INDIVIDUAL REFORM, NOT ‘PROTEST ACTIVISM’ Beginning of True Reform

criticizing the authorities. This is the Islamic approach to solving social problems; there is no social activism in Islam. Islam believes only in individual activism, and not in social or political activism. If individuals are reformed, society will also be reformed. The right focus is to reform one’s own self, and other individuals, too. But people who focus on ‘social’ change while neglecting individual reform (which means beginning with their own reform) turn the whole thing upside down. For example, the philosophy of Marxism or Socialism was focused on ‘society’, and in it the ‘individual’ and ‘individual reform’ lost all value. That is one reason why Marxism miserably failed. Is it possible, or even desirable, someone may ask, for one to develop a proper balance between social reform and individual reform? Trying to strike a balance between the two is not a right approach. The root cause of all kinds of both good and evil is the individual. So, if you want to make an evil-free society, you have to focus on individual reform. The concept of ‘social activism’ or ‘social reform’ is based on a wrong diagnosis. The root cause of all kind of problems lies in individuals. And so, all talk of ‘social reform’ instead of individual reform is useless. And it is a fact that when the diagnosis is wrong, the prescription will go in vain. The best practical formula is to ignore the problems and avail the opportunities that are available. Can individual reform lead to social reform, you might ask? Is individual reform sufficient to solve immense social problems? To answer these questions, you need to be clear as to what ‘society’ really is. Society is nothing but a collection of individuals. So, when individuals are reformed, the whole society will, as a consequence, be reformed. But if you focus on trying to reform society instead of yourself, all your efforts will be wasted. If one truly wants to bring about reform in society, one must devote oneself to educating individuals. When you focus on reforming individuals, you are focusing on real entities. If, instead, you focus on trying to change society as a whole, your focus will be blurred, because society is nothing but an abstract concept that denotes a collection of individuals. Because society itself has no existence apart from the individuals who constitute it, efforts to reform society without reforming individuals, starting with oneself, are all in vain. o