Mawi and Ekin
So Mawi and Ekin got married. So they held the wedding reception at the Palace of The Golden Horses. They were both happy and it was a very joyous occasion for the newly wed couple. Their love was finally sworn in front of god. Tears were equally present as there were laughter. But not everyone shared the happiness though, it seems.
The wedding, the show and SMSs
Let me get this straight first and foremost. I am not a Mawi fan. Nor am I Ekin's. I never liked them as artists, I never bought their records. But when my brother told me (I'm studying in Japan) that a television show did a discussion about this wedding, and people were sending SMSs to the show stating that the way this couple spent, that is to celebrate thier union in a rather festive and extravagant manner, is utterly incomprehensible, and better was their money spent if they feast "moderately", and donate the rest to the Palestinians, generally, and Gazans specifically.
This type of attitude, telling what people should or should not do with their property, is something that I really am not fond of. I hate it when people dictate to me how I should dress, how I should move, how I should spend my money. Particularly when they are not being very authoritative (meaning that their remarks are authoritarian) about their remarks, and when it is about money.
Applying the same standard
Treat others the way you want to be treated, the saying goes. A standard of judgment is fair only if it is applied indiscriminately across the table. If someone has the capability to do good without putting theirselves into trouble (read: if Mawi and Ekin can cut their wedding budget into something more moderate), is it morally wrong for the person not to do it (read: should Mawi and Ekin not donate the rest of their wedding bugdet to the Gazans)?
The answer seems to be "yes" for all who sent the condemning SMSs to the show. Their statement, put in simple terms, is simple and it does not need a moral philosopher to understand it : not doing good when you can is immoral. But is this statement true? The answer can be found, in my humblest of opinions, by applying the same standard across the table. Justice, is in applying the same standards to all the parties involved. There can not be two different standards of judging, and each is applied to different parties that have the same potential to commit the act to be judged (hence the word double standard).
On blood and organ donation
So, to apply the same standard which is , not doing good when you can is immoral , across the table let us try the blood donating situation. Mr. A is a healthy man, does not have the HIV virus, has a brilliant body mass index (BMI), and has never donated his blood ever before in his 21 years of life. Now that the scene is set, let us pose the question, is it morally imperative for Mr. A to donate his blood? Put in another way, is he now considered as an immoral person, committing an indecent act if he chooses not to donate his blood?
Well, for the most obvious of reasons, even the people who condemned Mawi and Ekin in their SMSs to the tv show will not consider it morally wrong for Mr. A not to do good by donating his blood. That is because the blood in interest is his blood and it belongs to him. It is up to him to choose what will he do with it. Forcing him to donate is no good either, because a good act loses its meaning when the good act in question becomes compulsory. An act can only be moral if the person doing it has the benefit of choice. It is because a person can choose not to do it but did it anyway do we honour a man, and the act considered moral.
As of 2001, the number of blood donors in Malaysia out of a population of 22,229,040 [1]was 384,771 [2]people. The donors constituted only 2% of Malaysia's population. , I doubt lesser was, and still is, the organ donors are. And doubting more I am of the SMS senders, whether they were a part of this 2% or not . Let alone donating organs. In 2001, or 2009. If these SMS senders are to be judged by the same standards, they also are very likely to fall into the same category of people they were condemning.
Reflections and praises
Surely the senders will not like the standard with which they have just been judged. But if so, how could they have judged other people with the standard that even they do not want to submit into. Of course they have their right to free speech, but if you are immune to the standards of which you use to judge people, then what you are committing is a blatant double standard. You will then fall into the ugly category of the hypocrites.
I am no Islamic moral philosopher. I claim no knowledge in the field of Islamic jurisprudence and so I only used moral arguments in my writing. But as a matter of principle, I do not believe anything ugly will come from the Most Beautiful. And verily, god is the the Most Just, the Most Knowing.
O Most Powerful, let not my brothers and sisters in humanity judge one another in a manner that they will not judge themselves. O Creator and Giver of life, let peace be upon Your messenger Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, and also let peace be upon Ibrahim and the family of Ibrahim. To You belong the all the glory and might. The ever living, the eternal.
And God knows best.
References:
So Mawi and Ekin got married. So they held the wedding reception at the Palace of The Golden Horses. They were both happy and it was a very joyous occasion for the newly wed couple. Their love was finally sworn in front of god. Tears were equally present as there were laughter. But not everyone shared the happiness though, it seems.
The wedding, the show and SMSs
Let me get this straight first and foremost. I am not a Mawi fan. Nor am I Ekin's. I never liked them as artists, I never bought their records. But when my brother told me (I'm studying in Japan) that a television show did a discussion about this wedding, and people were sending SMSs to the show stating that the way this couple spent, that is to celebrate thier union in a rather festive and extravagant manner, is utterly incomprehensible, and better was their money spent if they feast "moderately", and donate the rest to the Palestinians, generally, and Gazans specifically.
This type of attitude, telling what people should or should not do with their property, is something that I really am not fond of. I hate it when people dictate to me how I should dress, how I should move, how I should spend my money. Particularly when they are not being very authoritative (meaning that their remarks are authoritarian) about their remarks, and when it is about money.
Applying the same standard
Treat others the way you want to be treated, the saying goes. A standard of judgment is fair only if it is applied indiscriminately across the table. If someone has the capability to do good without putting theirselves into trouble (read: if Mawi and Ekin can cut their wedding budget into something more moderate), is it morally wrong for the person not to do it (read: should Mawi and Ekin not donate the rest of their wedding bugdet to the Gazans)?
The answer seems to be "yes" for all who sent the condemning SMSs to the show. Their statement, put in simple terms, is simple and it does not need a moral philosopher to understand it : not doing good when you can is immoral. But is this statement true? The answer can be found, in my humblest of opinions, by applying the same standard across the table. Justice, is in applying the same standards to all the parties involved. There can not be two different standards of judging, and each is applied to different parties that have the same potential to commit the act to be judged (hence the word double standard).
On blood and organ donation
So, to apply the same standard which is , not doing good when you can is immoral , across the table let us try the blood donating situation. Mr. A is a healthy man, does not have the HIV virus, has a brilliant body mass index (BMI), and has never donated his blood ever before in his 21 years of life. Now that the scene is set, let us pose the question, is it morally imperative for Mr. A to donate his blood? Put in another way, is he now considered as an immoral person, committing an indecent act if he chooses not to donate his blood?
Well, for the most obvious of reasons, even the people who condemned Mawi and Ekin in their SMSs to the tv show will not consider it morally wrong for Mr. A not to do good by donating his blood. That is because the blood in interest is his blood and it belongs to him. It is up to him to choose what will he do with it. Forcing him to donate is no good either, because a good act loses its meaning when the good act in question becomes compulsory. An act can only be moral if the person doing it has the benefit of choice. It is because a person can choose not to do it but did it anyway do we honour a man, and the act considered moral.
As of 2001, the number of blood donors in Malaysia out of a population of 22,229,040 [1]was 384,771 [2]people. The donors constituted only 2% of Malaysia's population. , I doubt lesser was, and still is, the organ donors are. And doubting more I am of the SMS senders, whether they were a part of this 2% or not . Let alone donating organs. In 2001, or 2009. If these SMS senders are to be judged by the same standards, they also are very likely to fall into the same category of people they were condemning.
Reflections and praises
Surely the senders will not like the standard with which they have just been judged. But if so, how could they have judged other people with the standard that even they do not want to submit into. Of course they have their right to free speech, but if you are immune to the standards of which you use to judge people, then what you are committing is a blatant double standard. You will then fall into the ugly category of the hypocrites.
I am no Islamic moral philosopher. I claim no knowledge in the field of Islamic jurisprudence and so I only used moral arguments in my writing. But as a matter of principle, I do not believe anything ugly will come from the Most Beautiful. And verily, god is the the Most Just, the Most Knowing.
O Most Powerful, let not my brothers and sisters in humanity judge one another in a manner that they will not judge themselves. O Creator and Giver of life, let peace be upon Your messenger Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, and also let peace be upon Ibrahim and the family of Ibrahim. To You belong the all the glory and might. The ever living, the eternal.
And God knows best.
References:
- http://www.airninja.com/worldfacts/countries/Malaysia/population.htm
- http://www.pdn.gov.my/jadual.html
Yo... at last....!
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