More than a year ago a write-up appeared in these columns entitled, ‘Sports is All’. That write-up had been written in answer to a query raised by a distinguished intellectual who wondered at the blinding and extraordinary absorption of modern man with things like sports. It had been submitted in response that when thisworldliness becomes the religion of man and the directions of civilization are turned thiswards, all values are reversed and that which is ugly becomes beautiful and recreation becomes the end of ends. Life then has no higher goal than the achievement of pleasure, however fleeting and momentary. This spiritual and moral cancer has now assumed alarming proportions and everything stinks. For the sake of a few bucks, the gentleman’s game of cricket has been converted into a horrible and repulsive gambling. When worship of the world is the pivot around which everything revolves, all this is quite natural. You feel people are deeply interested in something like cricket and are ready to pay any price to watch it. You see the occasion of using this situation to create more and more money. You exploit people’s involvement by legalising betting. Betting shops surround cricket stadia. Betting and bookmaking have always been hand-in-glove whether it is horse-racing or the once clean game of cricket. Traditionally cricket had been associated with a wholesome value-system – discipline, team-spirit, cooperation and submitting without demur to the judgement of the agreed-upon authority. All this seems now an incredible fairy-tale. Gold-hunger now seems to be the only motivation of some cricketers (and perhaps their managers). Although cricketers are the most fabulously paid professionals of the world yet every fresh morsel whets their hunger more and more as excessive greed like the Hell keeps on chanting hal min mazeed (more and more).
The root cause of this rot is the corruption of the mind and heart. The Quran says:
It is not the eyes that turn blind; it is the hearts within the breasts that turn blind. (22:46)

Elaborating on this our beloved Prophet (SAW) remarked that “there is a lump of flesh in your body; if it is right, it sets the whole body right and if it is diseased, it corrupts the whole body, and this is the heart.” (Bukhari)
The glorious revolution that the Prophet brought about in history was based on this perception. His age was infested with political problems especially those caused by the Rome-Iran rivalry and the deep tribal divisions of the Arab society. This society suffered from social ills like slavery, maltreatment of women including the burying alive of daughters. It had its economic woes – poverty, inequality, gambling, usury. But the Prophet, acting under Divine guidance, knew that all these problems were the symptoms of the disease; the root of the disease was the corruption of the mind and the heart and this is what he set out to uproot. Once hearts and minds were purified there was an unprecedented bloom of human character in its full potential. History for once witnessed a social organization where individuals vied with one another in honesty, integrity, mutual sympathy and purity of character.

Today the change has come full circle. The heirs of the legacy of the Prophet (SAW) are besmirching that legacy. Those whose behaviour should have been moulded by the Qur'an and its practical illustration in the life of the Prophet are absolutely unaware and unmindful of it. Nay, they are tarnishing its fair image beyond recognition. Those who should have served as examples of purity of character have become the cesspits of the worst kind of moral corruption. Their religion forbids all kinds of gambling and betting and yet they are the most cheaply available instruments of gamblers and betters. Their Prophet (SAW) warned them not to approach, even remotely, any income that seems doubtful and yet they feed on carrion. What right have they to complain then to Allah.
Rahmatein hain teri aghiar kay kashanon per.
Barq girti hai tou becharey musalmanon per.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 2 Sep 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 2 Sep 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 3 Sep 2010 00:00:00 IST