The prayers and festivals of Islam witness collectiveness. Social life holds greater importance in Islam. This is the reason that while individual reformation and piety is stressed, we are also instructed to enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. Today we have forgotten this religious responsibility. Even today if we pay a little attention towards it then we can cut back social evils.
There should be a group in the society which should take note of the vices spreading in the society, prepare a concrete action plan to curtail them and try to implement it.
I would like to quote an incident to cast light on the benefits of collective effort. Seven or eight years ago the news was made public that an infant died due to suffocation in the lap of a mother in a town theatre at Nizamabad. Instead of just lamenting at the incident the youth of Nizamabad vowed to put an end to the evil of film viewing and launched a campaign against film viewing of burqa clad women. The campaign was publicized on community level in Nizamabad and it was decided that plaits of the women would be cut who come to watch movie in burqa.
I remember that an organization in Hyderabad too attempted to take similar measures but failed in its effort. The reason was while the step was lacking wisdom, it also didn’t gain favour of the community folks.
While in Nizamabad the campaign was a huge success. The men who barred their women from going to theatre felt ashamed of going to theatre themselves. Consequently very few theatres exhibit films today and a large number of them are deserted these days.
Similarly when micro finance companies were seen spreading a net in the Muslim localities, these youth immediately initiated a movement and it was made public that Christianity is being preached under the pretence of money lending. Consequently the representatives of the micro finance companies were thrashed in Muslim localities. When those micro finance companies sought help of a local MLA Mr. D Srinivas for loan repayment he refused to cooperate, giving excuse that if he intervenes he would be deprived of the Muslim votes.
If Hyderabadi Muslims too monitor the causes behind the evils then a great transformation is sure to come.
Ather Moin