The future world
Abid Hussain Rather
In the contemporary world, two different ideologies have emerged in human civilizations- the secular ideology and the (Islamic) religious ideology. Secular ideology is purely based on human reasoning which separates religion from political, economic, social and cultural aspects of life; religion being treated as a purely personal matter while as religious ideology has its basis in religious scriptures; span-new and unaltered by human thoughts, propagated by various prophets of Almighty in different periods of time and lastly by Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) (as the various prophets came with the same message/purpose but with different prescribed rules and regulations/prophethood ) and it finds the solution to various issues related to various aspects of life (like social, political, economic and cultural) through prescribed religious laws and principles.
Presently secular ideology is counting its last days as it has turned out to be a disillusioned, de-pauperized and dejected ideology due to its incompetence in solving all the problems faced by human beings.
Contrarily different clues lead us to the conclusion that religious ideology is emerging as a new dawn and enlightening the human lives like a morning rising sun brightens the whole world. After tremendous modern materialistic prosperity, various secular thinkers were of the opinion that in the near future there will be the most beautiful (or we can say the best version of) world on our planet earth about which human beings have been dreaming about since thousands of years.
In one of the classical books of secular ideology ‘Future Shock’ written by Alvin Toffler in 1970,which became the best seller book after its publication, the author has implicitly predicted that world is rapidly going to enter into super industrial stage from industrial stage with materialistic progress and it will be the zenith of human civilization where human beings will be able to fulfill all their materialistic desires.
But unfortunately the beginning of twenty-first century has put an end to all such speculations and disapproved such kind of predictions. Our planet is witnessing the harsh calamities of global warming and environmental pollution due to industrial activities which have made earth almost inhabitable.
After extensive research, climatologists of the world have reached to the conclusion that the climatic change on earth has reached to such a disastrous stage where it is almost irreversible. In scientific terms, these are the clues and predictions of Doomsday or catastrophic destruction of planet earth.
In one of its issues published on 28th May, 2020, ‘Hindustan Times’ published a detailed report on global warming entitled as ‘Doomsday Not Far’ which reads as ‘the world is facing its worst time in the past 650,000 years. Greenhouse gas emissions are melting glaciers faster, raising the sea level and making summers hotter and winters cooler.’
Quoting the words of the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon,the report further reads as ‘these scenes are as frightening as science fiction movie… But they are even more terrifying, because they are real.’ Facts from this detailed report vividly indicate that the present world climatic scenario clearly rejects the secular ideology and gives clues about the more authentication and affirmation to religious ideology.
The imperfection in different worldly means/motives or resources indicates that they haven’t been bestowed upon human beings as rewards but to test them. Had they been bestowed as rewards upon human beings, they would have been perfect in their existence; but the reality is different and these means/ motives or resources are imperfect and have been conferred to testify and prepare human beings for the next world (hereafter).
Their imperfection gives clue about the authenticity of religious ideology and implies that the present world is temporary and the world hereafter is the perfect and consistent version of the present world. Another aspect of this argument is that various secular philosophers and thinkers are dreaming about creation of a fair Utopian society based on justice since thousands of years, but they have miserably failed in creating such a society.
Instead of this anarchy, corruption and exploitation have strengthened their roots and engulfed the whole world. Accordingly, in the modern world achieving the dream of Utopian society seems impossible. Though human conscience will always aspire for such a fair society but practically it has now become impossible to create such a society due to the deterioration of human values and materialistic greed of people.
Our world has deteriorated to such a low level where we can’t expect justice from our judiciary system. We can’t expect punishment for culprits and reward for honest people, rather we are witnessing inverse phenomena’s. Instead of strict judiciary laws we are witnessing injustice everywhere. All these clues endorse the religious ideology and indicate that punishing the culprits and prevailing justice ideally is impossible in the present limited/imperfect world.
We need another perfect and ideal world where these principles can be applied immaculately and flawlessly. We need another world which must be different from our current world to fulfill the long pending repressed demand of our conscience for upholding and prevailing justice everywhere.
A world where Almighty will judge the good and bad deeds of every individual and reward them fairly according to their deeds. These arguments affirm the religious ideology and allude that we have to face the day of judgement after our death in the hereafter where there is full and complete possibility of a fair society through the power of Almighty which is impossible in the present world through human efforts.
Religious ideology confirms two periods of human life – before and after death. Construction of a perfect and fair world is impossible for human beings before their death due to their limitations. Such a perfect and fair world, which would be unlimited in time and space perspective, is possible only after the death of all human beings. Because of the limited cognitive ability of human beings, we can’t imagine perfectly about that world but our cognition doesn’t allow us to doubt about that future world because that world is in making and subconsciously desired by all human beings where every individual will be rewarded and punished according to his deeds in the present world.
Sooner or longer we all are going to witness that perfect hereafter world where justice will prevail everywhere. So instead of preferring the present world, we should prepare ourselves for the life hereafter which is better and more enduring as Almighty has aptly said in Al Qur’an, But you prefer the worldly life, while the hereafter is better and more enduring.( Al Qur’an 87:16-17)
(The author can be reached at [email protected]. Views expressed are his own)
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