Allah created this universe for human beings and then sent his messengers for guiding and enabling them to live on this planet. Allah also mentioned the best code of conduct of life in the Holy books he sent. In these books, of which Quran is the last and a complete code of life, there are rules and founding principles of establishing a civilization.
Civilization differentiates animals and human beings. It is characterised by urban development, social stratification, symbolic communication and a perceived separation from and domination over natural environment. A state depends upon its leaders/directors and authorities. The selection of the best authority leads to the best civilization.
Ideally, this selection process should be based upon wisdom, which is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight.
But in this era, where wisdom is appreciated in almost every field, we are only relying on the so-called democracy which is enforced in Pakistan. This democracy is not a true democracy, in which “power is vested in people, who rule either directly, or through freely elected representatives or in which people use their wisdom to elect their representative”. It is defined by numbers not by facts, the democracy in which truth is based on biased and paid views presented by the media and a leader is one who gets the support of themaximum number of people by any means.
According to the constitution of Pakistan, a person should have good character, adequate knowledge of Islamic teachings and practices, obligatory duties prescribed by Islam, as well as abstain from major sins and should be honest. Now the question arises that are we evaluating our leaders on these grounds? Are we making wise decisions? Or just blindly following the system of numeric success.
We as a nation are just playing role of a violent mob which has no direction. We are easily influenced by anyone.
It is amazing that we have also given a new definition to truth and honesty. Truth, for us, is what the majority is saying, irrespective of facts and figures. We have completely forgotten that our Holy Prophet (PBUH) was standing alone but he was honest. It’s really sad that we have said good bye to our wisdom and to the teachings of Islam which is leading us towards destruction. We definitely need to correct ourselves as a nation. As Thomas Paine said, “A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right”. Let’s take a pledge that we will not do what is acceptable, but we will start doing what is right.
(The writer is studying Pharm.D (Doctor of Pharmacy) and is a member of Youth Parliament, Pakistan standing committee of Education and Youth Affairs)