Mushaq haq Sikander
In the past two century’s philosophy of materialism gained worldwide acceptance. These materialistic philosophies are very old but during the last two centuries these philosophies have been reviewed and came back to life. The theory of materialism was first of all introduced by a Greek philosopher Democritus.
According to philosophy of materialism, physical matter in its movements and modification is only reality and everything in the universe, including thought, feeling, mind and will is explainable in terms of physical laws. This philosophical theory which explained life in this manner is the root of all evils and provides justification to all the evil things and works.
This materialistic view of life and living is still dominant in the whole world and thus all the havoc is going on here. Persons reading this article may think that I am supposed to write on corruption, then what I am writing about is a philosophical battle, and we have no time for these kinds of interpretations of life nor do we want to waste our mind power pondering over these philosophies. Dear readers, it is not possible for me to derive a solution for this evil without throwing any light on its birth and evolution.
Since past two centuries, due to Industrial Revolution, progress in science and technology and due to an explosion of knowledge, man came to take control of various supernatural phenomena’s. Man came to look at these advances he made and was able to a large extent to conquer space, time and prolong human life.
New standards came forward which are used as a yardstick to measure the growth of progress. According to this yardstick, a country is progressive and advanced if it is leading the way to science and technology. No country is progressed whatsoever wealth that country might possess, if it is behind in progression in the field of science and technology, it is considered as backward. This scale is now accepted worldwide and is the right and absolute scale, also according to the human logic. But this philosophy and progression led man to believe that he has conquered everything and now there is no need for any external agency to whom we may beg, ask for forgiveness and seek help and mercy from him. This external agency ‘God’ became an alien word and a sign of backwardness in this new era. Some persons still believed in this external agency, but after the theory of Evolution propounded by Charles Darwin and backed by various scientists, came to be accepted, it provided full justification to this theory of materialism from the modern and internationally accepted yardstick, i.e., science. Various philosophers and scientists applied this theory to social system and thus evolved the social Darwinism. Thus the faith of these persons also died and the place of God came to be taken by science, and materialistic philosophy became dominant in the whole world.
This is a brief history of materialistic interpretation of life.
Number of problems arose due to the revival of this philosophy, some of which are listed below:-
1) People came to fulfill their desires, no matter legally or illegally.
2) With this philosophy all priority was given to visible and the unseen (Ghaib) is nothing but an illusion.
3) A material race was started among the nations and the people gave rise to hatredness, wars and all other evils.
4) Physical well being and worldly possessions were given highest value in life.
5) Poor were exploited by the rich and concept of mercy and human qualities vanished.
6) All social relations and customs came under the influence of this materialistic philosophy and during these social customs huge pomp and show were carried out so that society may call these people as progressive, rich and advanced.
7) More and more stress is laid on the gain of these material things such as property, houses, cars, home appliances, etc.
8) People began to respect others because of these materialistic possessions and all love and binding in society is lost.
9) Due to this interpretation of life, people became alien to God and religion lost its place. Thus religion came to be superseded by this materialistic philosophy and all morality, respect, self- esteem, love and other virtues of humans which make them distinct and different from other animals are lost.
All the points I have quoted above have to be fulfilled if one has to be known as progressive. So the only weapon and instrument by which you can gain all these material luxuries is “MONEY”. We have to earn it legally or illegally if we wish to be called as advanced, rich and progressive. Thus this very theory gave rise to our present situation and the evil i.e., CORRUPTION.
Corruption is present in every department of our Indian Government and according to a census; Kashmir is the second largest corrupt state in India, which is supposed to be a 90% Muslim dominated state. The main cause of this corruption is materialistic philosophy and other reasons also. In Kashmir, your government work can never be done in any department whether it is Sales Tax department, Traffic department, Police department or Water Works department, until and unless you will not grease the palm of these supposedly government workers and servants of society.
The root cause of this evil lies in the material interpretation of life and social causes such as marriage ceremonies, which are now impossible without dowry. Suppose a ‘C’ class government servant has several daughters and he has to marry them. But without dowry marriage is not possible so he has to make arrangements for their dowry, which are not possible from his salary, so has to definitely arrange them through Bribes. This is also a major cause of corruption.
The only way we can overcome this evil is by religion only. The concept of God and return to origin, i.e., original moral values and virtues is the solution. Solution from various religions and also from moral ethics can also be inferred.
Shiv Khera in his best seller “You Can Win” lays stress about education with moral ethics and he treats education without moral ethics as lame.
Arindham Chowdhri in his best seller “Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch” lays stress on returning to original teachings of Vedas and also to Gandhian way of life as a solution to all social problems.
Hinduism and Christianity and all other major religions of the world lay stress about doing good deeds such as alms giving, loving neighbours, speaking truth and all other virtues which by human nature are good. According to these religions and above mentioned scholars, corruption is a big evil. Some people also lay stress that educating people that corruption is a big and bad evil and bane for our society, can stop this evil.
The religion that has got the potential in its teachings and solutions to all problems of mankind is Islam. The concept of ‘Accountability of Deeds’ present in Islam is the solution to all evils and also to the evil of Corruption. In Islam, God or Allah is that Almighty who possesses all powers over mankind and all have to be submissive to him. According to concept of God in Islam, Allah is present everywhere and nothing is in dark from him. He is omnipresent and watching every one of us and taking note of our deeds. He has revealed down a book namely “Quran” for salvation of mankind and in this book all principles of attaining salvation are present. Our Prophet (SAW) laid stress on moral values and discarded and ordered to stop from those things which harm a society or a person. In this context, corruption is also covered and this concept of bribery is unlawful for a Muslim. In Islam, Allah is such a supernatural power who rewards or punishes a person after death. Thus here is the driving force present which is the source of all the good in this world and we have got a cause to do good. In Islam, death is not the end of life, but it is a starting of a new life in which a person is rewarded with Paradise or punished with the fire of Hell, according to his deeds which he had done in this world, and this world is not for merrymaking and gaining materialistic things, but this world is an examination centre in which Allah’s creation, i.e, Man is tested and those found eligible are granted Paradise and those not eligible are discarded to the fire of Hell.
Thus the concept of accountability and Aakhira, is the source to all goodness and righteousness in this world. No other religion or material philosophy can grant such a solution to these social problems such as Corruption.
Mushtaq ul Haq Ahmad Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar, Kashmir & can be reached at sikandarmushtaq@gmail.com