Page 120 - The Nightmare of Disbelief

Ultimately, they fail to restrain behavior which is cruel, uncon-
scientious and inhuman.
To give an example, there is no reason why one who con-
ducts himself immorally should not indulge in ever more im-
morality. Think of an employer; if he does not have faith in
Allah and feels no fear of Him, he has already decided to act
unconscionably, and hence becomes a person ready to take any

opportunity to put this decision into action. The reason for this
is that, not obeying the commandments of the Creator or ap-
preciating the favors granted by Him are already the most seri-
ous examples of unconscientious behavior. Therefore, from his
own personal standpoint, there is no reason why this employ-
er should not mistreat his employees at the workplace, offend
them or try to make them work the maximum time for the min-
imum wage. Within his own twisted logic, these are reasonable
attitudes for him to take. Towards his business partners, he
takes the same improper attitude; he cheats them or resorts to
illegal ways to quickly amass a fortune, and there is nothing to
restrain him from doing so.

As stated earlier, when Divine rules are not the source of
118 social criteria, moral understanding will differ greatly from one
person to another. An immoral attitude rejected by one, may
well be perfectly normal for someone else. Hence, wherever re-
ligious values have no influence, people, societies, ages, re-
gions, cities, and countries set their own moral values, which
are different from one another. In the absence of a unified per-
spective regarding moral values, society becomes the setting
for numerous disputes and conflicts over what is right and

what is not right. Every new generation becomes more degen-
erate than the previous one.
Moral degeneration corrupts societies at an ever increasing

THE NIGHTMARE OF DISBELIEF