a broader civilizational context.