Page 24 - The Debased Culture of Superficiality

22 THE DEBASED CULTURE OF SUPERFICIALITY

sitting and standing; they choose different terms when they
speak and a different tone of voice, assume different body lan-
guage, and interpret happenings quite differently. When such
a person meets public officials, he may sometimes change his
personality by such lavish demonstrations of respect to the
point that he becomes unrecognizable.
In the same way, such a person, who can easily engage in
a superficial conversation with someone who shares his way
of thinking, would avoid behaving this way when he is with
devout Muslims whose moral character he recognizes. He
would avoid the shallow expressions of this culture, point-
less and unhelpful chitchat, and making his points with exag-
gerated facial expressions. However his sudden change
reveals a very important fact apart from his basic superficial-
ity he actually lives in his soul. That is, these people deliber-
ately and willingly choose their superficial culture and
choose to live in the unaware environment it creates. In this
matter they shroud their consciences and feel no sense of dis-
comfort, even though they know that Allah sees what they
have become by acting as this debased culture demands, and
that He witnesses their every moment.
However, this is a weak culture that one can easily get free
of, with a genuine intention. A person who decides to live
only the moral life of a Muslim can decisively abandon the
unawareness that this culture brings. By embracing moral
qualities pleasing to Allah and appropriate for life in the next
world, a person can go on living as a sincere Muslim with a
good moral character. He can stand as an example for others
in this regard and may expect a fine reward from Allah.