Morality in Japan and Pakistan
AS (Focal Person) of the Pakistan-Japan Cultural Association Islamabad engaged in an informal discourse on the subject of ‘Morality and Japan’ arranged by the Japan chapter at the National University of Modern Languages in collaboration with Pakistan-Japan Cultural Association Islamabad, and the speaker focused on Honesty, Truthfulness and Courtesy as the core values of the country highlighting the importance the Japanese society attached to the mother’s lap as the nursery in upbringing of the child, I sat among his audience pondering with a sense of pain, shame and consternation over the current shape and conduct of my own society.
Shame and pain because, Pakistan was born as an Islamic Welfare State which was supposed to draw inspiration from the Quran; the Holy Scripture meant to guide the entire mankind, but it is ironical that most other developed nations today are following its code of morality and not Pakistan which was blissfully drifting away from it.
As Ansaar Abbasi, a noted columnist rightly put it in his column in an Urdu Daily the other day, morality in Pakistan had come to such a pass that whenever someone reminded the ruling elite among the Government as well as the Opposition and the so-called liberated among the Pakistani society comprising the mothers, educators, litterateurs and the media, about drifting away from the code of life provided by the Holy Book, they are accused of hedging behind religion; as if man-made idioms and interpretation of morality were more sacrosanct compared to what had been divinely passed on.
No wonder every now and then, one witnesses Bills moved in Parliament over issues which are unambiguously settled by the Supreme code of life.
When the speaker revealed that the Japanese mother valued the cradle of the child and did not lose sight of her newborn until it was five years of age during which time she concentrated upon inculcating in him/her the core values of honesty, truthfulness and Courtesy, reference to Sura al-Ahqaaf mirrored across my mind where in eulogy of the mother, the Quran says that she held you unto her bosom for 30 months since your conception, which means nine months of your formation in her womb and 21 months of your lactation on the mother’s milk.
Such was the sanctity of the mother’s milk that even in adversity, Nature made it possible for Moses the Prophet, to be fed on his mother’s milk and be in her care.
How many mothers in Pakistan today follow the guideline as a matter of duty if not faith, is a dismal story as not only the so-called emancipated class fights shy of breastfeeding their child, but even those in the middle and lower classes are seen feeding them on powdered or animal milk.
This not only deprives the child of the inherent strength of the mother’s milk but exposes the infants to external bacteria making them more vulnerable to disease.
Father being the principal bread-earner and supposed to be out for, or in search of work, upbringing and care of the toddler indeed was designed to be left to the mother.
But educated and figure-conscious mothers using the excuse of being working women have a tendency to consign their child while still in the cradle to Day-care Centres, and get rid of them to Nurseries the moment they attain the age of 30 months, oblivious of the environment in which it was likely to be brought up.
And whereas the mother is supposed to take responsibility of upbringing the infant, there are two further stages to character building and giving the human being a sense of direction; namely the teacher in the educational institution and the media at large which ought to channelize the carefully tendered child correctly, but leads the rudderless astray into depths of immorality.
It is a pity that while today’s teachers not only renege from their sacred duty to give the impressionable student a sense of direction and polish its faculties, but make obnoxious comments on values of Islamic culture drawn from the Holy Book, as was done the other day by one supposed Professor Hudbhoy ridiculing ‘Hijaab’ meant to be adorned as an instrument of preserving the chastity attached to the female body.
Pakistan’s legislators were doing no better in tabling bills on issues like marriageable age and dramatic renditions over the electronic media encouraging elopement and twisted prerogative of individuals to choose their life partner without consulting or consent of their experienced elders.
That Pakistan was fast drifting away from the joint-family system whereas the belatedly realizing the West was increasingly becoming conscious about its values; promoting a sense of belonging, understanding, compassion, care and love, is a stark commentary on our diminishing values.
Our religion allows ‘Mujahida’ and ‘Ijtehad’ to seek relief by modifying religious practices in worldly wisdom, as we did recently in facing up to Corona by maintaining physical distances even in congregational prayers but without bending our articles of faith, which was being freely exercised today by every half-wit without much religious knowledge or scholarship.
We as a result are churning out successive future generations devoid of sound moral footing and character building.
These generations in aping negative values of alien cultures; men wearing pony tales, ear-rings and tattoos, and females revealing their body parts which they must cover modestly, are proudly considered to be the in-thing and put on show; none of which is witnessed in rising nations like the Japanese and the Chinese whose role models have instead put tangible character traits on display.
Their characters in movies promoted through the media unlike the Western Hollywood and Indian Bollywood blindly aped in Pakistan, are such that they can be proudly emulated.
In countries like Pakistan therefore, when their Premier; not so much of a role model himself, rightly observes that increase in incidents of moral turpitude was a result of the Pakistani society drifting away from the core values of Islam, it has little effect.
This country indeed requires a ‘Rehmatullilalameen Forum’ to highlight and revert to the values of our faith in order to rebuild a genuine Islamic dispensation. But who would comprise the core Body and guide its destinies, is a big question mark.
—The writer is a media professional, member of Pioneering team of PTV and a veteran ex Director Programmes.
