![]() The reasons for family slayings are moral degeneration and lack of compassion |
Compassion is a feeling arising from love and fear of Allah. Someone who loves Allah very much will also love everything He has created, and feel affection and compassion for them. Because of his powerful love of and devotion to our Lord he treats other people in the highly virtuous manner commanded in the Qur’an and obeys Allah’s commandment on the subject of compassion. The Qur’an provides the most accurate description of compassion and the attributes of a compassionate person. The Qur’an contains many verses that encourage compassion.
Someone who is filled with feelings of compassion will see goodness and beauty in all things. He will take care of the poor, protect the weak and help the needy. But in a society where there is no compassion stemming from love and fear of Allah, the poor are not taken care of, the rights of the wronged and the oppressed are not defended and nobody takes in the hungry. Nobody helps anyone unless it is in their own interest to do so. Someone may be starving out on the streets while other people right beside him have no qualms about throwing away enough food to feed hundreds. People have no compunction about resorting to fraud to lay hands on one another’s possessions or about making money by trampling on others’ rights. They never oppose the injustices and errors or raise their voices against unfairness. That means that the heartless and ruthless in such an environment can oppress the weak and helpless just as they please. But love, security and justice always prevail in communities that live by the moral values of the Qur’an.
We frequently see reports in the newspapers and on television of people dying of hunger, begging to keep their children alive, people wronged, oppressed and forced to live in tents for want of a proper home, who commit suicide, are exposed to attacks, or who beat, cripple or murder one another. The main reason for all this corruption is the ruthlessness and lack of compassion brought about by lack of religious belief.
In a society in which Islamic moral values prevail however, people live in great peace and contentment, both materially and spiritually. In such societies, people always rush to help others when they hear they are in need. They raise their children in climates of love and compassion. The strong always protect and watch out for the weak. Nobody violates the rights of anyone else. No injustice, conflict, oppression or cruelty are ever seen.
As we have seen, the only escape from the corruption and oppression caused by irreligion is to live by the compassion taught by Allah in the Qur’an and strongly advised by our Prophet (saas).