Social Deterioration
A serious problem that people face today is the disintegration
of the social fabric of societies. This collapse is discernable
in various ways. Broken families, the increase in divorce
and illegitimate births naturally lead to the destruction
of the institution of the family. Stress, anxiety, unhappiness,
worry and chaos turn the lives of many people into a real
nightmare. People living in a spiritual void, looking for
a way out of their depression, fall into a bleak mire of
alcohol or drugs. Some, who think that there is no solution
to be found, consider suicide as a way out.
One of the striking marks of social decline is the huge
increase in illicit activities. The level of crime has reached
to substantial proportions. The report, "Universal
Crime and Justice," prepared by the United Nations'
International Crime Prevention Center, contains a general
appraisal of crime throughout the world:
Basically, as in the 1980's, the crime rate continued
to rise in the 1990's.
Everywhere in the world, in a five-year period, two-thirds
of the people living in large cities have been the target
at least once of a criminal action.
All over the world, the odds of being the target of a
serious crime (robbery, sexual crimes, assault) are one
in five. Regardless of the area, crimes against property,
and crimes of violence committed by youth, have both had
economic ramifications.
The number of types of illicit drugs has increased and
their nature diversified in recent years. *
Actually, all this is not surprising. The causes of such
a societal phenomenon are clearly related in the Qur'an,
in the accounts of past societies. Social deterioration,
and all the various problems associated with it, are the
inevitable result of human beings' forgetting God and the
purposes of their creation, and their abandoning religion
and its spiritual values.
|
Akşam, July
15, 2003, "Murder according to lyrics"
şok, June 6, 2002, "Death per week due
to violence in Holland"
Günaydın, July 28, 2003, "Overdose of Life:
Youth passes the limit" |
|
The aspects of this social deterioration we see happening
one by one today were predicted by the Prophet (may God
bless him and grant him peace) fourteen centuries ago. God's
Messenger (may God bless him and grant him peace) described
the End Times as "When people suffer strife and social
upheaval." (Ahmad Diya'al-Din al-Kamushkhanawi, Ramuz
al-Ahadith, 7/7)
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*. United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime
Prevention, Global Report on Crime and Justice, 1999, http://www.uncjin.org/Special/GlobalReport.html/
