A wake-up call
By: Syed Mustafa Ahmad
Man is called ‘the crown of creation’. He is the only organism, who has the capacity to think and take rational decisions. God says that I created the man in the best form and gave him the faculty of logic.
However, man has stooped so low that he might be counted among the animals. He has put his extraordinary faculties in the hindsight that humanity is lamenting every day. God created man the light of reason, but he chose to be fire and put humanity to disgrace. This is not the malaise of some years, but the handiwork of centuries and the combination of many visible and invisible factors. In the following lines, I will briefly talk about the causes that are responsible for the moral degradation of the man.
First is materialism. A man thinks that materialism is everything. Though materialism provides comfort for a time being, yet it is quite destructive at the end of the day. Greed for more and more has made the man to think that materialism is what I have been made for.
In this way, he has trespassed all the moral limits and has stooped so low that he doesn’t think that there lie other worlds beyond the temporary world. Day in and day out, he counts how much he has gained and how much is pending to get. Other people’s rights have been trampled upon in this process.
Second is irreligious life. The main aim of religion is to remind the man of his glorious position in the world. It has become to make the man morally uplifted person. When there is the reign of immorality, it is religion, which keeps the man on the morally fit path.
It stops him from being a ‘loose-charactered’ person. It binds him to some basic principles that are necessary to make a well-behaved society, where morality spreads, while as transgressions are least observed. But opposite to this, the man has chosen to live an irreligious life. He thinks that religion is the product of some degraded minds. I am free to do what I feel doing. There is no bar.
Third is irrational philosophy. In simple words, it can be understood that the man’s logic has inherent flaws. So, if the man is declared an animal, he is an animal. It is because he cannot think of looking above the existing things. In this way, the man is declared full of flaws and cannot change himself for something high and efficient.
Fourth is callous attitude. The man has become stone-hearted and has no kindness towards his fellow beings. He wants to live his own life. His necessities must be fulfilled. Others do not feature in his list. Kindness and sympathy like words are absent in his dictionary. Self-interests are the main motives and they must be fulfilled. There lies nothing other than these.
If we talk of regaining the lost position of the man, the way is to overcome the above-mentioned foibles. The man must try his best to restore his lost rank.
However, all are not same, but a majority of people are sailing in the immortal boat of sins. In order to make this world a better place, the man must take the lead. Saints and religious books have been preaching the only one thing that the man must become a man.
The present man has become everything, but he has lost himself in the affairs of things. We cannot blame other wild animals for violating the sanctity of other things. They are prone to do it. But the man is again and again reminded that you must inculcate the qualities of the real human being.
The immoral things, which take place regularly in our environment, have made us to realize that the man has to regain the lost status. Let us begin from ourselves and try to be real human beings. Starting from oneself can be a first step in this direction.
