The Good, The Bad, The Faith-Us

Often the question: Why do bad things happen to good people? Assault my mind. However, there are two questions in that one simple question itself. Firstly, what are bad things? And secondly, who are the good people?

In a spiritual context, good attracts evil and that there is an equal balance of good and evil in our world. For instance, God and the Devil make a perfect example of the imbalance between good and evil. But who are the good people? The people who are wealthy and are present on charity events mostly to portray themselves in the public eye for a significant decent scoop to come out in the tabloids? Or the people who work all through their lives trying to make a significant difference in the lives of those less worthy than themselves, financially, emotionally or even physically? Is that the sole description of a ‘good person’?

If it really is the definition of a ‘good person’, then why do ‘bad things’ happen to these good people? Are bad things limited only on bankruptcy, murder, suicides, and consumption of alcohol in a declared Islamic country like ours, white-collar crimes, and muggings? These are so far most of the ‘bad things’ I can perceive happening to a good person. We live in a world where ‘wants’ exceed ‘demands’. There is a motive behind everyone’s move. The motive could be bad or good as understood, but never quite ‘pure’.

In a world where individual security is threatened leaving most of us like scattered moths, I ask myself where do I run away to find a purer land with less superficial people. Where a good deed does not have a price, where the bad are sanctioned. Where I find peace and tranquillity and not run away from the demons that are the inhabitants of a history that is so deep-rooted that it just can not be extracted and burnt away. Maybe redemption has stories to tell.

The Mualvi’s would give a simple answer: you have turned away from God. Pray to Him and you shall find peace. They rule out all forms of practical reality and turn you into a radical conformist of the faith. I do not deviate from the fact that I find salvation in prayer or the recitation of the Holy Book. But reality smashes its ugly face and I am left with nothing but discontent.

In our 21st century, where illegal activities rule the legal ones, where worldly disputes remain unsorted for decades and where nuclear weapons threaten the sole survival of the smallest country visible on the global map and where the fundamental right to freedom is debarred, I am only left to wonder what the world is coming to and just what the coming generations are about to witness?