IndiaPost.com - Let's return to shame, modesty and morals

Life is not worth living without some moral discipline in our daily life. This is, in fact, the practical essence of any religion. That is, a human being is nothing but an animal unless his deeds conform to some moral and ethical code.

Actually, a human being without a moral compass is worse than an animal because virtually all animals are devoid of abstract thought and intellect, and as such are not expected to live by any rational standard. Human beings on the other hand have not only been blessed with intelligence but also with moral and ethical criteria to make the right choices.

They have been given the faculties to develop a sense of Shame, Modesty and Morals. The other day someone shared with me a rather disturbing incident of shamelessness and moral degeneration. He said that while biking near an elementary school, where students are not even teenagers, he saw a young boy and a young girl publicly holding and kissing each other.

They had no sense of inhibition or shame. Now, in today's liberal society it may not seem like a big deal. But, my friends and preachers and practitioners of various religions, it is not an ordinary incident. I wonder about the distinction between animals and humans. If our pre-teens are growing up like this, I worry about the moral future of our society.

This is not an isolated incident. Who knows how many similar or worse incidents occur daily in our elementary, middle or high schools and colleges and universities. Such incidents speak volumes about our society's standards of shame, modesty and morals.

Where and from whom did our young generation learn such practices? Who condones, accepts and promotes such shamelessness, immodesty and immorality? How did such moral indifference permeate our society? Such questions should worry us and prompt us for action.

We should be more concerned about the moral makeup of our next generation than our current pleasures. Parents need to recognize their critical responsibility to properly raise and train their children. They should not conduct themselves in any improper manner so their children won't get the idea it's OK to duplicate such conduct.

There is no doubt that God has created a natural, physical attraction between men and women; even animals have such attraction. However, animals don't have any sense of shame or modesty. They fulfill their natural sexual desires anytime, anywhere, without any inhibition.

But humans should know better. All religions teach that men and women should get married when they reach the age of puberty so they may protect their chastity and save themselves from immoral acts. Unfortunately, today almost everything is accepted or condoned in the name of freedom. Islam is criticized for its teachings of modesty, decency in dress code, and separation of genders.

Islam is labeled as an oppressor of women, treating them as third class citizens. Reality is just the opposite. About a hundred years ago, churches had similar partitions, dress codes and gender separation as we have in mosques, because all religions teach modesty and allow intimacy only after proper marriage.

Open and free premarital sex results in promiscuity, sinfulness and unwanted or aborted innocent babies, and no religion permits that. Nonetheless, today's society is tangled in issues like teenage pregnancies, abortion, venereal diseases, etc. Such issues, while not unheard of a hundred years ago, were certainly considered scandalous and shameful beyond measure.

We should remember that no society has ever benefited spiritually by immorality, whereas a moral society grows stronger and protects itself from evil. It is time for those who seek a moral society to reflect and sincerely examine the Islamic teachings about shame, modesty and morals.