Quran Lays Great Stress on Moral Values and Social Cohesion
By New Age Islam Staff Writer
1 July 2024
The Quran Teaches
Citizens To Avoid Confrontation.
Main Points:
1. Islam grants personal freedom to citizens.
2. The Quran promotes humility and
righteousness.
3. The Quran ensures citizens right to privacy.
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Today We Witness A
Lot Of Violence And Confrontation In Islamic Countries And Muslim Societies
Muslims indulge in sectarian violence, killing of innocent
people in the name of religion or sect and suffer from avarice, greed,
corruption and all other social evils. All these evils and moral vices were
also present in the pre-Islam Arab society. They indulged in bloodshed,
corruption, greed, licentiousness and other social evils. In other words,
today's Muslim society is no different from the pre-Islam Arab society except
the fact that the Muslims today display outer religiosity while being devoid of
inner piety. They offer prayers, do fasting in Ramzan, make animal sacrifices
on Eid-al-Adha and perform hajj.
Going by the observance of religious duties, a Muslim
performs all religious duties but when we observe the social behaviour and
moral standards of the Muslims, we find that they are worse than other
religious communities. Other religious communities do not kill themselves
whereas Muslims declare each other heretics and worthy to be killed though
Muslims claim that they are the best Ummah
raised on the earth.
The Muslim societies are one of the most corrupt societies
in the world. Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan and some African Muslim countries feature
high on corruption index. Greed, jealousy, backbiting and lack of social
etiquette marks the Muslim society today. This is because the Muslims have laid
more stress on rituals and dogma and given less importance to social behaviour
and moral values on which the Quran lays great stress in order to create an
environment of love, mutual respect, non-violence, communal harmony and peace.
The Quran is full of verses preaching humility, harmony,
service to mankind and treating human beings with love, care and respect. On
the contrary, the Muslims have ignored the Quranic teachings on social
behaviour and moral values and have concentrated on the contextual war verses
that were revealed during the initial period of Islam. These war verses do not
form the core of the Quran but the verses that preach universal brotherhood,
love and compassion and outline the true behaviour of the Muslims in a
multi-religious and multi-cultural society.
Here are some of the social and moral principles of the
Quran for a peaceful and harmonious society that have largely been ignored and
downplayed by the Muslims.
The most important quality that the Quran wants Muslims to
nurture among themselves is humility. A true Muslim will be humble, soft-
spoken and respectful. He will not have arrogance. A Muslim should be humility
and politeness personified. A true believer is one whose words and actions
never hurt anyone. The Quran says:
"And hold your
hands down for those believers who are with you."(Al Sho'ra":
215)
A true believer does not take undue pride and is not
arrogant. The Quran asks Muslims to discard such behaviour:
"And do not strut
about in the land for you can neither cleave the earth nor attain the height of
the mountains."(Bani Israel: 37)
The Quran teaches Muslims to greet every one with an
endearing smile and keep their voice low. Again, not being on speaking terms
with people on account of petty disputes is an uncivilised and unethical
attitude that harms the harmony and unity of the society. The Quran warns:
"And turn your
face not away from men with pride, nor walk in insolence through the earth.
Verily, Allah does not like each arrogant boaster. And be moderate in your
walking and lower your voice. Verily, the harshest of all voices is the voice
(braying) of the ass."(Luqman: 18-19)
The Quran grants right to privacy to every individual. The
modern society also does not permit intrusion into ones privacy. The Quran
forbids people from spying into others' private life. It says:
"It is not piety
that you enter the houses from the back but the piety is the quality of one who
fears Allah, so enter houses through their proper doors and fear Allah that you
may be successful."(Al Baqarah: 189)
The verse may suggest that the people in the pre-Islam Arab
society did not respect the privacy of others, not even the privacy of their
family members. They entered the houses through the back doors perhaps to catch
them unawares. It also speaks of the lack of trust among the family members.
The Quran disapproved such behaviour.
Another social evil of the modern society is the evil of
backbiting and whispering. It is generally observed that people backbite and
laugh at each other, and to prove them inferior, call them by derogatory names.
Such behaviour is strongly condemned by the Quran. Backbiting or ridiculing
someone is done due to enmity or jealousy. The Quran warns the Muslims against
this practice.
"O you who
believe! Let not a group scoff at another group, it may be that the latter are
better than the former, nor let women scoff at other women, it may be that the
latter are far better than the former, nor defame one another, nor insult one
another by nicknames."(Al Hujurat: 11)
There is another evil practice which is whispering. The
Quran has clear stand on whispering. It says that whispering is the act of
Satan.
"Secret counsels
are only from Satan, in order that he may cause grief to the believers. But he
cannot harm them in the least, except as Allah permits, and in Allah let the
believers put their trust."(Al Mujadilah: 10)
In modern times, social media is largely misused to spread
misinformation and rumours to cause strife and differences between individuals
and communities. In olden days, rumours were spread through word of mouth.
The Quran has taken this social practice seriously and has
warned people against the ill effects of fake news and rumour mongering through
social media and some unscrupulous TV channels. More often rumours and fake
news cause violent clashes that create lasting rifts between groups in a
society and disrupt peace and harmony. More often people add spice to the
rumours without verifying them. As a result, a petty issue is blown out of
proportion.
The Quran advises people not to believe and act upon rumours
blindly but verify them before taking any step. It is better to report the
matter to the authorities concerned
so that they can make proper inquiry into it. The Quran says:
"O you who believe!
if a rebellious evil person comes to you with a news, verify it, lest you harm
people in ignorance and afterwards you become regretful to what you have done.(Al
Hujurat:6)
The Quran says on yet another occasion:
"When there comes
to them some matter touching (public) safety or fear, they make it known (among
the people),if only they had referred it to the Messenger or to those charged
with authority among them, the proper investigators would have understood it
from them."(Al Nisa: 83)
Therefore, the Quran teaches societal behaviour and ethical
values to the members of the society so that the society remains united, and
harmony, peace and prosperity prevails.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islam-spiritualism/quran-moral-values-social-cohesion/d/132609
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