Reviving Societal Values: A Call to Action for Pakistan
Lessons from the Past
Allah Almighty has outlined several events of the near and distant past in The Quran about the perished nations who were involved in societal crimes. While the disobedience of the Prophets of Allah was a common reason, the societal crimes also included unethical and unnatural practices and even cheating in measurements. In this short article, certain ills and violations of Allah’s Good Orders will be reminded,
Ignoring Divine Warnings
Despite stern warnings from Allah that societies will perish if they do not adhere to societal values as ordained by Allah in The Quran, people from different races and at different times continue to ignore these warnings, either deliberately or out of ignorance. Interestingly, ignorance of Allah’s Directives about societal values is not pardonable anymore after these were revealed in The Quran.
Accountability and Knowledge
Allah mentions in The Quran that once the direction had arrived and the human being had been given the freedom to choose right and wrong, the issue of being ignorant has been settled. Likewise, the deliberate defaulters also will have no space for an argument about the violations of societal values and norms that have been repeatedly defined in The Quran.
Erosion of Societal Values
Patience, charity, forgiveness, and keeping promises are a few of the societal values that have simply vanished from our society. Present-day societies have a fair amount of knowledge about these fundamental values and norms as ordained by Allah, mainly due to the abundance of information sources.
Fundamental Values in Daily Life
Since these values relate to our daily living and lifestyles, these range from being righteous to equality, truthful to caring towards parents, neighbours, animals, women, and children, justice to rightful witnessing, honesty in doing business to fairness in inheritance distribution among the children. Every aspect of daily life has been deliberated upon in The Quran and clear directives are available for the people to practice regardless of religious affiliations, caste, and color.
Root Causes of Societal Violations
Unfortunately, the violations of the fundamental values which are similar to nearly all religions are deliberate and perhaps due to the very nature of humans: greed for power, selfishness, egoism, and unfairness.
Addressing Injustice
Without going too far away, let’s examine the ills of our society which are punishable as per the Quranic teachings. The first and perhaps the most disliked violation by Allah in our society is injustice (Al Quran 5: 8). Allah has insisted on the essentially of justice and fairness in society for the people to live with dignity and honor. Allah has laid great emphasis on the rightfulness of the witnesses when required for justice, even if it goes against your dear and near ones.
Weak Judicial System
If we look around we find that most of the societal ills relate to the gross violations of Allah’s Diktats on justice and fairness. There is little doubt and no justification for a weak judicial system which is rated at rock bottom in the global ranking. If only our judicial system starts to deliver justice to the needy, most societal ills will be taken care of. However, a sincere and dedicated effort will be needed to accomplish that goal from the position we are presently in. That does not mean that it is not doable.
The Importance of Fairness and Equality
While each societal value carries equal weight, fairness and equality also stand out like justice. Allah has directed you to be fair in your business dealings either with partners or customers. Everybody must be treated as equal regardless of caste and creed. An unequal treatment due to nepotism and personal interests will only earn the anger of Allah and no gains to the perpetrators.
Economic Inequality and Governance
Once again we need to look inward. The gap between rich and poor is increasing with every passing moment and hence the unequalness in society has reached an alarming level. The people seem to lose hope in the governance systems and the institutions that are responsible for looking after people’s daily affairs.
Bureaucracy and Judicial Reform
Like the judiciary, bureaucracy also needs to understand that they are public servants who get paid from the taxpayer’s money. However, the bureaucracy in Pakistan behaves like a master with every common Pakistani who reaches out to them to meet his/her legal requirements. Yet, bureaucracy will not change itself until the judiciary changes gears because the fear of punishment can bring changes in the attitude of the master.
Societal Care and Responsibilities
Likewise, due emphasis is given to the treatment of the parents, neighbors, children, women, and even the animals and plants, with the utmost care (Al Quran 7: 199, 17: 23). On the day of judgment, perhaps we will not be able to answer the questions related to such violations. Patience, charity, forgiveness, and keeping promises are a few of the societal values that have simply vanished from our society, thus causing discontent and disconnect among different segments of society..
Reflecting on Past Warnings
At the cost of repeating, it is necessary to highlight that Allah Almighty has outlined several events of the near and distant past in The Quran about the perished nations who were involved in societal crimes. While the disobedience of the Prophets of Allah was a common reason, the societal crimes also included unethical and unnatural practices and even cheating in measurements.
Forgetting the Golden Principles
The Islamic societies across the Muslim world soon forgot the golden principles due to which they had risen so quickly to defeat the great empires of the time and rule nearly half the world for over a thousand years.
Pakistan’s Societal Progress and Degeneration
Instead of pointing fingers at other states, let us have a look at the Pakistani society that has progressed for over seven decades. Although this is not enough period to evaluate societal rise and fall the area had been under Muslim rulers much longer than the new state of Pakistan. Unfortunately, societal degeneration in Pakistan has been much faster than in any other Islamic state. Since Pakistan was created in the name of Islam, it was widely expected that it would serve as a model state for the rest of the Islamic world. However, the same did not happen rather the opposite happened in every walk of life, unfortunately though.
Pakistan’s Current Standing
Societal degeneration in Pakistan has been much faster than in any other Islamic state. Today, Pakistan cannot serve as an example for any other Islamic society. Unfortunately, Pakistan ranks very low on all the international indices; Human Development Index, Human Rights Index, Judicial System Performance Index, Passport Ratings, etc.
Necessity for Major Reforms
The situation demands major reforms of the basics: the judicial system, the bureaucracy, the Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), Local Bodies Systems, Fiscal and financial management systems, the Governance system, the political system, the legislative system, the price control mechanism, the building authorities, the health management system, the education system, and perhaps every possible public system. The people of Pakistan deserve a lot better lifestyle than the one made available to them by this corruption-prone governance by the so-called elected bodies.
Tapping into Allah’s Blessings
Allah, The Almighty, has blessed this land with numerous opportunities and natural resources, however, the people at the helm of affairs have betrayed the people to be served. Perhaps the time has come to reverse the situation through controlled reforms. Since I am an enthusiastic optimist, I think it is doable without creating too many waves in society.
Judicial Leadership for Change
The judiciary should take the lead and provide speedy justice to all regardless of political affiliation and material strength. Once the judicial system starts to work, everything else will fall in line. LEAs will ensure that law and order are maintained, and bureaucracy will have to answer for its failure to provide services to the people of Pakistan. Unfortunately, public servants ignored Quaid’s directives that they must serve the people but they chose to become masters instead.
Building Confidence through Justice
Once justice becomes the norm of society, people will have greater confidence in the system. The political elite will find it difficult to continue with the loot and plunder of public money, and the political parties will have to follow their manifesto instead of hollow slogans. The people will also be more aware of their rights and demand actions related to their well-being.
Small Steps for Big Changes
Only small but focused steps can prove to be game-changers, like renovating schools, and health centers, cleaning and carpeting roads, orderly traffic, and price control. The next step should be to ensure merit-based selections in educational institutions and employment so that the brain drain can be controlled. This will help in building confidence among the people.
Promoting Core Islamic Values
Concurrently, promoting core values of Islam particularly patience, forgiveness, and keeping promises, so that the people return to live like a developed and progressive society. The corruption will have to be controlled to stop the economic drain so that the public money is spent on the projects necessary for development. The economic managers will have to revert to the golden era of 5-year development plans so that the country can be put on the right path again to be able to join the club of developed nations before it reaches 100 by 2047.
Role of Local Bodies and Governments
The local bodies must concentrate on the basics whereas the provincial governments should execute the planned schemes as per the development plans. At the federal level, the legislature should ensure that relevant laws are improved if required.