Assalamualikum All,

During my stay in Karachi, Pakistan, I was really disappointed to see the attitude of the citizens of Pakistan and how they have lost their religious and cultural identity. They either follow the negative western trends and fashion (ignoring the positive culture of the west) or they completely disobey rules set by the society. In this series of blog, I will try to discuss these habits and share with you several hadiths and quotes from the Quran that shed light on our wrong doing.

Rules? What Rules:

Most of the citizens have started neglecting rules and regulations set up by the government or even those that come naturally as part of living in society. Even though most of these rules are not rocket science (such as driving on the left hand side, overtaking from the right etc), people including men, women, adult, child, poor and rich have not only stopped following these rules but are being getting ignorant towards them or are being proud of not following it.

When I tried to speak to various people including my friends, I realized that we break these rules just because:

• We find it amusing!
• We believe that since our government is not governing the country effectively and do what they want to do, we too should follow the same path.
• We don’t follow the rules because others are not following the rules.
• We don’t have patience
• We have different excuses such as we are not educated hence we don’t understand the rules or we are in hurry

What I am really surprised at is that no one really tries to understand and link these elements to our religious values and publically try to improve our society. Here, I have posted various Hadith, quotes from questions related to this part of blog that would help us reduce these bad habits thus decreasing our overall gunnah.

“O you who believe! Obey Allaah and obey the Messenger (Muhammad P.B.U.H) and those of you (Muslims) who are in authority”

Source: [al-Nisa’ 4:59]

Narrated Ibn ‘Umar: the ‘Prophet said, “It is obligatory for one to listen to and obey (the ruler’s orders) unless these orders involve one disobedience (to Allah); but if an act of disobedience (to Allah) is imposed, he should not listen to or obey it.”

Source: [Sahih Al-Bukhari]

These quranic verse and hadith show us the importance of following the rules of the society because these basic rules such as driving properly, stopping at the signal by no means have any negative relation with our religion. Hence, not following these basic rules mean, we are in sinful and guilty of wrong doing.

When I further discussed it with my friends and relatives they mentioned that they themselves or one family cannot make a big change but what they don’t understand is that by creating these small changes they will at-least make theirself free of sins and by their positive nature, people may start copying their behavior. Also, they believe that society is so corrupt that they have to indulge in bad activities. However, what I have for my defence is that we should have strong belief in Allah and He will find us a way around to it. Here is a small story of Battle of Badr and how it relates to this ideology of mine.

“Allah had helped you at Badr, when ye were a contemptible little force; then fear Allah; thus May ye show your gratitude.§ Remember thou saidst to the Faithful: “Is it not enough for you that Allah should help you with three thousand angels (Specially) sent down?§ “Yea, – if ye remain firm, and act aright, even if the enemy should rush here on you in hot haste, your Lord would help you with five thousand angels Making a terrific onslaught.”

Source: [Qur'an: Al-i-Imran 3:123–125 (Yusuf Ali)]

If you try to understand the above few sentences, Allah makes a commitment in Quran that if Muslims remain faithful to Islam, Allah will send angels to protect them against the enemy. Now, try to think about the fact that Allah is kun faya kun (Be and it is) meaning that when He says be it happens hence there is no real reason for Him to mention that He will send angels for Muslims protection, He could have simply made the enemies weaker by making it happen however, He choose to mention the help of angels in Quran because he wanted Muslims to have that positive feeling that someone will come for the help in the Battle of Badar.

In the same way, if we stay positive and follow our religion and not do wrong things or at least show full commitment of not doing wrong things such as using bad words or giving bribery, even though we will find hardship but Allah can send angels to help us do good things or he can make it happen just because he is Almighty.

I end the first series of my blog here with a small favour from you all that please take my message into consideration and try avoiding bad things such as driving on the wrong side, not following traffic rules, using abusive language with friends, giving bribe and when you find others doing them, try to teach them a lesson by using the above examples and bring positive change. No one will make our society cleaner but us.

My next blog will inshAllah be on the celebrations I witnessed on new year eve.