2018-10-12 18:49:50
Building a moral society
Building a moral society
Estimated time to read the article : 4 min, 17 secs
Dr. Abdul Sattar Yoosuf
From our infant childhood, making people like us is the model that groomed us into adult life. This is the essence of being good in a moral way. We don't have to be seemingly good to those who are bad or criminal or deceitful but the real meaning of good stems from being acceptable to those with moral values. So the basis of being good is morality. Being a good citizen is also about being good and acceptable to the people that populate that community. That we don't behave in a way we disrupt aggressively the ways that society has chosen to live by. True, big changes happen from iconoclastic events, but we all know that these when engineered in selfish and too bold an aggressiveness may totally backfire whereas when nurtured assertively, can work beautifully to transform society. Perhaps this is what the famous adage means “an idea whose time has come”. This coming is not merely a temporal but a mental one too. We are always, even subconsciously, matching our ideas with the ways of society so that we can expound it in ways that society accepts these with only little defensiveness. Even saying something as simple as proposing a different view at a gathering is fraught with such mental play. We are strapped into this mental mould of fear or a yearning for approval.
For Maldives the restaurant sanitation culture legislations of the 1080s were appropriate for a push for a healthy change because of the cholera epidemic in Maldives in 1978 that struck us from the blue. Or the mechanisation of the fishing boats in the 1980s when it was imperative for economic reasons, to move from the sail to the engine. We can bring to mind many such moments. Yes we can also create our moments by building towards these in a planned way without waiting for a natural progression of events to happen or for a devastating strike from the blue.
Building society is an art. We learn the methods from formal schooling at colleges and universities; but the real schooling that makes us wise and useful human being is what we reap from the school of life; learning from our own and other’s experiences by being in a state of open mind to listen or accept others views and reflecting on it for its truths or follies, whatever these maybe. This awareness is what orchestrates knowledge and action into social transformation. And this is whatevery budding leader should know. Knowledge, character and wisdom must come together in a shared oneness. True leaders who transform society bring with them these pristine human qualities.
There is a mental element to this too. Good character comes from conforming and acceding and respectful deference with the realization that this behaviour stems from strength of character rather than from an innate weakness of the self. And that is just what it is even though society in its wild form sees aggressiveness as strength.
May Allah SWA Bless Maldives!!
From our infant childhood, making people like us is the model that groomed us into adult life. This is the essence of being good in a moral way. We don't have to be seemingly good to those who are bad or criminal or deceitful but the real meaning of good stems from being acceptable to those with moral values. So the basis of being good is morality. Being a good citizen is also about being good and acceptable to the people that populate that community. That we don't behave in a way we disrupt aggressively the ways that society has chosen to live by. True, big changes happen from iconoclastic events, but we all know that these when engineered in selfish and too bold an aggressiveness may totally backfire whereas when nurtured assertively, can work beautifully to transform society. Perhaps this is what the famous adage means “an idea whose time has come”. This coming is not merely a temporal but a mental one too. We are always, even subconsciously, matching our ideas with the ways of society so that we can expound it in ways that society accepts these with only little defensiveness. Even saying something as simple as proposing a different view at a gathering is fraught with such mental play. We are strapped into this mental mould of fear or a yearning for approval.
For Maldives the restaurant sanitation culture legislations of the 1080s were appropriate for a push for a healthy change because of the cholera epidemic in Maldives in 1978 that struck us from the blue. Or the mechanisation of the fishing boats in the 1980s when it was imperative for economic reasons, to move from the sail to the engine. We can bring to mind many such moments. Yes we can also create our moments by building towards these in a planned way without waiting for a natural progression of events to happen or for a devastating strike from the blue.
Building society is an art. We learn the methods from formal schooling at colleges and universities; but the real schooling that makes us wise and useful human being is what we reap from the school of life; learning from our own and other’s experiences by being in a state of open mind to listen or accept others views and reflecting on it for its truths or follies, whatever these maybe. This awareness is what orchestrates knowledge and action into social transformation. And this is whatevery budding leader should know. Knowledge, character and wisdom must come together in a shared oneness. True leaders who transform society bring with them these pristine human qualities.
There is a mental element to this too. Good character comes from conforming and acceding and respectful deference with the realization that this behaviour stems from strength of character rather than from an innate weakness of the self. And that is just what it is even though society in its wild form sees aggressiveness as strength.
May Allah SWA Bless Maldives!!