Islam's Response to Contemporary Issues — Page 56
56 islam’s response to contemporary issues Christianity, being the predominant religion of the West, had, until the turn of this century, a strong and effective hold on the moral behaviour of its adherents in the West. Alas, not so any more. Instead a civilization has evolved due to the interplay of scientific socialism, rapid scientific development and material progress, forcing Christianity to beat a retreat, step by step, and adopt a progressively diminishing role in moulding social behaviour. Moral behaviour, therefore, in the West today is as little or as much Christian in its character as the moral behaviour in most Muslim countries is Islamic. The same, unfortunately, is the state of social and moral behaviour elsewhere in the world. There are so many Buddhists and Confucianists and Hindus in the world today but, unfortunately very little of Buddhism, Confucianism or Hinduism can be observed. Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink. If religious or traditional codes of ethics are wanting in a society, morality will lose all relevance to a generation, which no longer blindly accepts its traditional heritage as sound and valid. Such a generation is bound to pass through a critical transitional period of emptiness. This in turn would generate a new urge for inquiry. The process of inquiry may or may not lead to the discovery of a better and more satisfying code of conduct. It may, on the other hand, end up in total chaos or a state of moral anarchy. Unfortunately, as I see things, it is the latter option, which seems to be the choice of modern society. A wind of change is blowing across societies of the world, be they Eastern or Western, religious or secular. It is an evil wind, which is polluting the entire world climate.