بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
WHO IS THE CULPRIT?
.الإمامُ عليٌّ (عَلَيهِ الّسَلامُ): مِن الفَسادِ (المَفسَدَةِ) إضاعَةُ الزادِ، ومَفسَدَةُ المَعادِ
“Verily, from corruption comes the loss of sustenance and hereafter.”
Imam Ali (a)
(Al Kafi)
Today, millions of people are starving to death. They’re denied their most basic right to food. Around the world, 821 million people do not have enough of the food they need to live an active, healthy life. Around 9 million people die every year of hunger and hunger-related diseases. This is more than from AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined... One in every nine people goes to bed hungry each night, including 20 million people currently at risk of famine in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Nigeria. People suffering from chronic hunger are plagued with recurring illnesses, developmental disabilities, and low productivity. They are often forced to use all their limited physical and financial resources just to put food on the table.
Ninety-eight percent of the world’s hungry live in developing regions. The highest number of malnourished people, 520 million, lives in Asia and the Pacific, in countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. Whereas sixty percent of the world's hungry are women and girls due to male-dominated social structures. A child dies from hunger every 10 seconds. Poor nutrition and hunger are responsible for the death of 3.1 million children a year. That’s nearly half of all deaths in children under the age of 5. The children die because their bodies lack basic nutrients.
We see people questioning the Creator for our present condition, We see them blaming Allah SWT for all the oppression caused on earth, and not changing the situation or stopping the oppressors. While we complain, Allah, in his book, states:
‘Deprivation has appeared throughout the land and sea by [reason of] what the hands of people have done…’ [30:41]
The Prophet (S) said, 'Whoever deprives a fellow Muslim brother of his right, Allah forbids him the benediction of sustenance until he repents.’[Amali al-Saduq, p. 350, no. 1]
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Be it poverty or increased divorce rate, ignorance or starvation, mental illness or endangered wildlife, natural disasters or marine pollution, bushfires in Australia, or Coronavirus spread around the world. All of this mess is directly or indirectly, created by the hands of this being called man. Corruption doesn’t only mean financial fraud or some specific kind of crime. Corruption also means not being honest to yourself, it means not giving your hundred percent, it means deceiving yourself and others through the false sense of self, it means ghosting your friends and family, it means avoiding those who need your presence, it means betraying those who trust you, it means choosing to ignore rather than help, and it also includes the food you toss out on daily basis and the money you spend on worthless stuff.
Imam Ali (a.s.) said, 'There are two types of sustenance: the sustenance that you seek out, and the sustenance that seeks you out, which even if you do not pursue it, it pursues you.’[Nahjul Balaghah, Letter 31]
The problems start when one begins to chase sustenance. It is the universal law that it’s impossible to receive something by running after it, the person falls into the trap of greed, corruption, jealousy, and the list never ends…
Imam Ali (a.s.) said, 'Sustenance runs after the one who does not run after it.’[Ghurar al-Hikam, no. 1408]
The Prophet (S) said, 'Sustenance cannot be pulled by the greed of an avaricious person nor repelled by the repugnance of a hostile person.’[Bihar al-Anwar, v. 77, p. 68, no. 7]
Sustenance includes everything that is important for living, and once you get corrupted, you corrupt your environment, and consequently, corruption flourishes in the entire system. As the sustenance cannot breathe in depravity fades away.
Imam al-Sadiq (a.s.) said, 'Obtaining wealth through illegal means cuts off one's sustenance.’[Tuhaf al-’Uqul, no. 372]
Therefore, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that corruption destroys your life on earth (as it destroys sustenance) as well as your life hereafter.
Date: 08/05/2020
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