Modern Culture: An Illusion

MUFTI MOHAMMAD ANWAR KHAN

The champions of the modern culture vociferously babble that only the modern things may be accepted in the scheme of life. They reject all that is old, traditional which they call as a symbol of radicalism and conservativeness. This bunch of modern individuals has devised a set of beautiful words to describe their ideas, feelings, sentiments, and expressions. But this is a fact that nothing relating to modernity is good or wholesome for humanity.

The modern culture wants that women should be made devoid of dresses so that they revel in seeking after their unbridled lusts. Dance, music, film, coeducation, dating, friendship, exhibitionism are all but means for them to satisfy their uncontrolled emotions. These modern champions are unable to understand that they, while advocating modernity, are inviting the whole human race towards utter misery and irreparable damage.

Those who oppose modernity and all that the new globalizing culture offers to humanity are called as radical, extremist, fundamentalist, and conservative. On the other hand, those who support their viewpoints are dubbed as modern, up-to-date, contemporary, enlightened, broad-minded, cosmopolitan, charismatic, and, in brief, complete human beings.

All this is taking place for no reason but to satisfy their base desires, to copy the modern civilization. You may cross no road, street, park, public place or office and institution without noticing a half-naked woman trying to allure the unlucky onlookers, which often make them a regular sufferer of hypertension and other psychological problems.

We may put the simple question before the ardent supporters of modernity and free living societies: Why have murder, incest, rape, kidnapping, eve-teasing, sexual harassment, date-raping, drug abuse, trafficking and a number of other serious issues started to take deep roots in the lives of the human brings? Wickedness, injustice, grief, pessimism, trouble, loneliness, fear, stress, frustration, distrust, unscrupulousness, anxiety, rage, jealousy, resentment, drug addiction, immorality, gambling, prostitution, hunger, poverty, social corruption, theft, war, struggle, violence, oppression, fear of death… News about these issues appear in the newspapers and on TV every day. Who is, at last, responsible for these curses? Why is the modern generation so fascinated with committing bestial crimes, a latest series of felonies that make the sensitive among the humanity shudder to even think about them? All these phenomena clearly indicate that something is terribly wrong with the lifestyle of the modern man.

The story of 74 year old Austrian building engineer is before us to think. This incestuous man locked his daughter in a rat-infested dungeon for 24 years and even he fathered seven children by her. There is found intense global criticism over cases like that. Our country India is also likely to be riveted by the newly revealed case of an outwardly respectable Guajarati businessman in Mumbai who allegedly has been raping his daughter for nine long years. In 2008, Maria Monica Susairaj and her boyfriend killed Neeraj Grover, hacked him into pieces, stuffed them into plastic bags, and later set fire to them. Why do sordid tales of rape, incest, and unimaginable cruelties to children attract so much attraction? Is it prurient interest or revulsion that drives public fascination? We can only guess.

In fact, the main problem lies in the modern mindset that has generated a strange kind of social fabric to live in. The traditional values have been trample over. Parents are not obeyed. Incestuous relations are very often reported. Drug abuse and alcoholism have become the order of the day. Cheating and swindling have become a norm in the human society. Brutalism has exceeded all the limits in a way that it resembles the bestialities of the animals let loose in a jungle. Murder and kidnapping are reported on a daily basis. Fraud and embezzlement have been included as part of the modern politics. Social integrity, national cohesion, and communal harmony find their place in the back stage. Affection with the juniors and the respect of the elders is the talk of the bygone era. Morality has been marginalized. Dirty politics has been made as the part of the modern national and international agenda.

Until the world does not revert to its original course of living, we can never dream a world full of peace and satisfaction. Only making agendas cannot work unless we make an effective step towards changing the modern course that is in fact leading the world towards its final decay. Raising hollow slogans has diminished the hope of people in true democracy.

Time and again, the world has witnessed a number of policies, agendas and memorandums to be imposed for the betterment of humanity. Conferences, seminars, programs, and projects are organized but with no utility or effectiveness. The people must think about the future of humanity and chart out a plan that ensures full security and total safety for them. In order to crystallize these outlines, they will need a program that might revolutionize this planet. The solution lies nowhere but in Islam, which if objectively analyzed, has the potential and power to guarantee what the humanity is waiting for a long time: that is life, liberty, and the pursuit of real happiness.

(Mufti Anwar Anwar Khan can be accessed at: anwarkhanqasmi@gmail.com

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