There are a few things that i really feel most Pakistanis ignore. Since I am a Pakistani, i am only talking about us and not other Muslims who may be the same.
Although Islam teaches us that cleanliness is half of faith or part of faith, but we never practice it in public. We would keep our house clean but unfortunately many people hardly care when they or their kids throw some trash on road. We finish a picnic and unfortunately, nobody wants to sit in the place we left because who cares that the trash was not picked up. So much for the love and caring for the other Muslim brothers and sisters.
The reality is that most non-Muslims in the West are better than us Muslims** in this regard.** This is the bitter reality. Although we Muslims are created as the best nation by God.
It is our Islamic duty to say salam to everyone, whether we know him or not. However the reality is quite opposite. Unfortunately, in most cases, if I say salam to a person in Pakistan i do not know, he will stare at me with amzement, as if something wierd happened. Not everywhere but in most cases. Now compare this to the kafir living in the west. In most public places, smiling is a common norm. Let us atleast admit where we stand.
There are loads of other things which we all know that need improvement.
I am saying all this not because I am over whelmed by the glory of the West, but because many of the things they are today is exactly what Islam taught but we ignored. Often we talk of the ills of their society (which are true), but there are many positive aspects also. The need to change is not because we want to copy them, but because that is what our own religion demands. May Allah put our affairs straight.
I would also reiterate the famous poetry of Iqbal:
Kheeera na kar saka mujhey jalwa o danish e farang
surma hai meri aankh ka , khaak e madina o najaf.
But still, we do need improvement, for Allah’s sake.
Nice topic Laeeq and something which is very close to my heart. That means I really feel it whenever I step out of my place. And I am serious when I say that as a child I wished I could head 'baldiya ka mehekma' you know muncipal coorp.
Despite the fact that there is so much stress in Islam on cleanliness, lets take for example the wadoo (abolution) that we have to perform for every namaz; we as a nation care less for our environment. Our surroundings paint a sorry picture, really.
Let me give you another example from this metroplitan city karachi. You know there are no public toilets, the shopping malls aren't equipped with that. ( i am not talking about the new ones).There is so much stress on building mosques but I have absolutely no idea why people do not utilize the facilities there...or maybe they are non-existent. We criticise Iran for being a theocracy, a shia state but I must commend them. In every corner of Iran, you'd find their imambarghas with proper facilities for men as well as women.
Another issue is that the moment the people land in Pakistan, the same people who would be fearing a ticket from gulf police or canadian authorities for breaking the law, would take pride in the fact that ' aray jao, yeh apna mulk hai. yahan sab kuch chalta hai.aakh thuu' These are trivial things but they speak a lot about our mentality and the sorry state of affairs.
I fail to undertstand why Mullahs do not start a cleanliness drive, why don't they preach something to that effect.
In fact, as you rightly pointed put, our religious class can be torch bearers in this regard. For example, I once happened to see the Jumaat e Islami ijtimaa in Faisal masjid, Islamabad , i think some years back. I greatly admire jamaat for their vision but I discovered how they lacked even the basic things. The ijtimaa was ofcourse political (and less emphasis on Islam itself) and nobody cared about cleanliness. When ijtimaa ended, there was so much mess in that beautiful place. You cannot imagine how much. I mean, is that how the best nation (Muslims) is supposed to be. Can't we even be organized and keep our place clean? The sad thing is that if I say this commonly in Pakistan, I am sure people may even make mock at me.
Another shock regarding cleanliness was during Hajj. I understand there are millions of people, but hardly anyone cared about keeping that Holy city clean. Wrappers, disposable cups, plates and empty water bottles all around the place after Hajj finished. We must change ourselves. Atleast start talking about it. Ofcousre we can be organized. If we can organize ourselves in prayer, so quickly, rows and rows of straight lines, why can't we organize ourselves in other things. Discipline has so much importance in Islam. The namaz/prayer we do everyday is all about dicipline and cleanliness.
Regarding the point you raised about public toilets, yes it is so important. Every mosque happens to have a bathroom. We need to create awareness to improve those. If government doesen't care, than we ourselves have to come forward to create awareness.
Very true Laeq and I am sure people must have mocked you because I have myself experienced that.
Well, the ordinary citizens can do a lot. The first thing they can do is to clean their apartment complexes, and makes sure not to throw garbage around. You know some women have this habit of throwing their garbage, no matter which locality they reside in through their windows I do not know what is that, ignorance? jahalat? The same thing can be said about the houses… all the empty/vacant plots next to them are transformed into dumping grounds…
Our nation takes pride in spitting, peeing and littering (in) the public places. Sorry for being crude but I can’t help it…And particularly if you bring in religion than I must say sara Islam aurat say he shuru hota hai, Islam isn’t just about locking women inside but there is a lot about mannerisms and attitudes that one should sport and that can be taught to the general public.
Waisay , CBO’s (community based organisations can also play an important role in the cleanliness drive)
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Minerva: *
.....You know some women have this habit of throwing their garbage, no matter which locality they reside in through their windows ...
[/QUOTE]
The Messenger pbuh and his companions were among the most thoughtful, clean, honest, and tolerant. Kuffar became his followers simply due to the good habits of the Messenger pbuh.
For all his adult life, the Messenger pbuh was known for his truthfulness, trustworthiness, and tolerance. Daily life of Pak Mullahs has nothing to do with the three golden habits of the Messenger pbuh.
This is a really good thought-provoking topic. A absolutely agree with both of you guys. It bothers me lot also, but I think majority of Pakistanis have stop realizing that turning our streets into dump grounds is a bad thing. Same thing goes for other predicament of our society like lack of courteous and polite behavior. One would assume that in this modern era of technology where world has become such a small place and with interaction with other civilized cultures and societies would produce a nation who fully grasp the concept of manners. Regretfully, I would venture to say that a vast number of Pakistanis need to learn etiquettes. Like cold germs, politeness spreads from people to people quickly. If more people exhibited good manners towards others, the trend would spread ferociously into a tidal wave of politeness.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by antiobl: *
The Mullahtic idiotics and their followers are so intolerant that they are bombing Pakistani-Shias, harassing Pakistani-Christians, and incarcerating Pakistani-Christians.
The Mullahtic idiotics and their followers are cannot be trusted because they are deceitful uncouth lot. May Allah save us from these beardos.
[/QUOTE]
Totally off topic dude. You always have to some how bring your same old Mullah hatred ideas in every post regardless of the topic.
Antibol Yaar, chor do mullah ki jaan. Honestly, I have seen som excellent ones also. Like the guy who taught me how to read the word of God. I respect and greatly admire him.
Anyway, coming back to the topic, for teh purposes of dawah and showing the world a model of a true Islamic Republic, we must start caring for these little things. The revolution of Islam we aim to bring and often talk about would never succeed through political parties or the system we have. People are the real assets of a nation. We sure do need to show that littering or throwing garbage everywhere is a sin. As purity is part of faith, how can we just ignore such an important part of faith. Besdies this comes politiness, acts of courtesy and discipline.
Another incident I remembered during Hajj was how the Pakistani flight came on the airport in Jeddah and how people wearing Ihraam were not standing in a line, literally pushing each other and just doing anything just to get out of the terminal first. There went the spirit of Hajj down the drain. I wonder what our schools teach all day? What do the parents tell their kids?
I always wonder why are we like that? What are the ways to improve our nation as a whole. I am not a big fan of concerts and music but I remember watching a concert on TV, and how people were jumping out of the barriers on to the stage. For God’s sake let the guy sing atleast. Then when a female singer came , the scene of people using laser lights pointed at wierd places and this program going on satellite.
Nobody hardly cares what others , non-Muslims would think of us. Most importantly Allah is watching us every moment. We would accountable for an atom’s weight of good and bad deed. Truly the height of best mannerism was in the Prophet :saw: He would clear the path if he found some obstacle. There is reward for doing such small things. so where would the change start. I agree with Agent smith about this:
“If more people exhibited good manners towards others, the trend would spread ferociously into a tidal wave of politeness.”
Public Toilets, ahhhhh….if you look at it most of the public toilets are provided at private facilities in the developed countries and on large public facilities, such as Airports, Museums, Hospitals, Train stations etc. The private facilities, large as shopping centers and small as gas stations are forced to have these public toilets through building codes and local laws. In Pakistan, we do have these local laws and codes as well, but the problem is awareness and enforcement.
In most private establishments in Pakistan these facilities are provided, but the main issue is to open these to general public and then the maintaining of these facilities. Most commercial buildings in down town areas don’t open these to general public and hence nobody knows about them.
I think firstly
-our local governments should provide more of these facilities especially in the down town areas or business districts for general public.
-For public facilities the local government should be responsible for maintaining these facilities. For example, the city government of Lahore with a population of 5.5 Million in early 90’s maintained only two large such facility and on of them was at the Railway station, I wish you never go there.
-The local government then should make laws and provisions in the current building codes for the private facilities to open the facilities for public and the private facilities should also maintain those as well.
Secondly, there should be a national campaign on national media for telling people how to use these facilities and how to keep them clean. In the early 40's and 50's with the introduction of TV there was a major campaign in the US to tell the people how to keep them selves clean after using public toilets, this campaign helped in bringing the health standards up and many illnesses down.
Another important issue is the unregulated, uncheck design standards in the public facilities such as masjids. Msijds are very important in our urban fabric, and until now very little has been done to set up any design standards for these facilities. It’s really deploring, there are very few masjids in Pakistan were you would like to do wadu and are satisfied with the cleanliness of the place. This has to change.
But all these are Khwab-e-Khergosh, as long as our education ministry is fixated on taking the Jihad out of textbooks and adding the Muria period in to our history textbooks nothing will change.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by laeeqkhan: *
Look at the depth of our religion. Yes we have guidance on every matter. The problem is with us not doing it.
[/QUOTE]
what it has to do with religen ? more to do with wealth of the nation.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by queer: *
rvikz man you are so wise, i always wondered if you are the reincarnation of the great prophet krishna.
[/QUOTE]
Well, just saying people in west or more cleaner than Muslims is wrong.
people in west are not cleaner because of their relegion!!
Its all to do about a nation either muslim or other.
its not only one thing, we take pride to do bad things, crossing red signals, bad driving, through trash on the street is one of them. Its that attitude we need to change.
everyone knows its bad habit but they will still do it?? why they dont really feel by heart its bad.
That will not be changed by strcit laws only, it require awareness, upbringing of kids from start. teaching them goo values by setting examples. only after 10-15 years then we will see a change.
on government part, they should provide proper places to dump trash. more bins at public places.
I do not know what is that, ignorance? jahalat? The same thing can be said about the houses… all the empty/vacant plots next to them are transformed into dumping grounds…