Values Are Not What We Claim, They Are What We Live

By Dr. Edrees Bridges, D.Min., APBCC-FR

Imam, House of Beautiful Patience- Baytul Sabr Jameel

Before you read further, pause for a moment and ask yourself:

When was the last time my values cost me something real, time, comfort, reputation, or certainty?

We speak often about values.

We say we value justice, mercy, faith, family, truth, dignity. These words are familiar. They appear in khutbahs, sermons, conversations, mission statements, and social media posts. But the Qur’an invites us to pause and ask a harder question:

What do we actually mean when we say we value something?

In everyday life, value carries many meanings. It can mean importance or worth. It can mean esteem, valuing someone’s voice or presence. It can also mean cost, what something requires of us, what it demands we give up.

Often, what we truly value is not revealed by our language, but by our behavior. It is revealed by what we protect, what we sacrifice for, and what we choose when the cost is real.

The Qur’an is remarkably honest about this tension. It reminds us that a person may love something that is harmful and dislike something that is beneficial. In other words, desire is not the same as goodness. Preference is not the same as truth.

This is why the Qur’an does not treat values as personal preferences. It treats them as part of a moral order.

Allah is described as Rabb al-ʿĀlamīn, Lord of the worlds, not only worlds of people and places, but worlds of meaning. Moral life is not random. Justice is not detachable from mercy. Truth cannot exist without integrity. Compassion without restraint becomes harm.

Values, in the Qur’anic vision, belong together.

This becomes clear in one of the most comprehensive descriptions of righteousness in the Qur’an, Surah al-Baqarah, verse 177. Righteousness is not reduced to outward direction, ritual orientation, or symbolic identity. Instead, it is described as alignment.

Belief aligned with action.

Action aligned with responsibility.

Responsibility sustained under pressure.

Faith is named, but so is generosity. Worship is mentioned, but so is care for the vulnerable. Promises matter. Patience in hardship matters. Integrity in times of fear matters.

What emerges is not a list of virtues, but a moral pattern.

From this perspective, values are judged by observance. Not by slogans. Not by claims. But by coherence between what we say we believe and how we live.

The Qur’an reinforces this by reminding us that the human being is created in the best form or stature. This does not only speak to physical creation, but to moral capacity. Human beings are endowed with discernment, will, responsibility, and awareness. These capacities make ethical life possible, and accountability meaningful.

Values matter because we are capable of bearing them.

The Qur’an also recognizes that moral clarity is not confined to one community. It acknowledges people of devotion and integrity among the People of the Book, those who stand in prayer, who rise at night in reverence, who restrain harm and pursue what is right.

This recognition does not erase difference. It affirms that values are confirmed not merely by identity, but by lived moral orientation.

For us, this invites a necessary self-examination.

Do the values we claim align with the moral good? And do they show up in how we treat others, especially when it costs us something?

In relationships, in leadership, in disagreement, in moments of fear or anger, values are not theoretical. They are choices. They are tested alignments.

The Qur’an does not offer us disconnected virtues. It offers a moral system.

Belief is paired with action.

Action is evaluated by intention.

Intention is accountable to consequence.

To elevate one value while neglecting others is to fracture the system itself.

So here is the question to carry with you this week:

What is one value you claim to hold that you can intentionally practice in a concrete way, in a conversation, a decision, or an act of restraint or generosity, even if it costs you comfort or certainty?

Because in the end, values are not what we admire.

They are what we practice.