Islam's response to contemporary world problems (19)

In Issue 18 we presented the fundamentals of an Islamic society.

Islam emphasises integrity, loyalty, fidelity and promotes all kinds of measures to create peace of mind and heart. It takes preventive measures so that society does not become unbalanced in the pursuit of pleasure. Therefore, any kind of behaviour, however innocent it may initially appear, that could lead to unrestrained permissiveness is discouraged, for the harm to society is immense and manifold. Such societies are doomed to end up in the state of promiscuity that we find in the world today.

In such societies, the unrestrained drive for pleasure leads among other things to the erosion and ultimate destruction of family ties. Contrary to this, Islam protects and jealously guards every kind of paternal, maternal, fraternal and filial relationship. Islam wishes to promote friendships that are platonic rather than sensual.

Beginning with a plan for women in society, it is essential, according to Islam, to take all kinds of measures that promote chastity, fidelity, moderation and clean living.

The emphasis on chaste living, well insulated from the dangers of short-circuiting the satisfaction of sexual desires is an important facet of Islamic society. This aspect of Islamic social teachings is extremely important for the protection and survival of the family system, which is the most pressing need of the hour.

Islam seeks to expand the family unit rather than squeeze it to the minimum: a family in which the human capacity to love and the desire to be loved is not satiated by the mere satisfaction of sexual desires but by a fuller and more refined relationship and friendship, such as naturally prevails between close and distant blood relatives.

It is surprising how the wise men of modern society fail to realise the human weakness once the pleasures associated with sex are allowed to play a primary and unrestricted role in society. Indeed, they flourish at the expense of other refined values and draw their blood like parasites.

Sigmund Freud, no doubt, was the product of such a society. He began to analyse all human motivations through the coloured glass of sex. For him, the most pious relationship between mother and son had to do with sex. Even the father-daughter relationship possessed no sanctity but was sexual in its orientation or origin. Almost everything man did, even if he did not realise it, had its basis in sexual impulses deeply rooted in the subconscious. We wonder whether in Freud's time, society had reached the degree of promiscuity that we see today, but it was certainly enough to give rise to a totally sex-dominated understanding of the human psyche. But if Freud were right, it would make it all the more essential that society not be allowed to play incautiously with powerful forces that can produce such short-circuits.

The current environment of modern societies makes them neither pay attention nor try to understand the nature and facets of the Islamic social environment, but whether man agrees or disagrees with the concept that God plays a role in human affairs and in shaping man's destiny, and whether man is willing to modulate his social conduct in accordance with the revealed word of God or not, one thing is certain, and that is that man cannot frustrate the Work of God (nature) or the Word of God (revealed Truth). Both Word and Work must be in harmony with each other to be considered valid. Any social conduct that man adopts in direct contradiction to the Word of God is bound to end in failure.

Man cannot have unlimited and unrestricted pleasure no matter how much he desires it. All he can do is to barter away certain choices and values. A society that seeks to evade responsibility or the realities of life with the help of drugs or opiates; a society that is obsessed with sex, emotions and vain stimuli, a society where tastes are deliberately perverted to suit an artificially created market of new instruments and toys of pleasure, which only serve to produce excitement and increased anxiety; a market driven by powerful media whose sole purpose is to amass wealth; such a society chooses all this at the expense of nobler human values, peace of mind and the security of society as a whole. You cannot have both simultaneously. You cannot have your cake and eat it at the same time.

Islam insists on just the opposite. It certainly advocates pleasure but not at the expense of peace of mind and the security of society as a whole. All these tendencies, which if undetected would lead to a gradual disintegration of family life and promote selfishness, irresponsibility, vulgarity, crime and violence, are strongly discouraged.

The environments created by these two philosophies are polar opposites.

It amazes me how some people forget that by stirring up ambitions, or giving free reign to desires in society, they can optimistically promise peace of mind. No society in the world, however sound its economy may be, can support an unlimited and unrestrained generation of lascivious desires.

Even in the richest societies in the world, there are always rich and poor. Those who are deprived of the most basic comforts of life make up the largest part of society compared to the comparatively smaller number of those who can afford what they want. Even this is questionable, because it seems that, as wealth increases, so do desires, and probably not even the richest can fully realise all their dreams. The case, however, for the relatively poorer majority, is worse. They cannot have access to the basic comforts of life, not to mention the luxuries that affluent society can afford. It is with the emotions and desires of the poor that the modern media wreak havoc. Day after day, it brings into their squalid abode promising images of a glorious lifestyle, with lavish homes, fabulous gardens, fleets of luxury cars, private planes and helicopters and an army of servants. The Hollywood and Beverly Hills lifestyle with its revelry, balls, gala parties, or life in the casinos, gambling halls or all the pomp and pageantry that are evoked, are temptations to which the poorest of the poor have access. Yet very few of the richest can even dream of attaining this heaven on earth. Such people certainly lose interest in their poor and ordinary surroundings. House and home cease to be attractive to them. Lack of culture and civilisation remain inimical to this promising vision and, in this context, the realities of their own life begin to lose all meaning. If this is the ultimate achievement of a society fed on banal pleasures and unreal visions, the warmth and peace of home become progressively illusory. Then they have nothing left to live for in the future.

More than one measure would be needed to restore the traditional family unit, so essential to bind its members together in mutual trust, friendship and peace that generates inner warmth. But, perhaps it is too late to talk about it.

Islam has a clear message. It offers a clear-cut plan to protect, guard and preserve a universal family system, or to rebuild it when it is totally demolished.

According to Islam, discipline must be instilled through conviction and understanding in every sphere of social activity, and lost balances must be restored.

(To be continued in the next instalment, number 20.)