Abstract
The Role of Religious Symbols and Characters in Character Building: Kaaba Example
Religion plays a rather essential role in the construction, continuation and justification
of semantic world of individuals and societies. Moreover, religion has a feature of
providing norms of moral behavior and construction of ethical character. The religion of
Islam provided a significant contribution in the formation of norms of moral action and
ethical character of person and society thanks to faith, worship and moral values.
In the construction of semantic world of individuals and societies and its later
emergence in the form of moral action religious symbols has a unique place. The influence
of temple symbols in the construction of moral character has been long mentioned in all
religions. Among the temple symbols Kaaba has a distinct and special place. The influence
of the House of Allah, that all wealthy and healthy Muslims must circumambulate, in the
character formation and transformation of the moral values into action is stated in the
97th verse of Sura of Maide in the Koran as follows: “Allah hath appointed the Ka'bah,
the Sacred House, material and spiritual recovery of the people, and the Sacred Month
and the offerings and the garlands. That is so that ye may know that Allah knoweth
whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and that Allah is Knower of all
things.” The intention of the term “material and spiritual recovery of the people” stated
in this verse is the construction of moral character according to the Islamic discipline
and then the transformation of the character norms into the action and practice in the
social life. When viewed from this aspect it will be seen that Kaaba is an effective symbol
in the enrichment of contents of religious ethical capital and in the formation of moral
character construction.
Keywords
Moral Action, Character, Symbol, Religious Symbol, Kaaba, Temple, Golden Ratio.
