As social media turns public shaming into a sport, a powerful argument reminds us that the highest ethic is to conceal a sinner’s fault, not to amplify it for the world to see
Syed Mustafa Ahmad
Ethics are the finest adornment of a human being. What distinguishes a human from other creations is character. It is a fact that the domain of ethics is wider than the domain of knowledge. In other words, ethics always take precedence over knowledge. In childhood, we were taught that Satan had no shortage of knowledge, but he was devoid of ethics. He had information about everything, but he was ignorant of the very thing upon which his existence stood. Unfortunately, his deficient knowledge was of no avail to him. God cast him down from the throne to the lowest level and included him among the accursed, because he used foul language and uttered inappropriate words in the court of God, which were against ethics and principles. This makes it clear how ethics are an integral part of our lives.
We all should have learned a lesson from this incident and become cautious, but instead, we have shown disrespect and abused our way of life. A living example of this can be seen on various social media sites, where one person is tarnishing the reputation of another. A sensitive person is forced to bite their fingers in disbelief, seeing these conditions – are we really the creatures whom God has blessed with the highest status? A conscious person is astonished when a powerful individual, who possesses great physical beauty, openly shreds the honour of others. Yes! There is no doubt that unnecessary talk and content are generally found on social media, but this does not mean that we should trample ethical standards and provide proof of our bad manners.
History books contain thousands of examples which show that, despite countless differences, people used to respect opposing groups. Furthermore, arrangements were made for the reformation of those who wasted their time in unnecessary activities and talk. Advice was meant for construction. Not even a trace of malice or enmity was found in people’s counsel. People used to try to correct each other in private. Their purpose was to bring that person to the right path. After the advice, the strayed individual was not discussed on every street and alley. This matter was like the right hand giving something to the left hand in the darkness of night. Through this, the lost individual would find the right path on their own, feel remorse for their sins and shed tears of regret before God.
But today, a convenient means has been provided to publicise people’s mistakes. On social media, someone’s sin is uploaded in such a way that virtually every living person in the world joins in to utterly destroy the wrongdoer and sinner. They make his life miserable and bring him down in their eyes. Okay, let’s even assume that public humiliation is done to reform someone so they learn a lesson and abstain from that sin. But the mistake that the social reformers make in performing this act is that they fail to distinguish between truth and falsehood. The result of this is that advice meant for construction turns into advice meant for destruction.
One should refrain from placing one hundred per cent trust in things seen with the eyes and heard with the ears. Sometimes, there are layers upon layers invisible to the eyes that prevent one from seeing the truth, and at other times, there is so much noise in the ears that things are only half-seen and half-heard, causing a simple matter to get distorted as it travels. Then come the so-called wise ones who add a hundred things to one and create a storm of rudeness.
To stop this storm, we all must provide proof of our wisdom and prudence. In this world, everyone is a wrongdoer. Concealing the fault of a sinner is the greatest jihad. We do not have the right to disrespect someone, whether in private or in public. The most important actionable point in this regard is that everyone should look within their own conscience and see where they stand. Lest, like Satan, living in an imaginary world of considering myself pure and knowledgeable, I meet a disgraceful death, cut off from the real world.
The government should deal strictly with those who malign others’ honour on social media sites. Legal action should be taken against them. Fines should be imposed on them. Only then can the possibility of some change emerge.
It is a great crime to let the blessings of social media sites be victimised by some filthy actions. Social media plays an important role in making life easy and comfortable. Because of it, the world has become a global village. But in this global village, rumours and truths reach from one corner of the world to another in an instant. Today, everyone has a smartphone in their hand. This increases the risk of rumours spreading. Uneducated people do not put every news item through the process of cross-checking. Distorted and twisted information is accepted as is.
We must now stop the daily rise in unethical behaviour on social media as much as we can. We must firmly hold onto the qualities of decency and humanity. We must provide opportunities for ourselves and others to reform. The most important task is to work hard on ourselves, striving to remove one individual’s name from the list of the world’s wrongdoers. And this is the need of the hour.
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