Travelling by an otherwise comfortable
bus service plying between Lahore and Islamabad, I had an uncomfortable
time facing constant disturbance through involuntary ‘consumption’ of filthy
songs and indecent dialogues of films/dramas that were ‘entertaining’ the
passengers. The hostess, whose duty was to make the passengers feel comfortable,
conveniently ignored the mild protest I made to her. I had to endure the
five-hour long agony, making vain attempts to fight the Satanic messages.
On leaving the coach, I took two decisions: first, I will not travel on
this service again, and, second, I’ll report the matter to the higher officials
of the bus service. I got the opportunity of immediately implementing the
latter decision on reaching the destination. The passengers’ lounge of
the bus service had a complaint book. I availed the opportunity to freely
express my feelings of disgust at the experience I went through. I also
warned the officials that if the policy I am complaining against would
continue, I and my like-minded friends would never use the service again.
While writing the protest, I was convinced that apart from gaining a spiritual
satisfaction that I was discharging my religious duty, there wasn’t any
real possibility that my protest would effectuate any change in the policy
of the service.
Sometime later, when I was in need
to travel again, I used the same bus service, completely forgetting that
I had made a resolve not to avail it anymore. I was pleasantly surprised
to notice that although the ‘facility’ of songs and films/dramas was still
available to the passengers, those who were not interested in getting ‘entertained’
were spared from being disturbed by it. Earphones were provided to the
passengers so that the voice of the system goes selectively to only those
passengers who opt for it. I am not too sure whether my written complaint
had anything to do with this change in policy or not, but it did strengthen
my confidence in the act of controlled protest.
Commercial organizations pursue their
business interests when they make attempts to ensure customer satisfaction.
If committed Muslims make officials of these ventures realize that they
are in danger of losing considerable customer patronage if they continue
to follow their un-Islamic policies, they would most certainly be forced
to rethink their business strategies, if only for commercial reasons. In
order for the protest to be effective, however, its message should be clear
and directed only towards the relevant authorities. Messages similar to
the one I delivered need to be delivered to the owners of general stores
and other retail outlets also, who display in their stores cover pages
of magazines that seem to be in some kind of competition of outperforming
each other in disseminating obscenity. The revenues generated by these
journals are normally a very small component of their overall sales proceeds.
However, the trend of spreading vulgarity is accelerating at a rapid pace
through these retailers, apart from other reasons, because good Muslims
– who form a decent chunk of the overall customer population – seem to
be indifferent to the phenomenon of this threatening menace.
Preventing evil from spreading (Nahi
‘anil Munkar) is a necessary part of a believer’s list of Islamic obligations.
Let us, therefore, make a serious attempt to do our best to check evil
from increasing. There are good reasons to believe that our sincere efforts
would bear fruits in the society. Even if they don’t, we will have an excuse
to present to our Creator that we did try our bit to check evil from spreading.
The Qur’an informs us about the example of a few God-fearing people
who used to urge others not to commit sins. When they were discouraged
by some others from doing Nahi ‘anil Munkar because of, what they
thought, the apparent futility of the exercise, the rightly guided people
defended their strategy thus:
[We are doing so because] we want to have some
excuse [to present] before your Lord and, who knows, they might become
God-fearing [as a consequence of our efforts]. (7:164)
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