Prayer congregations, best medium to reform society

Chitral– All religious congregations specially prayer congregations can be an extremely effective medium for reforming the society. Unfortunately such a potent platform is restricted to the matters of prayers and rituals only and daily life affairs are not touched upon at all. At the time of our Holy Prophet (PBUH) mosques were used not only for prayers but also acted as a forum for discussing everyday life affairs.

Today we see that Muslims specially in Pakistan are fast sliding down on the graph of ethics and character strength index. Social evils like telling lies, cheating, hypocrisy, dishonesty, bribery, adulteration of foodstuff and medicines are on an alarming rise and the average muslim commits these sins on the hope that such sins will be forgiven by Allah. The prayer congregations which are held five times a day can be an excellent platform to teach the people that such sins as mentioned above shall not be forgiven by Allah as they are sins towards ‘huqooq ul ibaad’ and Allah Almighty has clearly mentioned in the Holy ?Quran that he shall not forgive such sins.

If prayer forums are utilized by qualified prayer leaders who besides leading prayers also indoctrinate people during each prayers about their social responsibilities like punctuality, cleanliness, dutifulness, kindness, truthfulness and the like, there is no reason that Muslims can not revert back to once again being an honest and reliable community. .. CN report, 02 Sep 2017.

3 thoughts on “Prayer congregations, best medium to reform society

  1. You could not be more right. Wish there were people at the helm of affairs who could have this implemented without delay. Thank you for addressing such an important issue and making such a wise suggestion.

  2. CN has taken up a highly relevant topic reflecting on the social problems while suggesting the remedy like using the sacred forum of prayer congregations for discussion and seeking solutions to such issues. In this regards the earlier two editorials published in CN (Segregation of Morality from Religion – August 26, 2009 and “Why are Muslims financially corrupt” – July 8, 2014) are of immense significance. When the attitude of a believer is like “robbery is my profession while prayers is my obligation” then how one can imagine of a peaceful social order in the society? Such a society can only dream of sustainable peace and order but hardly being able to translate it into reality. Quoting from your earlier writing, “followers of other religions, or even those who do not believe in any religion, do observe the universal ethics of honesty and therefore are better in this regard”.

  3. The editor of CN always pick up contemporary serious issues and deal with it in a rational way. Among the social institutions, religious institution used to be the most effective way to control human behavior, if practiced in a pure and positive manner. Currently, it is difficult to find ‘pure Islam’ anywhere in the Muslim world since it is infused so deeply with politics. Religious politics like capitalism is an industry where there is no regulation and accountability, so it most often exploits with impunity. And values are highly commercialized, where local preachers to global level religious leaders need money for exchange of their services. Reverting back is possible but in a different way- having them maintain a constructive curriculum while giving them a sustained salary; KPK is working on that. Another way is to keep the religious matters personal and make the civil law stronger to bring civility, justice and fairness in the society.

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