Refraining from mockery

Refraining from mockery

1990 12 December 8 Refraining from mockery (72) When the Prophet reached Tabuk, and found the Ka’ab ibn Malik was not among the Muslim force, he said: “What has become of Ka’ab?” A member of the Banu Salma tribe said that Ka‘ab was too busy admiring his shawls and his shoulders. Mu’az ibn Jabal said in response, “That is a very nasty thing to say,” and then addressing the Prophet he said: “Truly, we know nothing but good of Ka‘ab.”

The Return to Nature

1990 12 December 8 The Return to Nature (252) Dr. Joyce Brothers, an American Ph.D in psychology from Columbia University and practising psychiatrist, has recently published a book called The Successful Women.

One of her articles, which appeared in the Readers’ Digest monthly (April, 1990) mentions, many couples who came to consult her about the state of their married life. She has summed up her experience of her meetings with these couples in these words:

Many of the questions couples ask me have changed in recent years. A decade ago, the first reaction when a marriage hit rough times was, “I want a divorce.” But today the men and women I talk to are more likely to want permanent relationships.

Freedom had come to be considered the summum bonum in the western world. In fact, total freedom had come to be regarded as a matter of human birthright. But experience has shown that this ultimately leads to general permissiveness, and no good society can ever be based on the concept of total freedom for purely selfish enjoyment.

Better experience has caused the theory of limited freedom to be adopted now instead of complete freedom. Complete freedom had led to broken homes and feeling of instability in life. Now man has been compelled to modify his modern beliefs, i.e. he has now to realize that in order to have family security and a peaceful, ordered life, he must place certain limitations on freedom.

It is impossible for man to follow the path of deviation from nature for any considerable period of time.