Daily Times

Values denote desirability of the end results of given actions. They give rise to principles that work as guides to conduct. They are not normally enforced by the state unless they have been incorporated into law. Their implementation depends on the larger society’s approval of the conduct in question. Societies have gone through different historical experiences in developing norms to evaluate conduct. These norms are not universally the same. Aggrieved parents and husbands resort to honour killing in some countries but not everywhere.

Moral values are taken as such because they are generally considered to be right guides to conduct. Let us see if we can identify some of them. The following come readily to mind: commitment to truth, justice, rule of law, equality of opportunity, respect for human life and dignity, loyalty to friends, patriotism, hard work, and compensation only from the labour of one’s mind and body, among others.

There are indications that moral values are in a state of decline in Pakistan. We heard of students taking the matriculation examination at various places in Sindh who asserted their right to cheat. Subsequently, students taking the intermediate examination in Karachi did the same. They beat up the professors who had tried to stop them, barged into the college principal’s office, dragged him along the floor, and broke every thing in his office. Students cheated in examination halls even in the old days but not in this blatant fashion and on this scale.

Some agonising developments surface if looking at the scenario in Pakistan from other perspectives. There was a time when lying and cheating in interpersonal relations was considered reprehensible. This was particularly the case in business transactions. A gentleman’s word was assurance enough that debts of honour would be paid back. This is no longer to be relied upon. Lying and cheating, even a false testimony in a court of law, are all right if the person concerned thinks he can get away with it.

Other types of ghastly perpetrations are taking place every day. Young girls, as little as less than ten years of age, are kidnapped, raped, tortured, and then killed. In some cases, their bodies have been chopped up and limbs scattered indiscriminately at different locations. It is not only the deprived sections of the community that resort to malpractices. Many of the high and the mighty steal from banks; they borrow large sums of money, which they have no intention ever to return. They use their influence to get these loans written off as bad debts.

One reason for the decline of moral values may be the monetisation of cultures. There was a time when a man of learning was shown deference even if he was not wealthy. There is a greater inclination now to measure a man’s worth proportionately to his material possession. He will be well received in high places if he owns a fleet of fancy cars and lives in a mansion, even if he was once a high school dropout and has remained essentially unlettered. Preachers condemn corruption in the public services. Yet I do not know of a family who would reject a young police inspector’s request for the hand of their daughter on the ground that some of his income might be coming from sources that are not entirely legitimate. Young men and women who excel in competitive examinations for the superior services prefer postings in the income tax departments rather than the civil service of Pakistan or the judiciary because opportunities for making money through graft abound here. It is possible that this covetousness arises out of an increasingly pervasive culture of consumerism.

Society in Pakistan tends to consume more than it produces. The gap is filled by imports. The central government has been spending enormous amounts of money that it did not have. It has borrowed trillions at home and abroad. A great many of the private individuals are also borrowing, a practice that the banks have been encouraging. Interest rates in Pakistan are high, over ten percent, and yet people have been buying homes and cars with borrowed funds. In many cases, mortgage payments leave little for adequate amount of food, healthcare and children’s education. Consumption is being funded also by the remittances that Pakistanis working in the US, UK and the UAE countries send to their families back home. Frugality as a value has fallen by the wayside.

Our moral values are mostly homegrown but some of them may have been imported from other cultures. We in this country tend to think that they have come to us from Islam. Actually, many of them have had universal acceptance and application in uncounted centuries before the advent of Mohammad’s (PBUH) prophet hood (610 AD).With a few exceptions they are common to all of the major religions. Hinduism is one of the exceptions in that it rejects the notion of basic moral equality of all persons. It places them in gradations of a hierarchical order. Islam, on the other hand, asserts the entitlement of all persons to equal protection of the law. It discourages not only the concentration of wealth in a few hands but also accumulation. It enjoins us to spend all we have beyond our needs in the way of the Lord, meaning for the improvement of our community. It does not require equality of incomes but it does seek to diminish the distance between the rich and the poor.

In another line of its dimensions, Islam encourages the dissemination and creation of knowledge. The Prophet is reported to have enjoined Muslims to acquire knowledge even if they had to go to China for it. China at that time was not the place where Islamic studies had thrived or even surfaced. He was evidently asking Muslims to acquire knowledge of the physical, biological and social sciences. This was a dramatic change from traditional thinking.

Muslims in Pakistan will kill and die to defend the Prophet’s (PBUH) honour but they are not willing to take his advice in ordering their lives. One may ask if their moral and intellectual decline can be arrested or even reversed. The potential for excellence among them does exist but it remains suppressed in most cases. Virtue generally travels from top down, not from bottom up. If the ruling classes and social forces somehow choose to revive and invigorate moral values, the likelihood is that the generality of people will do in time the same.

The writer is professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts and can be reached at anwarsyed@cox.net