Has the world ever changed?
IT is common to hear people say ‘ the world has changed’ particularly when they want to justify an unbecoming behavior, event or circumstance. Three reasons, in my opinion, account for this escapist tendency. First, when people want children or youths to have their way in doing what ordinarily beats the ethical imagination of man, you hear them say ‘ the world has changed’. A contemporary Nigerian may become apologetic to alien concepts that. May though seek to destroy his religious and cultural values; and thus, sees nothing in his daughter, for instance, wearing tight dresses or participating in a beauty contest. The best response you could get when you interrogate a Muslim elite with this kind of mindset would be ‘ the world has changed’.
Second, people who are morally bankrupt use the phrase ‘ the world has changed’ to exonerate themselves of any blame in addition to covering up their ethical deficiencies. Third, there are others whose recourse to saying ‘ the world has changed’ is a manifestation of the defeat suffered by their conscience; whence they feel daunted. Many of those who advance excuses under the guise of a changing world belong to the first of these three categories. Their goal, most often, is either to allow children and youths behave the way they choose or permit them to get away with faults.
When we rationalize the expression ‘ the world has changed’, the statement within the context of realism does not seem to have any philosophical truth. How could anyone say ‘ the world has changed’ when the sun still rises in the east and sets in the west? Which world has changed when the moon still comes only after sunset; rain still falls from the sky; and rocks yet do not move from their positions? Why should anyone say ‘ the world has changed’ when women, and not men, are the folk that still give birth; when speech sounds still remain the exclusive characteristic of mankind and not of lions, birds, or reptiles? So, which world has changed?
Even when Allah ( SWT) is unhappy with us and thus decides to punish us for our sins, it is certainly not the phenomenal world that changes. What Allah ( SWT) usually changes is the social circumstances of our existence. Yet, that is not metaphorically good enough to say ‘ the world has changed’. Of course, Allah ( SWT) is not intent on punishment. He created man virtuous and pure; gave man intelligence and knowledge; and surrounded him with all instruments of His grace and mercy. But if in spite of all this, man chooses to be blind and then distorts his own nature from the beautiful mould in which Allah fashioned it; Allah’s wrath shall descend on him and the favourable position in which Allah placed him will be changed.
All the good things and other comforts of life we used to enjoy ( as part of Allah’s mercy on us) have ceased to be part of our daily experiences because we opted to rebel against Allah’s injunctions. Selfless leaders, good governance, personal discilpline, peace in our homes and communities, security on the roads, religious harmony, social cohesion,