Education and moralities
Adnan Shafi
Before going into the entire matter, I initially shall try to let you know the vision of morality. Morality in Islam is a meticulous term that serves to include the concept of righteousness, good character, and the body of ethical qualities and virtues defined in Islamic religious texts.
The fundamental idea of Islamic morality is that of love: love for God and love for God’s creatures. The idea is that mankind will acquire and follow the body of moral qualities in order to seek God’s pleasure and to treat the fellow human beings in the best possible manner. Teaching on morality and moral conduct constitute a basic principle of Islam, and the moral themes form a large part of it. The Quran and the Hadith – the central religious texts of Islam – serve as the primary source for it, which undoubtedly we have ignored altogether.
Now the leading matter that has upset my veins and made me spiritually vulnerable is the incident that took place at a university in Lahore which was oftentimes discussed by many religious scholars in their sermons.
The video of the proposal took Twitter by storm. The viral footage is of a student dressed in western attire with her right knee bent on the ground, holding a bouquet of roses, proposing to the boy, who then takes the flowers and pulls the girl for a hug. Nearby students are seen clapping them along and it is filmed on mobile cameras in the style of movies between dozens of other students.
Fortunately, the university administration took action and expelled them from the university. This incident should be enough to open the closed eyes of the government, society, parents, and the management of educational institutions wherever this incident came about, but it is certainly the alarm bell for all Muslim countries, if further ignored, will simply demolish our existing social and religious values or moralities and push us towards the filth that Western society has become a victim of today and which Kashmir has also taken the lead in imitating.
Boys and girls go to schools, colleges, universities to get an education, but the fast-paced environment, especially in private schools and institutions of higher learning, is becoming more and more obsessed with Western culture.
It would be acceptable to note here, no school in Kashmir valley teaches Quran to students. Private schools have already flouted Arabic, Quran, Islamiyat. They don’t deem it more important than other subjects taught in schools. If you don’t believe it, try to evaluate all the schools existing in the Kashmir valley, and then see how they have put this most esteemed book behind.
It is very dangerous for the whole society and immediate steps should be taken to remedy it. Seeing this deteriorating environment, a large number of parents are worried about whether to send their children to such educational institutions or not. If educational institutions, instead of educating children, cause shame and disgrace and spread Western culture, then such education becomes a cause of destruction of society.
In an Islamic country, in principle, there should be separate educational institutions for boys and girls, but if it is not possible to do so everywhere under duress, it should be the obligation of the government and the management of educational institutions to ensure the provision of such an environment.
Create a place where children focus on their education and not make educational institutions a means of spreading Hollywood and Bollywood culture. It is also important that educational institutions are not made the home of fashion. It should be made mandatory for both boys and girls to dress modestly according to their social and religious values and also to ensure that there is zero tolerance in educational institutions for condoning any kind of unethical behavior.
Recently, the Governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan has made it mandatory for boys and girls to wear uniforms in some of the major universities in the province. All federal and provincial governments should issue necessary guidelines to strictly discipline the environment of both public and private universities in accordance with their religious and social values so that the spectacle we saw at the University of Lahore does not become the norm.
Those who spread Western culture should be strongly discouraged and the role of the state is very important in this. According to our own religion, we have a responsibility to create an environment in society that is in accordance with Islamic teachings.
We are all bound by this code. Whether it is media, political parties, government, parliament, judiciary or any other state institution, it is the accountability of all to make any country /state an Islamic welfare state and not to facilitate those working against it.
To that end, our duty is not to spread western culture rather the duty is to break off the western culture in all working places where we, Muslims work like schools, colleges, universities, or in our own running private institutions, etc.
(The author is a regular contributor to Kashmir Vision)
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