The tradition of Islamic ethical thought and Necip Fazıl Kısakürek's conception of the ideal youth

In the Quran and the Sunna, ethics, like the articles of faith, is a matter of persistent emphasis. Across the Islamic world, works on ethics/adab composed in tandem with social change (from treatises on zuhd (asceticism) and nasihat (admonition) to futuwwa manuals (futuwwatnames) and, especially, writings in philosophical ethics) have together given rise to a distinct tradition of Islamic ethical thought. From the early period through the classical age, this tradition makes visible the constitutive role of ethics for both individual perfection and social order; it links conceptual continuity with historical flexibility. The architecture of virtue, woven around intention (niyya), sincerity (ikhlas) and piety (taqwa), together with the quartet of cardinal virtues—wisdom (hikma), justice (adala), chastity/temperance (iffa), and courage (shajaa)—foregrounds the reform of the heart, self-discipline, social etiquette (adab al-muashara), and social justice. Grounded in a tawhid-centered vision of life, this tradition generates principles that hold personal purification and social responsibility together—measured, coherent, and action-oriented; thus it sustains continuity between the aims and the means of ethics and places character formation at the center. In the modern era—particularly in the Republic of Turkey—a contemporary articulation closely tied to this ground comes to the fore in Necip Fazıl Kısakürek's notion of the "ideal youth": awareness of tawhid, the ikhlas-taqwa balance, adherence to the Prophetic exemplar, responsibility fortified by justice and courage, a horizon of renewal (tajdid) and reform (islah), and the unity of heart–intellect–action converge into an "ethics of action." Thus, between Quran–Sunna ethics, the classical concepts of virtue, and Necip Fazıl Kısakürek's ideal, an integrated and systematic framework is established. Keywords: Islam, Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Necip F. Kisakurek, Virtues, Youth.