WISDOM

To understand how corrupt today’s society has become, read this incident. The Indian Express (July 24, 1987, page 3) carried a news item from New Delhi with the headline:

Son Kills Mother as She Refuses to Pay 500

The news said that on July 21, 1987, a 23-year-old youth, Ashok Kumar, asked his mother, Sheela, for 500 rupees. The mother refused. As a result, Ashok Kumar lost his temper. There was a stone slab in the house. He picked it up and smashed it on his mother’s head. Her skull split open, and she died. Then Ashok Kumar put his mother’s body in an iron box, locked it, and washed away the bloodstains. When his brother and sister came home in the evening, he told them their mother had gone to Punjab after hearing news of their father’s illness. But the next day, when a foul smell began coming from the box, it was opened. Inside was the decaying corpse of the mother. Ashok Kumar confessed to the murder and is now in police custody.

In a country where callousness and moral corruption are widespread, if Muslims fail to avoid unpleasant situations and stay ready to argue and fight over every issue, the result can only be disgrace and destruction. In such an environment, any leader who instructs them to “stand firm and fight against oppression” is either extremely foolish or very cunning, because no sensible and prudent person would advocate confrontation in such circumstances.

A foolish person looks only at himself, while a wise person looks at others as well. In a world filled with human beings, only the person who takes others into account in his activities will succeed. In contrast, the one who looks only at himself will never succeed in this world. His life’s vehicle will not reach its destination but will crash midway and be destroyed. This is the truth of life, and it is a truth that will never change.