Podcast
Bismillah Rahman Raheem
This episode is going to discuss another prohibition ~ spreading corruption.
What is corruption?
The Arabic word “Fasad” (الْفَسَادَ) is used in many places in the Qur’an to describe corruption, and this word can be translated not only as corruption but also as evil, rotten or depravity. In the context of the Qur’an, it can mean spreading corruption or spreading mischief on earth, propaganda contrary to the moral teachings of Allah, corrupting or disturbing public peace, etc. To prevent the spread of these kinds of evil things is an important theme in the Quran. In addition to enjoining good and forbidding evil, and leading people to be good, it is also very important to stop all glorification and promotion of evil.
Many people will think that the explanation of evil or corruption is limited to cheating (stealing and abduction), but in the Qur’an it includes blood kinship relationship, interpersonal relationships, and anything that goes against the teachings of Allah is evil.
For example, believing in the Oneness of God, anyone preaching or teaching others to worship the so-called ghosts and gods other than Allah, making people believe that asking God for divination, looking at constellations, fleeting fortunes, etc. are one of the things that lead to corruption of heart.
Nowadays, there are many TV programs, movies, or short films on different platforms that promote, vilify, or glorify certain behaviors or lifestyles to varying degrees. Most people have fallen into this passive style of information feeding and don’t even realize about this.
For example, how many shows in recent decades have been about homosexuals, who went from just describing them as invisible people in society, to becoming victims of discrimination, and slowly becoming brave people who fought against discrimination from families, friends, and colleagues. Nowadays, the show about homosexuality has become a beautiful and very romantic thing. And in the story of the Prophet Lot in the Qur’an, (29:29) Indeed, you approach men and obstruct the road and commit in your meetings [every] evil.”
In the past, the brotherhood between men was purely affectionate and righteous. Nowadays if the brotherhood is a little deeper, it is forced to twist into a homosexual relationship. In other words, it is only promoting homosexuality, increasing more of the doubts among young people. This kind of relations are normalized so that anyone who disagrees with this will become traditional, and also turn into public enemies. Slowly, people are no longer opposed, surprised, or unfamiliar with this kind of relationship or way of life. Then, they began to support it silently, and then turned into open support. Like the wife of the prophet Lot, she is not into homosexual, just support them. In the end, together with these people, they were all punished by Allah.
Another example, many years ago, many programs talked about one-night stands, unmarried cohabitation, pre-marital love, pre-marital sex, etc., which were regarded as bold themes and impacted the social morality at that time. Now the stories of one-night stands can develop romance and love, highly encourage unmarried cohabitation life, one need to date several times before marriage to have a happy married life, etc., or people who got married soon after they met, or who were introduced by their parents, are all described as outdated, inappropriate or many problems.
Another example of the current logic is that housewives are outdated and out of touch with society. To be a self-reliant working woman, it is more worthy of respect, so put aside the shackles of family, to leave children to day care, and so on.
In the past, the single-parent family described earlier has many unknown difficulties, which makes people think about how to maintain a marriage relationship with children. Nowadays the single-parent family life is described as far better than the average complete family life. Similarly, it is encouraging women to voluntarily choose to become single mothers, as they still can live a wonderful life, and finally can find someone who is rich and loves them too, etc. But in real life, how many people can really become Cinderella?
For another example, the mafia life described in the past is full of fighting and killing, no matter how beautiful life was, but there will always be a doom day for them. Nowadays, the description of the mafia is promoted and upgraded to a big company and a large enterprise with beautiful outcome, and the final message is high achiever can come in every profession.
For another example, in the past it was said that those who drink alcohol are usually poor people and the leading cause of domestic violence. Nowadays, drinking and wine tasting are activities for the rich, representatives of wealth and status, and “a must” social behaviors that increase the distance between people. ,etc.
Perhaps these films, TV or short films only reflect certain social phenomena or social facts, but in fact, they are slowly eroding the consciousness of right and wrong. People no longer resist or deny certain practices, and gradually accept them. Then, naturally will start to imitate, follow and think that this is the right way to live. To put it simply, look at the way of life 30 or 40 years ago, and then look at the current divorce rate, the number of marriages, the number of adultery outside marriage, the birth rate with and without marriage, the number of women’s employment, etc. Is this the way of life that everyone wants? Is this the right way to live? Is this really the ideal way of life? Are all the old ways of living wrong?
Indeed, most of us have unknowingly fallen into the baptism of big information, from the screens of TV and movies, to the screens of computers and mobile phones, we are immersed in this information or entertainment day and night. Surrounded by many people, hearing and seeing, day after day, Self illusion think that one can be different from other people, that will not be easily assimilated and will not be affected, but in fact, the thinking has been slowly changed and mould but only do not know or perceive it.
One must know that behind the world of media and the Internet, there are many different people with many different goals: what they want people to believe, and what they want people to accept. Therefore, they put forth whatever they want to express from their own perspective, no matter it’s good or bad. Some media even distribute the same news in the identity of different people, so that people can believe that it is true, and it is no longer important to know the truth or false as long as they can achieve the intended purpose.
Try to question ourselves: How many people have been inspired to imitate from these information, regardless of whether it is true or false? It’s also true that not all information is bad, but how many people can tell right from wrong, true from false? Is it safe to escape from reality and hide yourselves into a burrow? The consequences of not paying attention can be to put yourself in a dangerous situation without knowing it, or when one caught in it, will be really shocked, or simply will lose the direction completely.
Therefore, Allah Almighty teaches believers and all people not to preach evil or participate in any form of corruption and evil. Corruption can exist in any field – political, financial, entertainment, religious or social. It can happen anywhere and can spread like wildfire, and because of its ubiquity, Allah taught us a mechanism to put out the fire and stop it from spreading. Therefore, in the Qur’an, Allah reminds us repeatedly to stop, and not to preach corruption and evil, and to enjoin good and prohibit evil.
(40:26) And Pharaoh said, “Let me kill Moses and let him call upon his Lord. Indeed, I fear that he will change your religion or that he will cause corruption in the land.”
Pharaoh asked for permission from the public to kill Moses, otherwise Moses would spread corruption and evil in the land, and he portrayed Moses as a man who threatened to corrupt the people and their religion, even though it was ironic that Pharaoh himself was the corrupt and evil one. He is also the most wicked man, but he still insists that he is God and to persecute Moses’ people at will. How ironic! When Pharaoh himself was corrupt and evil, he hid behind the guise of reform and accused others of being corrupt and evil. In real life, isn’t there so many people existed like this too?
(2:11-12) And when it is said to them, “Do not cause corruption on the earth,” they say, “We are but reformers.” Unquestionably, it is they who are the corrupters, but they perceive [it] not.
In this Ayat, corrupt and evil-doers will always deny their corruption and evil-doing, and corrupt and evil-doers will claim to be reformers, mediators, and truth-tellers. Often it may be that they do not see that this is corruption or evil, or they simply do not realize that it is corruption or evil, or they are actually liars, knowingly committed, full of excuses, and falsehoods. Whether real deaf or fake blind, Allah is all-knowing their inner thoughts, motives and intentions.
(83:14) No! Rather, the stain has covered their hearts of that which they were earning.
This verse makes it clear that the heart is locked because of the sins committed, and the locked heart can no longer see the truth, only see what they want to see, or what they like to see.
As a hadith sayings: A sinful heart cannot tell right from wrong, the only thing he can see is what he likes.
And people allow the corruption and evil doing, so the consequences of this has mentioned in the hadith, the Prophet (pbuh) said: “By the One in Whose Hand is my soul! Either you command good and forbid evil, or Allah will soon send upon you a punishment from Him, then you will call upon Him, but He will not respond to you.”
This hadith expresses the importance of enjoining good and forbidding evil, let alone preaching evil? Only by repeatedly enjoining good and forbidding evil, then can somehow not let these bad things go out of control like a mountain fire. Otherwise, before the end of the world, Allah will let these evil people take the power, and He will no longer accept the call from those proclaiming self-righteous without enjoining the good and forbidding the evil.
Faith without action, their prayers turned into empty words. It was narrated from Abu Hurairah that the Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: “Islam initiated as something strange, and it would revert to its (old position) of being strange. so good tidings for the strangers.”
Indeed, isn’t the permitted and forbidden things discussed in a series of podcasts also strange to many?
We need to enjoin good and forbid evil, to prevent corruption continue to fermented and being spread, as mentioned in this hadith:
“Whosoever of you sees an evil, let him change it with his hand; and if he is not able to do so, then [let him change it] with his tongue; and if he is not able to do so, then with his heart — and that is the weakest of faith.”
Indeed, Allah is very aware of the human beings He created, and has given a lot of room for everyone to choose and act according to individual circumstances. But if one cannot do good things, speak good words, then one should keep silent. And if one use words and actions to show support for evildoers, then these people are far inferior to those who have the weakest faith, as they have fallen into the ranks of hypocrites, and the consequences of this, which is to be punished and cursed by Allah.
(30:41) Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea by [reason of] what the hands of people have earned so He may let them taste part of [the consequence of] what they have done that perhaps they will return [to righteousness].
Another Hadith: Umm Salama, the wife of the Prophet, pbuh, said, ‘Messenger of Allah! Shall we be destroyed while there are people who are salih among us?’ The Messenger of Allah, pbuh, said, ‘Yes, if there is much wickedness.‘
We need to remind ourselves that if we don’t fight it, we will all become insensitive, and when we become familiar with these crimes, and accept it, it will become a part of us. And we may think we are clear in our mind a little, then how about our children, what will they face in future? Will it be more severe? Therefore, we need to be vigilant and strict, and if we do nothing, what are the consequences to bear for us and our future descendants?
In conclusion, true belief is not passive, so if we see something involving corruption or evil, we cannot support it, we cannot preach it, we cannot turn a blind eye. Be clear that if putting own interests above Allah, then it is corrupt and evil. And those who applauding those in power who are clearly corrupt and evil is unacceptable, even if employed by them or link with monetary interests. Don’t sell your conscience for self-interest, these will not be the ones that Allah loves, we can only live once in this world, and when we meet Allah Almighty in the hereafter, He will ask us why we don’t do anything, we can’t say “because I’m just only one person”, instead we have to say “even though we can’t do anything, we’ve done our best.”
Many TV shows, movies, or different social platforms, more or less, are all around us, and we cannot escape other people’s discussions. Instead of watching secretly, we should face it. We need to train ourselves, our children and the community, how to distinguish right from wrong, How to draw a boundary between what is evil and corrupt for yourself and your children, otherwise when the fire comes, it will not distinguish between good people and sinners, but burn everyone out.
To equip ourselves, we must study the Quran in depth, not through the media, but truly open the Quran to read, so as to understand the power and teaching of Allah, and at the same time, pray for the protection and guidance of Allah, so that we can clearly see and Distinguish fact from falsehood. Nothing is too late, or even a mountain of sins can be forgiven, turn back to Allah and ask for forgiveness and guidance.
O Allah! Please forgive all our sins, help us to fight against corrupt people. Please let us see the truth as the truth and the false as the false. I ask you to protect and guide everyone who believes in you.
Thanks for listening.