Religion Is On The Rise But Spirituality Is On The Wane: Value Fellow Humans And Significance Of Relationships

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam 17 November 2022 Spirituality Is Developing And Nurturing Noble Humane Qualities Like Love, Compassion And Kindness, Not That Conventional Scriptural Obeisance To Some Fictitious Allah, God, Jesus Or Muhammad ----- Years ago at the library of the University of Hull ( UK), I got a chance to read Stanley Seymur's out of print book, 'Following the Mughals’. There's an extremely poignant episode in the book. When a very young Babar defeated Ibrahim Lodhi in the First Battle of Panipat in 1526, his general Mustaqeem Qain brought the blood-oozing head of the vanquished Ibrahim Lodhi as a gift to Babar, he ( Babar) shouted Qafiindaahaz, Qafiindaahaz (oh no, in Uzbeki, Babar's mother tongue). He then admonished Mustaqeem and told him that though he was a soldier, he was predominantly a human and such gory spectacles shocked him. Babar described this incident in his memoirs Tuzk-e-Babari, originally written in Chagatai dialect. And put this incident vis a vis Aftab's reaction to see his live-in partner's head in the freezer. It has been reported that he'd nonchalantly look at the torso-less head of his partner, Shraddha, every day. This is complete absence of emotions. Five hundred years ago, a seasoned soldier and ruler was flabbergasted to see the blood-soaked head of his adversary and now an urbane, city-dweller cuts his live-in partner's body into pieces and makes love to some other woman in the same pad. All in a state of utter nonchalance. Somewhere, we're all directly or indirectly responsible for this type of absolute erosion of emotions and sense of remorse. Somewhere, we all have become too materialistic and unnecessarily matter of fact. Parents have no time for kids. All are glued to their hi-end gadgets and i-phones. We've no time for healthy conversations and no time even for reading a newspaper, let alone books. It's affluence, but no finesse. Religion is on the rise but spirituality is on the wane. By spirituality, I mean developing and nurturing noble humane qualities like love, compassion and kindness, not that conventional scriptural obeisance to some fictitious Allah, god, Jesus or Muhammad. They’re chiefly responsible for making us so inhuman like living zombies. This shocking incident must make humans introspect deeply and also make them aware of the value of fellow humans and significance of relationships. That we're violent is a fact. But how can we minimise and dilute this embedded violent streak is a question before the humanity. Sooner we sort this out, the better it'll be for mankind. ----- A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian. URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/religion-spirituality-humans-relationships/d/128417 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism