It’s easy to hold someone responsible for the problems in a society but rarely do people bother to understand the root cause. Since 9/11, every person who wears beard looks suspicious. In fact, we regularly come across incidents of violence or suicide attacks by people with similar appearance which makes them look suspicious to most of us. But have we ever tried to understand the ‘beginning of the problem’?
Let me begin with a very simple example. Stop at any traffic intersection, wait for the traffic light to turn red and observe the appearance of majority of traffic law violators. I’m quite sure that findings would be quite closer to mine, means in most of the cases, it is bearded people who never care for the traffic laws. Now it may sound like a stereotype but this is what I have observed. For quite some time, I used to view them as uncivilized people but then with time, I started to think like ‘why they do it most of the time?’ after all they are the same people who wait for Pesh Imaam (Prayer Leader) to signal the beginning of namaz (Prayer), so why they don’t wait here for the light to turn green? Why is that?
Sometimes when I have to perform wuzu (ablution) in mosque, I notice that the lavatory is in a very bad shape with mud all around and it is same almost in every mosque. I’ve seen mosques outside Pakistan also and they’re no different when it comes to this part. As mentioned once by Javed Chauhdry, a prominent columnist of daily Express, that restrooms are perhaps the dirtiest place in mosques, not just in Pakistan but everywhere. Every Muslim must have heard the Hadith (Saying of Prophet Muhammad) in which he says, ‘Cleanliness is half of faith.’ Then why is that his followers never pay heed to this saying of him?
Another odd thing is the behavior of the students of these seminaries. Children, everywhere, are known for their playful nature and this can be seen outside schools (regardless of locality). Once free from school, they do fun before moving towards their vehicles, vans or homes. Rarely they are found doing unpleasant things but scenes of seminaries students kicking or throwing stones at each other is a common sight outside most of the seminaries. This violent attitude which may look unimportant to some readers but it means a lot for me because violence only grows up with time if not tackled properly.
I know and have met with groups of maulanas who preach people about Islam. I’ve listened to preachers from various sects also but none of them inspired me at all because whatever they say seems so scripted with least possibility of inspiring any listener. They don’t even let you to ask questions.
Is it because of some bias that I view everything of religious people as bad or is there something seriously wrong with them?
In my view, most of the people with an inclination towards religion don’t follow laws because they are never preached by their prayer leader to do so. I hope that readers would agree that Friday sermons in Pakistani mosques (of any sect) cover nothing but the difference between hell and heaven. People are never told about the importance of traffic laws. They are never advised to not to spit on roads and footpaths, not to erode beauty of the country with wall chalking, not to use illegal electricity. Out of the last six or seven Friday sermons that I’ve attended, none of them covered any of the above mentioned issues. Though I don’t remember all the topics covered in those sermons but most of them begin with praising prophets and ends on blessings of Allah. Similarly, people are never told to keep the ablution area or lavatory clean. Students of seminaries are never taught to act in a civilized way. Preachers are never thought to preach new aspects of religion every time. They don’t know the importance of questions perhaps because they’re not allowed to question anything in madarssahs.
It seems that our religious scholars have never thought of Islam beyond namaz (prayer), roza (fasting) and hajj. They need to realize their power and that how this power can be utilized to bring a positive change in our society. Close your eyes for a while and think of a Pakistan where traffic laws are obeyed, where walls are neat and clean, where no one uses illegal electricity, where toilets of mosques are as neat and clean as of any mall, where students of seminaries are as civilized as of any reputable school.
Unfortunately we never thought about utilizing the power of mosque in a positive way!
Ok my brother a very very special and very true post, i liked it very much. My brother, this is a kind of illiteracy in the fully environment of literacy…Our Prophet’s sayings are alhamdolillah cent percent true, but we all don’t follow, not only the students of a madrassah but we all Muslims are not following it. Now the westerners are ruling us, we are made for to be ruled by any one in this world, and if we don’t change our attitude we will be ruled for the next centuries too.
My brother, you are cent percent right, but we should know our position as a Muslim, we should look to our history what our founders and our elders have done, they ruled the whole world, but now we are being ruled by the world. If we want our position back, we should act on our Prophet’s sayings. In which the discipline and cleanness is on the top priority. By cleanness it is not meant to keep your appearance clean, but as well as keep your heart and mind clean too. And the discipline and hard work is the key to success. And inshallah we will not be in the darkness for always, we Pakistani as Muslims are about to change the world…Inshallah
I disagree with your opinion about the the people who you think are responsible for all the law lessness and “uncivilized” atttitude. first of all check the ratio of the people (bearded) in our society, you will find them fewer. But on signal you will notice that a single one violates the signal and majority of the rest follow and not only this but when you keeps your car steady and wait for the signal, it has now become obvious that that your behind one horns on you and make you feel like you are stupid one who is not only wasting his time but else’s too. So if I assume that you are right with your opinion than i should find very few people violating signal, as I know bearded people are not the majority. Similarly you can also find women with the same behaviour.
Secondly you talked about lavatories I agree with you that this is really a problem but unfortuanetly, lavatories found in markets, universities are not so different then the lavatories associated with the Masajid. how ever these lavaotries are acting like the public toilet which they should not be and the reason behind this situation is very simple your muncipality is not playing its role to povide such facilty of public toilets for people.
You have also talked about seminaries, I can not say about the behaviour of those students as I have never observed so closely, but unfortunately in previuos few days what every one has observed from the news, several incidents have taken place in which students of modern or regular educational system have badly attacked the tortured their teacher who was stopping them from cheating during exams. And shame thing is that this not a single incidents several incidents have been reported in last board examinations. Also you can see the calshes among the students parties in the most renowned universities and colleges, which results even in the killings of students.
lastly TV channels are the most influencing media now a days, every one can answer what people listen watch and follow more, Is it Friday’s sermon or News channel, TV drama’s, morning shows etc ?. we can see the role of our electronic media, continously projecting the violence based stories, re-enactments of stories full of brutality, making fun of serious political issues and causing hopelessness.
In fact this attitude disscussed in the article is a collective problem of our society not a single section is responsible for this. We should find our own role in the society, Is it effective or affective for the society? for example if we are aware of bad situation of lavatory in our masjid why should not we bring a sweeper to the masjid on our own. Think on it.