Chitral .. As Muslims obliged to follow our religious preachers and sermon givers, we are being subjected to a grave misconception that whatever act of sin we commit (particularly sins related to financial matters) can be washed off by offering a certain prayer or dua or ritual. Because of this concept we are financially corrupt from top to bottom, from the outside to the core.
Our Presidents and Prime ministers have been accused of corruption. Those who have accused them and later themselves became Presidents or Prime minsters have themselves indulged in corruption, our ministers, our bureaucrats and even our military officers (who got the chance) have all turned up corrupt. Coming down the ladder of social setup even the tehsildar, patwari, chaprasi and chowkidar all infallibly rise to their own level of corruption
Why does this happen? ?It is because we are taught and preached that sins particularly sins related to financial matters that also involves lieying, cheating, stealing, forgery, bribing etc etc are all pardonable offences.
The dilemma of our mindset can be explained fully by the following small snippet:
‘A man direly wanted a bicycle so he prayed and prayed to God to give him a bicycle, When his prayer did not materialse he stole someone’s bicycle and prayed to God to forgive him’.
This is exactly the mindset we are living our lives with. How can we improve without changing this mindset. No NABs, JITs, Anti corruption institutions, Martial Laws, can change this mindset .. only the man on the pulpit and the preacher on TV who is assigned to tell us the ‘word of God’ can do the trick, but for that he needs to clarify this matter in his own mind first. .. CN report, 26 Sep 2017.
6 thoughts on “Why and how are we being misled?”
Thought provoking. Good attempt. But that ” man on the pulpet” in our country also fits into the list of corrupt people you have shown in your report. Moral ethics has to be taught at an early age and at home. It can only be done by parents through their own personal example and not just by talk. Curriculums in schools can then take it up from there. Of course all this can only be done in the long term. In the short term society must continue to condemn corruption , like Chitral News is doing, and expose people among us who are indulging in and benefitting from corrupt practices. We should start by not visiting the homes of such people and neither salaam them or acknowledge their salaam. Presently the opposite is happening.
I am glad to say that i have found that here in Chitral our people ( including our local officials) are generally quite different from the rest of our country and are not as greedy and corrupt. Thank God for that.
I appreciate Chitral News for its incessant efforts to create awareness among the educated segment of society regarding the evil practices eroding the moral fibre of our society. This, in fact, is a great crusade CN is waging against those elements who are bereft of morality and consider all kinds of evil methods valid to achieve their objective knowing fully well that the end does not justify the means.
As rightly pointed out, the man on the pulpit exerts large influence on the audience but unluckily, teaching morality, honesty, truthfulness and fair and square dealing does not find priority in the sermon of the preacher. He lays more emphasis on peripheral issues and ignores those fundamentals which have a great bearing on our practical life. His focus is always on how to offer prayers and the quantification of rewards it carries but omits the more important aspect of prayers which is related to the practical life of a Muslim. The basic reason for this anomaly is that we have failed to produce genuine religious preachers and imams (prayer leaders) with an in-depth knowledge of the Quran and Sunnah. When you allow every Tom, Dick and Harry with a turban on his head to assume the role of a preacher, it comes as a fait accompli.
Well put. If our Mosque pulpits are used to fight against corruption and other social evils it will result in tremendous improvement in social affairs of the society. Unfortunately it does not happen and it is big tragedy that our religious leaders and preachers do nothing against social evils. If our society is corruption and social evils are rising it is due to weakness of our religious institutions, because primary goal of religious institutions is social reform in the society.
I feel your comments are unbalanced and do not accurately portray the correct Islamic stance and that propagated by our scholars in relation to financial misconduct. The islamic tradition clearly lays out that sins are of two types. The first is when man transgressess the rights of his lord and master Allah. The second is when man wrongs his fellow creation. Both require one to seek pardon and forgiveness from Allah. However the second also requires rectification of the issue with your fellow men whom you have wronged. Without which there is no forgiveness. This is an essential point that seems yet to have fallen on your ears.
Lastly i find it laughable that we are ready to apportion all blame for the many problems in our country to the man on the pulpit yet we seldom call for true investment ( both financial and human capital) in this area. We believe he holds the key to solve all issues yet how many of us strive to see our sons take that path and bear that mantle of responsibility.
Unfortunately I feel your objection to the post is imbalanced. You say that a man committing financial sin (sin against huqooq ul Ibaad) should first ask pardon from Allah and then from the person wronged, whereas Allah Almighty has clearly mentioned in the Holy Quran that He shall not forgive sin against huqooq ul Ibaad. The whole problem is here. We should not bank on Allah Almighty to forgive our sins committed deliberately against huqooq ul Ibaad in which financial corruption sits high with muslims these days.
If our Ulema had sermoned against corruption this would not be the state of affairs. I have attended countless Jumma sermons, tableeghi ijtimaas and heard numerous TV lectures by ulema but never heard them taking corruption head on. At best they would make a fleeting remark about it and then quickly revert to the stories of Qasas Al Anbia or evils of consuming alcohol or dancing or scare us of going to hell for not offering prayers. No doubt prayers is the basic mandatory obligation for a muslim but falls in the category of Huqooq Allah and any shortfall in prayers can be pardoned by Allah Almighty as Allah Almighty has said, but shortfall in financial honesty shall not be pardoned by Allah. Simple as that, What is there to argue? no rocket science here.
Regarding the status of Molvis, CN has always advocated that the man on the pulpit is the most important member of our society and so must be given due respect and provided due financial security and then the correct narrative of Islam be extracted from him through guidance and regimentation, instead of leaving the person with limited knowledge (in most cases) to go out at tangents whenever he pleases.
We must always look at the spirit of things (niat). Alhamdulillah we are all here to defend Islam and cannot assign this task to a few only. We must first look thoroughly at what is being said and then object to it if warranted..
It is a good article. Yes, we see lots of corruption in our society. The people who have money have more respect as compared to our scholars. People have started worshiping money instead of worshiping Allah. Common public is like cattle led by their corrupt leaders. We cannot blame only religious scholars for it. The day Jammat-e-Tabligh became popular in the country the term ?misconception that whatever act of sin we commit (particularly sins related to financial matters) can be washed off by offering a certain prayer or dua or ritual? also became popular in our society. Government servants do corruption and go for Tableegh without taking unpaid vacation. Tammat-e-Tableegh trained people in making their appearance according to Sunah rather than spiritual development and true message of Islam. Reading about our religion is also part of our Ibadah but we never read Quran and Sunah. We should blame ourselves for blindly following the corrupt leaders and uneducated Tableeghis. Please read a research book about Jammat-e-Tableegh ?The JAMAAT TABLEEGH and the Deobandis? A critical Analysis of their Beliefs, Books, and Dawah Published by AHYA Multi-Media http://www.ahya.org