As 2023 comes to an end heralding the beginning of a new year, mind becomes reflective and retrospective – something we should do every now and then to recalibrate ourselves, reassess, and realign our social, political, economic, moral, and spiritual norms. “God intends no harm to the creation” and any harm that comes our way is “what your hands have brought to you for what you have done” – something we need to reflect on especially at a time when injustice is widespread and the perpetrators seem to relish a period of impunity, even as the whole of humanity and our planet convulse in horror at the magnitude and the grossness of such injustice – be it human rights or the rights of the Earth and its diverse species that sustain our lives.
Injustice abounds in our world while compassion and decency have become scant. Deepening poverty, an ever-increasing wealth gap, concentration of wealth in the hand of few individuals, families, and corporations are a form of economic injustice. Widespread corruption in society, political process and financial systems that favor the rich and the powerful at the expense of the vulnerable, poor, minority, and disenfranchised is a form of social injustice. Mindless and violent ethnic cleansings in various parts of the world in the name of nationality, religion, racial and political supremacy; and alas, so-called “God given” rights that fall flat in the face of morality, religious tolerance, and human dignity are forms of moral and ethical injustice. The biggest spiritual injustice is the denial of God and the hypocrisy of those who claim faith but corrupt their souls with injustice and immoral acts. Any form of injustice is a rebellion against God, as God says, “what kind of faith is it that commands you to do evil?”, or “Do not taint your faith with injustice” or “Be just, that is closer to being a responsible human being” – calls that are abound in scriptures if we are willing and committed to listen and act on, especially the people of Abrahamic faith.
The instances of disruptions of human societies by human beings are deep and wide; the last thousand years, which are well documented, show the patterns, variety, and sources - the Crusades, the militancy of Protestants, the Spanish Inquisition, the colonial rules, slavery in America, the elimination of indigenous cultures, the curve out of Ottoman’s, the Bolshevik autocracy, the Cultural Revolution, WWI, the Holocaust, WWII, the creation of the state of Israel, the Bosnian war, the Tibet and Uyghur concentration camps, the cleansing of Rakhine minorities, and the list is growing at a rapid pace and with rabid ferocity! The solution – let’s ask our own conscience. Do we know where truth resides and where falsehood overcompensates? Do we feel personal accountability for what we do and sometimes, more importantly, what we don’t do? Do we believe a child killed is a crime against humanity, no matter what the justification? Do we believe that one’s life and property is sacred and should never be violated? Do we believe that every human being has an innate freedom to express, choose and act as long as it does not violate the freedom of another human being?
Are we willing to face our own hypocrisy? “There are those who say we believe in God and in the Life to come but they are truly in denial. They wish to deceive God and those who are faithful but they themselves are deluded”; “When they are told do not make mischief in the world, they say, ‘but we are peacemakers!’ Alas, they are the mischief-maker and they are in denial.”
God’s guidance is the true guidance, at least for those who wish to be responsible human beings!
