Religiosity and Morality Are Poles Asunder
By
Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
21
September 2022
“Informal Moral Policing, As In Certain
Countries, Has The Benefit Of Plausible Deniability."
From TOI, Sept. 21
Iran's
moral policing (Gasht-e-Ershad) is being criticised across the world for
its high-handed approach and attitude. This moral policing is nothing but
religious policing as all faiths, not just Islam, decide moral code and conduct
of their people and followers. In short, religion has hijacked morality. To be
religious is to be moral is a seriously flawed perception, so much so that old
Sanskrit lexicons define a Nastik (atheist) as someone who is: Dharmnindak,
Iishwarnindak, Vednindak and also NEETICHYUT (divorced from morality; Akhlaaq
Se Khaarij).
Morality
has nothing to do with religiosity. It (morality) is an individual's
conscientious behaviour. Morality is his or her understanding of what's good
and what's bad. In short, your precise discernment determines your rectitude
and moral uprightness.
A Tilakdhari,
devout priest in a temple worshipping his deity can rape and kill a helpless
woman, an ostensibly very 'spiritual' Christian priest masturbates while
listening to an unsuspecting woman's forbidden fantasy during the most stupid
practice of Confession (The Sacrament of Penance of Catholic Church) or a
venerable Maulvi gropes a boy's genitals and sodomises him, all in the
name of religion that has bestowed upon these 'holy' people the right to preach
and spread morality and chastity.
One's moral
behaviour cannot and shouldn't be judged by his appearance and ostensible
totems of sacred religious behaviour. When I was studying in a relatively
tolerant Iran, my atheism was never an issue and no Muslim ever called me an
immoral person. I still remember my History teacher Tariq Howeda's words, “Nobility
of character is the religion of the highest order. One needs nothing else”.
Unlike
today's Iran or any Muslim country, an individual's faith and his morality were
never mixed up. My Persian lady Professor always wore Sarees (she never wore
any other apparel in her whole life), never wore a veil, flaunted her cascading
Rapunzel-type hair, smoked in public, had a string of affairs and never
believed in Islam or any damn religion. But she was one of the best and nicest
humans I've ever come across in life. She sponsored higher studies of her
brilliant but poor students at Oxford, Cambridge and Ivy League Universities.
She herself studied and taught there. Even when she was dying of Cervix cancer
at a hospital in London, her only concern was that all her body parts must be
utilized and donated to the needy patients. She could be an 'immoral' woman
from an extremely restricted religious perspective and even a 'fallen' one
according to the devout, Quran and Hadees-quoting, nay parroting, Muslims. But
in a broader canvas, she was light years ahead of all the affected and
hypocritical Muslims.
This is
morality; life governed by conscience and not by any imaginary god, scripture
or prophet.
Moreover,
why should state, society or any bogus faith define an individual's ethics?
This is happening in today's ' Hindu ' India. Absolutely useless and indolent
lotus-eaters are defining a person's morality and his or her actions.
This is
uncalled-for. Yours truly has no religion and god. But he's forever conscious
of the pangs of his conscience and feels bad when he hurts someone even
unwittingly. That's his morality. He feels bad that he once called Mr Naseer
Ahmed as Na-sar and didn't use Mr before his name. This is morality that keeps
you abreast of your minutest transgressions and this needs no religion or god.
-----
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul
is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He
has contributed articles to world's premier publications in several languages
including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/religiosity-morality/d/127994
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