Festivity and extravagance
Pakistan marked a national holiday to celebrate the birthday of the greatest man of all times. There were decoration, festivity and celebration in every nook and corner of the country to show the love and faithfulness with the holy prophet (PBUH). There was a lot of alms and charity. Civil society held conferences and there were processions in honour of the person who was the last messenger of Allah.
The message of the day was to imitate his life style of simplicity and follow his teachings; the teachings that all human beings are equal, that denounce pride and prejudice, that spreads the fragrance of peace. The life of our beloved prophet (PBUH) showed us that there is a great deal of importance for the rights of fellow human beings in order to have a progressive society.
The month is being celebrated for a while with the festivity and extravagance increasing every year. But still we are unable to observe the change in our social and individual behaviours. We have rather seen the decline in moral and social values and it seems that we have been on a reverse gear from what our beloved prophet (PBUH) has taught us. There is no need to mention the state of affairs and the nuisance we are facing as a society where to take life merely because of a difference in opinion is a daily business. This compels us to ponder that something is not going in the right direction or to put it more simply we need to do a little more than what we have been doing so far.
There can be a lot of differences among different sects about various matters but one thing that not only has the consensus of all the sects in Islam but also all the religions is the morality. We have failed to implement and practice the moral values taught by our prophet (PBUH) rather we have been fighting over the differences. The issue is the exploitation of divergence in views by those who were supposed to show the moral principles of Prophet's (PBUH) life through their action. The best way is to deny them and the union of masses on common points.
The prophet (PBUH) said, "The best of you is the one who has the highest moral values".
This very definition of being the best implicitly demands all of us to be tolerant. Respect the views of others, help others whenever possible, talk gently and show politeness and courtesy in daily life. Our prophet (PBUH) was kind to not only his friends but to his enemies and even the animals. The morality demands us to show sympathy to those who never did any good to us, to solace even those who always made you feel uncomfortable and to always try to be the helping hand without the expectation of any reward.
The degradation in our society can be countered by not only collective efforts rather each one of us has to work on individual behaviours. Is it very difficult to show affection to others and control your anger in some argument? Is it really that tough to lend a seat to someone older than you in some public place or to share your meal with someone less fortunate or to be the first one to greet other or to have less extravagance wedding ceremonies or to say no to dowry? Is it not possible to stop bullying people around and start respecting them irrespective of social status, family background or colour? Why we cannot practice the idea of equality of human beings? And why can't we stop labelling others when we are not even sure about our own fate on the day of judgement?
Believe me it's not impossible! It's what few of us might be practising and we all need to follow in order to have a tolerant, honest and peaceful society. A lot of social and economic issues can be countered if we learn to live simple and avoid the demonstration since at the end of the day it's all about our behaviour; it's how we treat people matters.
Honestly speaking everyone knows what to do and what the traits a good person needs to posses are. Let's not just raise slogans this time and make resolution to follow the highest standards of humanity that Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) preached. We can start with refraining from arrogance, hatred, anger and selfishness. Spread the message of Prophet (PBUH) not only through speech but also with action as "Action speaks louder than words". Rabi-ul-awal www.pakpositive.com