“And [mention, O Muhammad (PBUH)], when your Lord said to the angels, ‘Indeed, I will make upon the earth a successive authority.’ They said, ‘Will You place upon it one who causes corruption therein and sheds blood, while we declare Your praise and sanctify You?’ Allah said, ‘Indeed, I know that which you do not know.’” (Al-Quran: 2:30)
Seemingly, men evince intrinsic tendency for violence and bloodshed. The current bedlam and disarray caused by strong conflagration victimize people indiscriminately. As a result, the bloody bodies of women and children in debris, the inanimate bodies of men riddle with bullets on streets, the bitter tears of rape victims, the oozing blood of war victims, etc. are the lugubrious story of our day.
Man’s megalomania and egotism led to war and violence throughout the history. For instance, the dictatorial regimes sought to eradicate their political opponents so as to keep their positions safe from jeopardy. The despotic rulers had constantly choked the voice raised for rights or liberties or declaimed against oppressions. The puny individuals, who were bereft of their basic rights, were subjugated to puissant forces. The historical conflagrations and eruptions of aversion and animosity put the man’s humanity under question.
Men still live in a deplorable state. Violating religious and moral taboos are really imprudent of us. Malice and cruelty continue unabated. We harm one another, perpetrate honor-killing acts, blacken our neighbors’ reputation and shed our brethrens’ blood with no iota of mercy. We succumb to the worldly temptations, yield to carnal desires and satiate our voracious appetite for not only pecuniary issues but for hurting our fellows without feeling a sense of guilt.
It is a matter of great surprise to see that in the transient moment of life, men curtail others’ freedom and sacrifice their rights and life for their own enjoyments. In another item, one wishes to relegate his fellows to dystopian world so as to live in his utopia. For instance, the cruel rulers persevered to live with no moral or religious restrictions and whoever dared impede them from their evil desires, were doomed to death.
It should be noted that, “A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive.”
Morality is of a big value in individual and social life. “Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe, the oftener and more steadily we reflect on them,” wrote Immanuel Kant, “the starry heavens above and the moral law within.” These days, the moral law within is being viewed with increasing awe, if not always admiration. The human moral sense turns out to be an organ of considerable complexity, with quirks that reflect its evolutionary history and its neurobiological foundations.
These quirks are bound to have implications for the human predicament. Morality is not just any old topic in psychology but close to our conception of the meaning of life. Moral goodness is what gives each of us the sense that we are worthy human beings. We seek it in our friends and mates, nurture it in our children, advance it in our politics and justify it with our religions. Disrespect for morality is blamed for everyday sins and history’s worst atrocities. To carry this weight, the concept of morality would have to be bigger than any of us and outside all of us.
The first hallmark of moralization is that the rules it invokes are felt to be universal. Prohibitions of rape and murder, for example, are felt not to be matters of local custom but to be universally and objectively warranted. One can easily say, “I don’t like brussels sprouts, but I don’t care if you eat them,” but no one would say, “I don’t like killing, but I don’t care if you murder someone.”
The other hallmark is that people feel that those who commit immoral acts deserve to be punished. Not only is it allowable to inflict pain on a person who has broken a moral rule; it is wrong not to, “let them get away with it.” People are thus untroubled in inviting divine retribution or the power of the state to harm other people they deem immoral. Bertrand Russell wrote, “The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists — that is why they invented hell.”
“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.” Naturally, human beings develop a strong appetite for religion and moral values. In other words, our soul feels hunger the same as our body, and religion seems the only satiating source and one will be pacified through prayers. Hence, let’s practice virtue and morality in our daily life, so as to get rid of violence and inhumanity.