Moral Trees Withering and Worm Eaten

A plant withers when its roots are dead. Generally the political philosophers of the modern ages assert that the people of a state are the root of the political and social system but, in fact verdure of the tree little depends on these roots. It is government and not the people to keep this tree verdant and protect it from becoming the fodder of the aggressive designs of the enemies and save it from all kinds of decay.


According to Islamic political theory, the government is root and the subjects of the state are the branches covered with green leaves, its social customs blended with its moral and spiritual values. The government has its primal duty to protect the religious beliefs, moral and spiritual values, mental and intellectual fitness of the people and also it has to defend the geographical territories of the state. Thus the government machinery is the root and responsible for maintaining the entire system in order.

A society starts becoming on the wane only with the corruption of its upper class, particularly when the ruling elite sink in wickedness. Downpour of the leaves from the branches of the trees begins as soon as termites of dishonesty chow down the roots. Opportunism and nepotism become a popular practice and the politicians under the umbrella of the government feel free in their disgusting pillaging game. Conscience is put to asleep for freely making wealth through corruption.

Same is the case of the people. The masses tread on the heels of their leadership in spoliation. There is a famous Arabic proverb, denoting the same fact: ‘Annaso Ala Deene Mulookehim.’ The people generally follow the traits of their rulers taking them models for themselves. They blindly go after the behavior of the aristocracy and oligarchy, no matter how much vile that behavior may be. If the rulers are greedy, rakish and foxy natured, their subjects do copy them in their evil manners. Thus moral decline from the top runs through the lower ranks of the society to make it afflicted with moral disease. And no doubt it is happening in our ranks. Good and simple natured common people also make avail of the chances to raise their income and make money through unfair means. From a vendor to a clerk in the office of a civil or private organization all try by their own ways to fraudulently amass the wealth. Delusion, defrauding, lies, craftiness is thought no more a blemish on the characters.

According to the teachings of the Quran, the rulers are bound to enjoin the right and forbid wrong, root out the vice and inculcate the virtues in the minds of the people, guard against the evil elements not letting them move freely in the people with their mischievous activities. But here we see the rulers patronizing and encouraging those who are tainted with the corruption. The members of the legislative bodies, instead come out to bridle the headstrong ‘horse’ of the corruption, they rise their rate as the ‘horses’ in ‘horse trading’ and get a high bid on themselves. They know their rulers and party leaders very well that their gowns and cloaks have stains of corruptions but either ‘party discipline’ or their expediencies force them to openly support the stinky and rotten system, which safeguards the interests of all vitiated and morally polluted elements taking shelter under the umbrella of the politics. The rulers are very shamelessly repressing the accountability measures existing in the constitutions.

In most of the Muslim countries, particularly in Pakistan the society is at a rapid moral fall only because the rulers and the leaders have pushed it to this fall line. The branches and leaves have also caught the same worm, already eating out the roots. Moral plants are entangled in air-creeper and spiritual crops are going worm eaten.