M. Qaiser
Today our society is dying due to plague of social evils, which are turning our once proud and God fearing society into a soulless entity. The slow decay of our collective consciousness is affecting every one of us. Pertinently, social evil is the willful disregard of the norms of society in ways that cause suffering, destruction, or death.
In modern society, with special reference to the valley of Kashmir, it is important to note that a number of evils have grappled our society in its iron claws and now it seems impossible to get out of its tentacles. Today, our society faces multi-dimensional social evils in the form of growing suicides, dowry, molestation, lavish marriages, drug addiction and moral degradation. Suicide is one such trend that has been taking its roots in the Kashmiri society and now this evil is spreading at a rapid rate here especially among the teenagers. The manner in which the society has shaped its social fabric and the circumstances on account of conflict prevailing here are obvious reasons for such evils.
The traditional social norms, customs, cultural ethos and religious fervor present in the Kashmiri society has now been nearly lost in the blind race of materialism.
This unique culture offered a check against these kinds of evils from taking root in the society. The role of the individual in Islam is not limited to fulfilling the five pillars. The Muslim in an Islamic community has a greater responsibility than is usually understood. Rather than debating or fighting over petty issues and get divided into sections, we must unite to free our society from the darkness of evils. No religion or sub-sect of a religion has ever approved any evil. All stress upon mankind to fight against them. But unfortunately, what we see presently is sheer deviation.
Political institutions and religious Institutions, supposed to control or even eradiate these social evils have not been able to check this menace. In fact, leaders and priests here have miserably failed to act as role models on account of their not so good deeds. The social evils blooming in our society is enough to suggest how much situations is out of the hands of the responsible persons including religious scholars, parents or elders of the society. It is the high time for everyone in general and for the intellectuals in particular to wake up to the occasion and change the face of the society and contribute to the betterment of society. Looking at present gloomy picture it looks bad omen has won over good and remembers us the famous quotation, “the only thing required for triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”