Nighat Leghari
A Quranic segment reads, “and then the sent against you an epidemic from above and from the below, and Allah sees whatever you do (Al Azhab). Allah seized them on account of their sins and there was none to save them from Allah. Surely Allah is knowing wise. When an event eventuates there is nothing to prevent its happenings (Al Monim). From the dawn of the human society mankind is facing catastrophes which were taken as the Allah’s wrath but tragic enough that human society did not conceive any wisdom or lessons from it. Epidemics have always been taken as retribution by the wise people. Abiding by the divine commands was the full cherished goal for Muslims but they deviated this goal and faced many agonies in the world which ended their peace of mind. Corona is a signal and a bell of alarm to mankind all over but every country is concentrating to invent a medical treatment for eradication but not a medicine to provide to their morbid souls and attitudes towards life and its affairs. The Quran reads, “There comes to you a light through a very clear holy book from Allah and he who sent the apostals with the guidance and religion of truth and he who follows his light will be most successful.
If we study deeply, our religious services play a very powerful role in our lives and deliver us a corporeal and spiritual health. In Namaz, our body postures and feeling of standing present before a complete power gives us the satisfaction of harmony between this power and His man, the prayer is a petition concerning any of our problems and it plays the role of satisfaction and solution to our matters. Dua is a petition concerning any of our matter and agony. Roza is not merely a name of starvation, it provides the man a strength to face any unseen situation in life, it creates a deep harmony between Allah and His men. Hajj brings people of different countries together and their culture, it removes the feelings of isolation and seclusion from our hearts. Zakat is very crucial injunction of Islam and it has given a very vast and comprehensive elaboration. Tragical enough that all the divine commands fixed on us are reduced to the external side and we did not conceive any wisdom of them. Quran is the gateway to all guidance for the human beings and perfect body of teachings but we reduced this heavenly book only to a lyrical recitation (without understanding its meanings), Namaz is reduced to a prayer rug, Roza is taken as an exercise of dieting, Hajj as an excursion trip and Zakat is considered as a show off and demonstration of one’s riches.
Our Ulema have brought more disappointments to the Islamic social set-up by reducing the religion only to an outdated set of rituals to which our masses are historically addicted. Ulema have made the religion merely a study subject of the Madaris, they have introduced Islamic injunctions as the concept of doctrine of the necessity. In the few past years Islam has become a market commodity at the hands of a few so-called religious leaders. Then the parents of the younger generation have played a role to detach them from religion. Their high level pre-occupations of temporal life, temptations of various types overpowered them so much so that they have no time with them to introduce their children with the religion and its commands, consequently the younger generation has become extremist, aggressive and restless and they have been paralyzed in their all abilities. Lust and lie have become their identification. The daylight fact is this if we abide by the divine commands fixed on us, we can attain complete peace of mind and all pleasures. Islam does not favor casting away the world, it gives all the opportunities to avail all variety of pleasures within the circle of which Allah has drawn for His men. Islamic rules and regulations have a complete harmony with the nature of the man and its environments. If we build our life on truth, kindness, sacrifice, justice and brotherhood no morbidity of spiritual or corporeal can overpower us. Submission to Allah is beauty, goodness, spirituality, piety, humility and servitude. A man who believes in the powers of acting upon the divine commands regards the world as an orderly system and feels a sense of security individually. The ultimate spiritual basis in life possesses internal principles to regulate our life and give a foot holding in the world of perpetual changes. A truthful life never makes us morbid corporally and spiritually.
—The writer is freelance senior columnist, based in Multan.
