Growing Religiosity among Muslims Does Not Guarantee Growing Piety And Moral Virtues Among Muslims
By S.
Arshad, New Age Islam
23 March
2022
Without
Creating Pious Individuals, A Truly Islamic Society Cannot Be Built
Main
Points:
1. Social and
moral vices are rampant in Muslim societies.
2. Bribery,
food adulteration and dishonesty is rampant in Muslim society.
3. Starvation
claims many lives in Muslim countries.
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It has been
observed that in comparison to the 60s and 70s, religiosity among Muslims has
grown. Today more men and women follow religious practices like five times
prayers than fifty years ago. Young men in their teens or twenties offer five
times prayers, a recent phenomenon. Young students growing beard and going to
school or college wearing scull caps are also more visible these days. Earlier
the Muslim youth were not obsessed with their religious identity.
But during
the last twenty years, religiosity has grown among the common Muslims,
particularly among the young boys and girls. The Pew survey results also show
this. Today more young men attend five times prayers and it is not a phenomenon
seen in India or Pakistan only but in Western countries as well.
But despite
the growth in religiosity among the Muslims, growth in moral virtues and
internal piety is not seen among Muslims proportionately. On the contrary, we
see that moral vices and social evils have seen a rise in Muslim society.
Hatred, jealousy, avarice, dishonesty, bribery, adultery, use of intoxicants
like wine and drugs is rampant and gambling is rampant in Muslim societies.
The holy
prophet pbuh stressed on character building along with the spread of the
Quranic message of Tauheed (monotheism) during the initial years of his
Prophethood. He taught the believers the principles of a disciplined life and
to be good citizens of the society. He taught believers not to take or give
bribe, not to indulge in food adulteration, not to hurt the neighbours, not to
take undue pride, not to treat people rudely and to endure hardships with
equanimity. He also preached self-restraint and tolerance.
But the
Muslim society of the modern world is plagued with all the social evils and
despite the claim of the Muslims to be the best religious community, they
suffer from almost all the social and moral vices other communities suffer
from. The prediction of the holy prophet pbuh that in future the Muslims will
commit all the sins the Jews would.
Hadhrat
Bayazid Bustami was a great Sufi. A Jew revered him and often visited him and
spent hours with him. After Hadhrat Bayazid Bustami expired, the Jew would
visit his grave and sit at the grave for hours. Seeing his reverence and love
for the great sufi, the Muslims of the area once said to him," When you
have so much love and reverence for him, why don 't you adopt his religion
Islam."?
The Jew
replied, “The Islam he practised is not my cup of tea, and the Islam you
Muslims follow is not better than mine?”
Even those
who are religious in theory and practice are a small percent of the total
Muslim population. Majority of the Muslims are not aware of the Quranic
injunctions on dishonesty, food adulteration, mannerisms, treatment of
neighbours and travellers, treatment of elders and younger people and on social
evils like gambling, drug addiction etc.
The Quran
and hadiths have numerous verses and hadiths forbidding addiction to
intoxicants like wine and opium and other drugs.
But the
habit of drinking wine is common in Muslim neighbourhoods. Many uneducated
Muslim youth are drug addicts as drugs are easily available to them. This not
only causes domestic violence but also the family is ruined financially. A
drunkard or drug addict does not respect his family members or people of the
neighbourhood.
Food
adulteration is another social vice that is widespread among Muslims as well as
non-Muslim society. The Muslims did not set an example by not indulge in food
adulteration as they argue that food adulteration is entrenched in the entire
system. But in Muslim minority society they can abstain from it as much as
possible but it is seen that they are equal participants in this vice without
heeding their religious injunctions.
Good
treatment of the neighbours is another duty of the Muslims they ignore. A
Muslim cannot enjoy the blessings of God and his prophet pbuh unless he does
not show care and sympathy for his neighbours whether they are Muslims or
non-Muslims. During festivals they play music on high decibel causing trouble
to both Muslim neighbours.
Feeding the
poor of the neighbourhood is a collective duty of Muslims ordained in the Quran
and the Muslims have been warned of grave punishment in the Hereafter for
ignoring this injunction. But this injunction is largely ignored by even pious
Muslims. In the Muslim society many poor people starve but there is no
provision for feeding the hungry. A few years ago, a young man in Pakistan
snatched a pizza from a rich man who had come out with a pizza from a pizza
shop. He was hungry for two days and so could not suppress his hunger any more
when he saw pizza in the man's hand. He snatched it and tried to run away. But
the rich man raised an alarm and the passers-by caught him and beat him to
death.
Actually,
the responsibility to feed the hungry man lied with both the rich man who had
bought the pizza and with those passers-by who beat the hungry man to death.
But instead of realising their crime, they punished the victim.
During the
lockdown it was observed that on the one hand, a section of people helped the
helpless people and on the other hand, a section of people sold medicines and
oxygen cylinders at much higher prices. The Muslims were involved with
non-Muslims in this immoral practice. Particularly in Pakistan, black marketing
and hording medicines, and essential food items was rampant. A drug which was
rumoured to be effective in Covid-19 was sold in black market at Rs 1.25 lakh
though its actual price was only Rs ten thousand. Sugar and petroleum products
were also horded and black-marketed during that period.
These
social and moral vices are widespread in Muslim societies today though Muslims
are more religious today. The Muslim organisations pressurise the governments
of Muslim majority countries to impose Shariah rule and the heads of
governments claim that they will establish a caliphate or a state like the
state of Madina. They don’t realise that without creating pious and righteous
individuals, a state like Madina or a caliphate like the caliphate of rightly
guided Caliphs cannot be established.
----
S.
Arshad is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-society/religiosity-muslims-piety-moral-virtues-/d/126631
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