Undoing the‘Moral Decay’
Our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The best amongst you are those who have the best manners and character.”
By: Ifza Tariq
Morality is something that makes up an identity and builds a healthy character of an individual. Morality is the core of good conduct and it refers to standards that enable people to live cooperatively in a society. Its importance is also reflected in some Qur’anic verses, calling on Muslims to “enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong”. Morality distinguishes us from beasts and brutes. A man without honesty, truthfulness and modesty is worse than a beast. Good morals, good speech and good character have always been used as an element to judge people. Morality is the backbone of civilization and the modernization of a nation. Every religion in the world gives great importance to morality.
However, in the contemporary world, morality is declining drastically. Here in our valley, crimes are increasing swiftly because of the absence of moral values among the youth. In Kashmir, every week, a felonious tiding gets disclosed (to us). As adolescents are getting involved in drug abuse, and when drug addiction takes hold, due to their poor mental and physical health, violence, rapes, exploitation and murders occur/materialize in our societies. Girls are afraid to come out of their homes, because of the eve-teasing and other immoral conduct present in the society. Also, several girls to are involved in drug addiction and other immoral deeds.
Modesty and a sense of respect for parents and teachers is vanishing from the hearts of the children. The Paradise, which was well known for its culture, spirituality, brotherhood and humanity is now becoming a hub of social evils. A myriad of thingswhich were immoral and illegal are now very common in our lives.
There are actually various reasons responsible for this declining morality. Like, the environment in which a child grows, parenting, the influence of social relations and peer groups, the influence of mass media, etc.
As Leo Tolstoy said: “Everything depends on upbringing.”
Parenting is something that influences a child throughout his/her life. That’s the reason, good parenting can build a nation and poor parenting can destroy one. Parents are role models for children and cannot teach moral values to the children until and unless they don’t practice virtuous values by themselves. For instance, a father asks his kid to tell the person on the phone that he is not home or a mother says bad about other family members in front of her child. How can we expect the child to be honest, truthful and generous? Parents need to be cautious while talking in front of their children. As Scott Alexander stated, “All good is hard and all evil is easy.”
Also, parents should spend quality time with their children. So that, the children can share problems with their parents happening in their worlds. Parents should be concerned about the social interactions, social relations and social activities of their children. Parents and educators should inculcate ethical values in their children. They should appreciate the good conduct of their children and forbid them from bad and immoral acts.
As the saying goes: “One bad fish can spoil the whole pond.”
A bad person can ruin your whole life and a good person can add a remarkable change to your life. The influence of peer groups is so powerful that it can change the habits and daily life of a person. Social relations have a great impact on our lives. Therefore, we must have a good companionship with virtuous people and we shun scoundrels and evil-minded people present in our surroundings.
These days, ‘peer pressure’ has become very common among teenagers. It puts a curtain on the eyes of a person. As, when you want to be accepted by your friends, you don’t realise whether you are on the right path or not. It has a lot of negative impacts, but sometimes it may also have some positive impacts. For example, your friend uses a social platform on the internet. You feel ashamed of yourself and your friend insults you and calls you outdated. Because of the ‘peer pressure’ you also start using that platform. After some time, you get addicted to social media, which has a lot of disadvantages on its own.
As we discussed earlier, every Religion gives great importance to morality. After parents and teachers, the best way to insist on moral values among children is through religious teachings. One Hadith reports Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) saying, “I was sent to perfect the ethical conduct”.
Every religion in the world teaches ethics andhence we should follow our religions accurately, in a strict sense. Nowadays, many people think that it’s trivial to preach religious teachings to their children. But no! They have got it wrong. Parents should discuss religious beliefs with their children So that they will realise that there are some restrictions on their bad conduct/ they will realise that bad conduct has come with restrictions.
We should not neglect any illicit or immoral act in our society even if it is not a big crime as- “A spark neglected burns the house.” If we neglected it, it will lead our society towards great destruction. It will not be wrong to say that we are the offender / after neglecting any crime, we should not only blame criminals, because the real offenders are us(who neglected it earlier).
After all, I would like to state that we should work on those things that are degrading morality from our society, and we should follow the reforms in letter and spirit, to develop morality in ourselves and in the children, who are the future of our nation.
The writer is 8thStandard student of Public Higher Secondary School Watlar.
Kashmir Images is an English language daily newspaper published from Srinagar (J&K), India. The newspaper is one of the largest circulated English dailies of Kashmir and its hard copies reach every nook and corner of Kashmir Valley besides Jammu and Ladakh region.
