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Ways Corruption From Moral Decay Seeps In
One thing that
we need to scrutinize carefully and in great detail to enable us unravel the
mysteries of moral decay (a precursor of corruption) is our core beliefs and
strengths, from where we get our sense of direction and purpose. The strongest
and a times most sensitive belief humans have is what is termed religious
beliefs, i.e. the belief in a power much higher than ourselves, one that forces
us onto a path even when we do not personally choose it. Or else one that determines our fate,
away from what we want. As a result
of the lack of that kind of control, some have chosen other powers greater than
humans’ but less than the overwhelming creative power. A percentage of the
people worship objects they perceive as having greater powers, but found on our
own planet such as creatures of the sea and those of land, animate and
inanimate. Others went a little
higher subjecting themselves to some heavenly powers of the Sun, planets; Venus
assigned beauty, Mars the god of war, Neptune god of the sea etc.
A significant
majority of the earth’s population however, follow one of the three scriptural
organized religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam which according to all
three teachings came from the Creator of all those things physical, spiritual,
heavenly and earthly. They believe
God spoke to humans through God’s chosen messengers Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad
in that chronological order. There
are other old organized religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism that also have
significant amount of followers, and undergo similar guided teachings including
religious acts and routines aimed at instilling discipline within its followers. We are however concentrating on the
scriptural religions because they are of particular interest to our thesis. Of particular interest because we are
primarily, in this quest for finding underlying causes of our moral decay and
its resultant incessant corrupt practices focusing on Nigeria as a nation which
just begun its experimentation with U.S. style democracy. In that quest also we may take a look
at the nation it tends to emulate (The U S) because it has set some enduring and
unprecedented record in democratic principles.
First, as people of common belief in the existence and supremacy of a Creator God, we do realize and agree that God’s message to mankind has always been basically the same especially as proclaimed by its initial teachers and carriers of its original message. Jesus for example proclaimed to his followers while among them that he did not bring anything new, but has come to confirm and assert the same message of his scriptural predecessors such as Musa (Moses) on him be peace. Even though most Jews especially its religious leaders the Scribes and the Pharisees remained attached to their scripture, Jesus we learned, went on to preach and reestablish the Godly laws he proclaimed had been abandoned, violated. and sometimes obliterated from the book.
Likewise when
Muhammad on him be peace, also came to renew a message God has declared as
having been derailed from the original teaching, Muhammad also confirmed and
obligated on his followers the confirmation of both the message of Jesus who
preceded him, and that of Moses who preceded Jesus. In fact Islam is the only religion
that mandates as part of its covenant with God that its followers have to
believe in Him having sent Jesus with his previous message, and also sent Moses
before that. So as far as the
teachers and the chosen initiators are concerned, the message they brought is
basically the same, and from the same source.
Where then lays
the different directions, attitudes and values of the three group of adherents? Well along with the belief as above
that the message of God and what was preached by the three teachers is basically
the same, we have to come to terms that the corruption of the message away from
its original self, is what makes it imperative to send the next messenger.
Eminent scholars of all three have all agreed to that premise in principle. Thus Jesus became an emissary of God
in order to purity and sanctify a corrupted message, back to the way God wanted
it to be for his people. He uttered
that himself (Matthew 5:17) “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law of
the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (1984, New
International Version)
Though there
were messengers and chosen of God who preached against such corruption of laws
and actions experienced by the followers of the scripture from Moses before the
coming of Jesus and his scripture Gospel (injil), such as Yahya (John the
Baptist) on him be peace; under the premise generally agreed by followers of all
three scriptures, Jesus came because Moses teachings were being eroded and its
corruption was being wrongly upheld. Followers
do corrupt a message after the teacher dies or returns to his Lord. In the same coin, Islamic scholar
will tell you, after the followers of Jesus also began to move away from his
true teachings, that necessitated the emergence of Prophet Muhammad whose
teachings today is adhered to by about one and half billion people.
Some core areas whose corruption distorted moral bearing
Though we intend
to pick each topic and try to expand more on it with at least an article each,
we will draw some basic areas that are readily apparent. To the Muslim, for example, the
catapulting of the position and power of Satan to a position of ability to
challenge or be the opposite of God is an abomination. Yet that is the general view held by
those who hold the previous scripture before the coming of Islam. Most people communicate between the
three religions with an erroneous premise thinking the followers’ assumptions
are the same, thereby resulting in what students of mass communication will
describe as “noise” in the channel of communication. It greatly affects our understanding
albeit comprehension of each other’s message, if our common premise differs and
we, without understanding of that difference try the strike a conversation on
the subject.
This writer also used to
hold that our basic belief in that category of the unseen is the same too, until
having arrived at the United States, another nation with strong Christian
beliefs; she started listening to televangelists and reading various books on
such subjects. The thing is
while Satan to all Godly religions is the source of all vile actions, enticement
to wrong, and deceit and almost all that corrupts the human soul and manners,
Islam teaches that he is also a creature of God and therefore can never be
uplifted to nearness in status to the Creator, not even close. Let alone ever imagine that he can
acquire the strength and might to challenge God.
To Muslims Satan
was a creature made from smokeless fire, and a species of creation of his type
also from fire called the Jinn do exist.
They are on similar pedestal with humans, and living among us, even
though they do not possess physical bodies like us and therefore we could not
ordinarily see them. Satan is a powerful
stalwart among them with lots of knowledge, but he has no such position as is
assigned him by followers of earlier scriptures.
In Islam, he was quoted in the Quran as having prayed to God to grant him
the gift of living till after the humans’ time is up on the earth and he was
granted that wish. You only pray,
just as human do when in difficulty, when you believe who you are subject to
one’s powers. Having acknowledged
such powers beyond what one possesses, is when you seek help in fulfilling your
request. Various chapters of the
Quran mention Satan, and on most occasions clearly and unambiguously display his
dependence and acknowledgment of God’s supremacy.
Jinn, the
scholars of Islam will tell you, are the creatures from which Satan is one. They have willpower to obey or
disobey God, just as us, they marry have children and generally lead similar
lives like us. Satan was a learned
Jinn who was promoted to closeness to God at one time based on such knowledge. He misused that opportunity because
of envy and arrogance, thereby calling on himself the wrath of God, and he was
accursed and sent out. He was never
an angel according to Quranic teachings, as his nature is different from angels. Angels in accordance with Islamic
teaching are creatures made out of light, obey God inadvertently, and are not
creatures given to willpower to disobey their creator. So to Muslims, Satan was never an
angel and is not described as a fallen angel, as some non-Muslims believe
Some sample displaying how such distortions could corrupt
The corruption
of the relationship between man and God is one major hindrance to the ability of
man to have a serene and contented soul.
The soul of man was gifted to him by God (loaned if you would) at Adam’s
creation at the beginning of human existence.
That is why man can never have peace and wellbeing unless he continues to
cleanse that part of him that is of a holy nature and not material and physical. It is important therefore to adhere
to the right and perfectly attuned laws from without ourselves, in order to
discipline ourselves in forming the right and perfect attitude, and in time
those attitudes become part of our personality.
These right and perfect laws of course must come from the Creator of man,
and the one who gifted and fashioned that spiritual part of man, i.e. the soul.
The struggle to
cleanse and continue to keep that soul in purity is not easy. It could be summed up as the whole of
life’s journey for man for he learns that he has a task to prove himself worthy
of another chance to live in peace in heaven, in closeness to his Creator. An area so holy any creature has to
reach a certain degree of conformance to its sanctity and purity. We learnt that
Adam the first creation was once there, until he committed a sin out of
forgetfulness of his generous Lord’s instructions and was not worthy of living
there anymore and was therefore reprimanded along with his genealogy on earth
for an appointed term. When that
time is up, all human life will cease and everyone gets judged and assigned an
eternal abode of comfort or punishment in accordance with what we earned during
our life on earth.
We say we are
people of the scriptures (meaning both Christians and Muslims), and that we
believe firmly that the scriptures came from the messengers and teachers that
God Himself chose to send to us. We affirm the might and power of the creator
God, yet we choose instead, either out of convenience but most especially out of
the negation of our “faith” and covenant
with God (Shahada for the Muslim) to
appease those lower created beings in derogation of the guidance and teachings
of the creator God. We are scared to displease our employer even when what he
asks of us violates a cardinal and vital pillar of our covenant with God. Not only that, we choose to work for
our personal ambition of greed and electability in derogation of his laws of
righteousness towards his creatures under our care.
Something is surely wrong.
Personally we
hold most of the Muslims in Nigeria whom we know their scriptures much better to
account, because there exists many affirmations as well as many warnings against
that which they read in their Holy book daily, or have it read to them from CDs,
Cassettes, Radios in Ramadan especially, as well as preachers, yet they lose the
basic teachings. Muslims may riot
against the degradation of their beliefs, brothers under persecution and their
Prophet when he is dishonored, yet and still the Creator God’s words is recited
to them and they also recite it to themselves but they fail to act as believers
in its words and laws. The Quran Chapter 67, Surah al-Mulk for example starts
with “Tabarakal Lathi Biyadihil Mulk, wa
huwa ala kulli shai’in qadir.”
Blessed is He in Whose hands in the dominion, and He is able to do all things
(All Powerful). It goes on to
say “Allathi Halaqal Mauta wal Hayata,
Liyabluwakum aiyukum ahsanu Amala.”
He created death and Life, in order to try which of you is better in conduct.
Yet we deliberately chose to literally worship wealth, power and greed in
derogation of that affirmation.
The Muslim’s obligations and what we may learn from it
We have common
grounds with all scriptural people in terms of faith. The followers of each group who
follow genuine teachings of their teachers believe in the One Creator God and
the worship of him, generally. One major difference in terms of community
building and coexistence is that Muslims are charged with maintaining in
addition to a just community with brotherhood, a self cleaning one that
continuous to make it hard for bad actions and corruption to take root
“ta’muruna bil ma’rufi, wa tanhauna anil
munkar” (3:110). God defines those who act likewise as the best of His human
creation.
Muslims are
charged with concrete obligation, a must, as indicated in the above cited verse,
to not only desist from bad actions but to enjoin good and forbid evil actions
of transgression within their community.
It is a must that everyone will be asked on the day of Judgement, even if
the person is among the oppressed “what role did you play to stop the injustice
and transgression happening in your society?” That obligated act, therefore, is
the key. It is the key to
strengthening the community and a Godly weapon to check excesses and violation
of everyone, making the community a self cleaning one that rests on common
justice; in that way everyone enjoys his or her God given rights and privileges.
It is a Muslim to Muslim obligation
though, and that cannot be overemphasized, as a Muslim cannot enforce the edict
on someone who does not believe in his book.
Is there a
concrete example of such an Islamic community today, one which displays a great
level of souls contentment (Salam), making it crime free to a greater degree
than other contemporary communities? Yes, Saudi Arabia. It may not be the ideal Islamic state
if judged against the standards of Islamic teachings as preached by the Prophet
of Islam in his times, especially when we call to mind people’s criticism of the
contemporary governing policy. But
no one; and we mean no person coming from other countries that visit that
community for Hajj or Umra will escape noticing the stark and divergent variance
between his community back home and the Saudi’s in terms of common crimes.
Imagine this
writer coming directly from the United States in 1988 to perform pilgrimage in
Makkah. She was shocked beyond
comprehension when she saw shop owners, including jewelers with virtually
millions in investments leaving their shops unattended and unlocked whenever the
prayer is called. And the thing is
everyone acts that same way and no one is bothered by the possibilities of
thieves walking into the unattended shops and wiping the owner of millions in
the diamonds and gold that were left unattended.
For them to continue to do that daily, as we observed then, was
completely unheard of and the most remarkable thing this writer has ever
witnessed to date.
What one needs to ask therefore in the case of Nigeria, or at the very least those who profess following the religion of Islam in the generally homogeneous Northern States is, where did its community fail to uphold a comparative standard? As we disclose above, the obligated act of maintaining a self-cleaning society is a Muslim to Muslim act. It had worked without much problem when Islam was first introduced, transforming a once war mongering and tyrannical community to a united, brotherly and loving one that became so enlightened that they helped illuminate a once equally savage Europe to experience the renaissance.
Why is it
becoming increasingly difficult for Muslims of Nigeria or all such nations
worldwide for that matter, to apply that same discipline, teachings, and actions
to improve their lot in providing a safe, crime free and prosperous community
even when such resources for achieving prosperity are available to them too? The answer may not lie in a few
areas, but probably multiple ones.
It is a challenge that each and every serious citizen has to commit to, let
alone those in leadership who have sworn to work for the nation and its people. It is a challenge also that we set to
explore in this series. Going by the
premise until now, we may start by saying how do we simplify our task? We start
by asking such questions again that challenges and grows our moral bearing.
How does one
abide by divine laws and display piety or the fear of God’s retribution for the
wrongs he might commit? In providing
commentary for the verse oft repeated by Scholars of Islam, as part of Sunnah in
opening speech of every gathering of Muslims following in the footsteps of its
teacher (Quran 3:102) Abdullah Ibn Masoud said “It means stick with Allah’s
rules and laws and do not cross them, mention (praise) Him a lot and do not
forget Him or about Him, and do not after knowing Him rebel against Him, but
serve and obey Him.” That service
includes kindness and goodly actions towards his creatures, mankind and animals
within the confines of his laws. One
should always have a sincere wish for the acceptance of such goodly works by his
Lord and Cherisher first and foremost, and should not intend it for show off. So, what makes such works service to
God, is the intention and attitude of the performer. It is required that he does more of
those three as a greater percentage of his life than not. That is what is defined as Taqwa, God
consciousness.
Series to continue as time and space permits.