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| Kids eating out of garbage |
Outline:
1) Introduction
2) Islamic touch
3) Causes of poverty
i) Lack of education
ii) Bad governance
iii) Corruption
iv) Unemployment
v) Moral depravity
4) Causes of moral depravity
i) Lack of closeness to the religious teachings
ii) Lack of education
iii) Western influence
iv) Breakage of family bonds
v) Materialism
5) Effect of Moral depravity
vi) Increases corruption, nepotism
vii) Moral depravity affects education, Health, and all the sectors.
viii) Fraud in the Tax system
ix) Don’t give zakat.
x) Wastage of too much money and low savings
xi) The Justice system doesn’t work and bad law and order situation.
xii) Hoarding and inflation
xiii) Mafias ask for ransom.
xiv) Exploitation of workers by factory owners and of tenets by landlords.
xv) Trickle-down effect on competent people from corrupt officers
6) Suggestions
xvi) Religious teachings
xvii) Ethical education
xviii) Enacting strong family bonds
xix) Punishments
xx) Awards for honest people
7) Conclusion
Poverty is a menace that has affected the length and breadth of our society. It has resulted in poor medical facilities, hunger, illiteracy, crimes, extremism, terrorism, and even suicides. According to the report unveiled by the federal minister for planning and development, Ahsan Iqbal, earlier this year (2017), nearly 40 percent of our total population is living below the poverty line. This is an estimate which has been measured at the standards well below the international poverty line and thus shows the gravity of the situation. Even the international standard of the poverty line of $2 is controversial in itself because $2 a day cannot fulfill the needs of the common man. Poverty needs to be eradicated to deal with the current turmoil-like situation in the country because military actions never work in isolation.
The Islamic teachings also warn us against the ill-effects of poverty. The Holy Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) says, “Poverty leads to disbelief” (Masnad Ibn Hanbal). Syed Abu Sa’id khudri (r.a) narrates that Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) once made this dua: ‘O Allah I seek refuge in you from disbelief and poverty’. The sayings of the prophet convey that poverty can bring disastrous results for the individuals as well as for the whole society, quite visible in our social fabric. The uptick of violence and terrorism in our country can be attributed to poverty along with other reasons.
The bad effects of poverty are numerous and widespread but to get to the roots of poverty one must know the reasons behind it. Some of the reasons include bad governance, lack of education, unemployment, corruption, heavy taxation, and moral depravity, etc. All of the reasons can easily be understood through material means, with the exception of moral depravity. Moral depravity is related to the mental and psychological health of the person, which easily compels him to usurp the property of poor or be involved in corruption without the feeling of guilt. Moral depravity has indeed destroyed the social fabric and financial honesty of our society as a whole.
The widespread moral depravity in our society mainly stems from the lack of closeness to the religious teachings. Religions serve as moral and ethical healers of the people but when they digress from these teachings, moral problems start to come up. Our western-influenced young generation has also started considering religion is a private matter and a secondary issue, causing moral depravity and ethical inability. The materialistic nature and the lack of a family bonding in western culture have further deteriorated the already worse condition. Lack of ethical education has also converted our own minds into mere machines with no spirituality and humanity.
Moral depravity acts as a catalyst for increased poverty in society and the same has happened to us. The worrisome situation of poverty in our country is the result of many reasons including the moral deprivation of the people. People having material lust don’t take morality into consideration and thus easily deprive poor people of their due rights. This is evident in the form of corruption that is quite visible in public institutions. The elite class is exploiting the poor lot for the material benefits and luxurious lives. This has also given rise to nepotism in our society, which is the basis of the appointment of ill-competent people on the top posts. This corruption and nepotism have been the source of the grim situation in all fields of life including economy, education, health, transport, and many others to follow.
The appointment of teachers on the basis of relations instead of merit and the lack of interest of teachers to impart knowledge to the coming generations have turned education into a nightmare for the children; the same is the poor situation with the health sector. Hospitals usually don’t have the necessary medicines and if the government supplies medicines then the corrupt doctors sell these medicines for their own pockets to fill. Hospitals don’t have syringes, beds, surgical tools, and other necessary requirements to cope with modern challenges. This poor condition is not limited merely to these two fields, almost all the public service institutes are full of incompetent officers and corrupt staff.
Moral depravity has an ill-effect on the tax and zakat payment. The elite class busy in their luxurious lives don’t heed to the requirements of deprived and poor people living in the country. They think that plundering tax money and taking bribes is their birthright. On top of that neither they pay taxes nor gives Islamic charity, Zakat. According to the international standard, the ratio of tax to GDP should not be less than 30 percent but this has not been the case in Pakistan, where we are experiencing a huge low tax to GDP ratio of less than 10%, showing the level of our morality.
Regarding charity, Pakistan is among the top countries in the world but still, our rich class is not fulfilling the responsibility that Allah has put on their shoulders. There is another side to it and that is the wastage of money on VIP weddings and junky functions. Most of us forget that instead of wasting money we should donate to it to the poor to bring some pleasant change in their lives, to provide their children with education and necessary health facilities.
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| A volunteer helping the poor |
Hoardings of daily life commodities for profit and exploitation of workers and farmers are also some of the effects that we can see in our country due to moral deprivation. Big mill owners and landlords hoard their stocks in order to increase their rates and profits. This affects only one section of society in the form of inflation and that section is poor. Similarly, workers and laborers are also exploited by their industrialists and landowners just for profit. They are compelled to work even for more than 12 hours without any proper salary or due to health and financial assistance and insurance.
The deteriorated law and order situation has more to do with the bad governance and incompetent justice system than with the religious brainwashing. The common man cannot fight for his rights because once one enters this system, he stucks into a long vicious cycle with no end. The investigation system is also nowhere on par with international standards. According to the rankings of the Transparency International, Police is the one most corrupt department in Pakistan. Thus expecting any good from it in the investigation of a case would be a hollow dream. The alliance of some elements of the judiciary and police against the common man has destroyed the very basis of our justice system. This has resulted in the deterioration of law and order situation because people intend to take revenge on their own to avoid the lengthy proceedings of the court and even the backlash of police against them.
Moral depravity is a bit like infectious in nature. People with high moral and religious backgrounds when entering corrupt organizations, become part of the system. This is due to the trickle-down effect of the upper lot on the lower staff. When the lower staff experiences the corrupt practices of their bosses and the huge flow of money, they soon start indulging in those practices too. There are many exceptional examples that even fought against the corrupt system but the majority of times such people had to bear the brunt of their officers in the form of suspensions and even dismissals.
To deal with the above-mentioned problems and especially moral depravity, which is the root cause of all the problems, religious teachings need to be the core part of our education system. Most of the elite educational institutes have erased religious teachings from their courses, which is producing and will produce disastrous results in the form of moral deprivation and class gap. Special emphasis should be given to the ethical teachings of Islam and other religions to make children stealth to the polluted environment of the society and those coming from the western world. Efforts must be made by the elders of the family to maintain family bonding and cohesion; this will provide children the opportunity to learn moral values from their elder members of the family.
Strict punishments should be given to those involved in corrupt practices and moral breaches; this will act as deterrence against those looking for such opportunities. The other major counter-measure will be to give awards to the competent and clean officers in the department to make them the role models for others to follow because people always need a model to follow. The president, prime minister, and other representatives should also present themselves as the model to give the public the sense that they should never be indulged in corrupt practices.
Moral depravity has indeed polluted every walk of life irrespective of status and class. It is time for us to think about whether we want to tackle this issue or not. If we succeeded in inculcating ethical and moral values in the younger generations we can become the role model for the whole world but we failed to do so, we will never break the shackles of poverty that we are facing. It is said, "If wealth is lost nothing is lost if health is lost something is lost and if the character is lost everything".
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DeleteNo great. I am pretty sure this essay is going to fail.
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DeleteThe start if outline is irrelevant. There is no need to discuss the causes of poverty. This is a serious issue.
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