Urban Woes, Modernization is having a profound impact on the way we live our lives. We are changing—divorce has increased and….Why?
With the name of Allah, most Beneficient, ever Merciful
Islam is a family and community based religion. It teaches us to overcome being selfish and to care for our parents, spouse, children, employees, the weak, our neighbours and even the poor people we do not know.
Being good to people and caring for them is far more important than the ritual prayer and this is stressed in Sura Ma’un 107. “…So woe to those who Pray, But are unmindful of their Prayer (and ignore the spirit and aim of it), And they like (only) to be seen (of people while they make a show of their deeds), And they withhold alms and other acts of kindness… ”
Allah Subhanatallah actually curses that person that prays but does not take care of the needs of others. There are many more Quranic verses and Hadith that teach us to be good to one another.
Apart from being good to our parents, family and neighbors, The Prophet ﷺ encouraged us to be good to all people. He stressed unity and established a united “ummah” or community. Loving one another is so important that the Prophet ﷺ said in this regard: “By Him in whose hand my soul is, you will not enter paradise until you believe, and you will not believe until you love one another. Should I not guide you to that which will cause you to love one another: Spread out salutation among you.” Abu Dawud 5174.
Caring and loving one another is so important that the Prophet ﷺ stresses this even before our beliefs. It is not only in Islam that the value of a community is recognized.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in 2008. “One of the sayings in our country is Ubuntu– the essence of being human. Ubuntu speaks particularly about the fact that you can’t exist as a human being in isolation. It speaks about our interconnectedness. You can’t be human all by yourself, and when you have this quality–Ubuntu–you are known for your generosity.”
In the modern times that we live in, we have moved away from being a community based people. There was a time when we lived in extended families- Then there was a time when we lived with our parents, now we live only with our spouses and children, and we are increasingly beginning to see that the present generation cannot live with even their spouses. The rate of divorce is ever increasing.
Why is this happening to us? Simply put, we are not following our religion as we should; instead we are following a western way of life. We no longer care about others but are only worried about ourselves.
The great Hindu philosopher M.K. Gandhi said that the link between technological progress and certain harmful Western values provides a reason why much of “modernity” should be rejected.
Professor Yasin Aktay, a current day professor of sociology from Selçuk University, pin points it even further by saying: “There is an increase in individualization and urbanization – and parallel to this increase, is an increase in divorce rates.”
Although Professor Aktay only links the rise in divorce to modernization there are many other social problems that can be linked to it.
In our community there was never a need for old age homes in the past but today we not only need old age homes but we also need laws to protect the old age from being abused.
Then the gap between the haves and the have not’s is ever increasing. Right here in South Africa, while some people live in fancy houses and drive plush cars, most people irk out a living by having to resort to living in shacks.
The wealth of the world is in the hands of a few super rich people.
Talk to any young person today, be it a male or a female and you would notice that they have aspirations of a career, driving their own car and having their own house.
Because there are so many things we want we have no time to accommodate others. We are too busy with our own lives to worry about the needs of others even if they are our mothers, our spouses or even our children.
All our energies are focused on personal material goals.
The media has played a great role in influencing us towards materialism. There are studies that prove that showing scenes of people smoking in movies influences the viewer and they are more prone to end up smoking.
Similarly there are scenes of an idealistic lifestyle with plush houses, exotic cars, fancy clothing etc. being shown to us all the time. Movie stars are the role models and our youth are following them.
This has an effect on the viewer without him/her realizing it. We want these things and we begin to strive towards them which ultimately results in us becoming selfish.
In striving towards material goals we become enslaved to materialism because there is always something new on the market or the items we buy are purposely so poorly made that they break and we have to replace them all the time.
There was a time when the man of the house only worked five days a week. Today it is common to come across situations where both the husband and the wife work seven days a week and still, it is not enough.
In short, we have become slaves, but unlike the slaves of bygone days who were stimulated by negative stimuli (a whip), we are being influenced by positive stimuli. A carrot is dangled in front of our eyes and every time we get close to it, they put another one in front of us.
Apart from this our worldly desires are such that it can never be satisfied. The Prophet ﷺ has aptly described the nature of man in the following Hadith. He said “If the son of Adam were to possess two valleys of riches, he would long for the third one, and the stomach of the son of Adam is not filled but with dust (when we die). And Allah returns to him who repents.” Muslim 2282.
The worst part about modernization is that it distracts us from the grander, true purpose of our life. “The mutual rivalry for piling up (the good things of this world) diverts you (from the more serious things), until you visit the graves.” Al Quran, Sura Al hkathur 102:1
Not only will we be unhappy in this world by never being satisfied, we would be unhappy in the next because we did not prepare for the next stage of our life which is without focusing on our bodies.
An appropriate Quote from the Mathnawi: “Whoever is awake to the material world is more asleep to the spiritual world. His wakefulness is worse than his sleep (because he is doing wrong). When our soul is not awake to Allah, wakefulness is like closing our doors to Divine influences. All day long from the buffets of phantasy and from thoughts of loss and gain and from fear of decline. There remains to it the soul neither joy nor grace and glory nor way of journeying to heaven. The one who is asleep to spiritual things is he who has hopes for every vain fancy and huddles to it. Mathnawi book 4-409
The solution to our problems is to live a simpler life like the way the Prophet ﷺ lived: live a life in harmony with others: love and care for those around us: do not be extravagant: do not chase the world: do not give children modern gadgets for free.
Our children learn from how we behave and if we are materialistically inclined, then that is what they will learn.
Peace and Salutations be upon Muhammad Salallahu Alayhe Wasallam.
Published by Anjuman e Waris e Mohammedi in 2012 – Author: Mohammed Hassan Gaffoor (WhatsApp +27849101486)
Watch this song about materialism.