If acts that displease Almighty Allah multiply and wrongdoing and indecency become commonplace, a society can fall into corruption and ruin, today's Friday sermon said. Safeguarding society against such acts is therefore a duty of the highest importance for every individual and group within it.
Today's Friday sermon, delivered on the theme “Reforming society is everyone's responsibility”, said Maldivians had long embraced the religion of Almighty Allah and believed in Him, living in peace, harmony and brotherhood.
However, it said the social and moral changes that society had undergone in recent history required deep reflection and consideration by everyone.
The sermon said undesirable conduct in society included defying and disobeying parents and failing to offer them help and compassion in their old age. Yet treating parents with kindness is an injunction from Almighty Allah to humanity, it said, noting that the Holy Quran commands kindness towards parents in many passages.
The sermon said treating parents well brings Almighty Allah's blessings upon a person's life and is both a key to prosperity and a gateway to Paradise. It also described parents' prayers for their children as a very important and useful weapon, saying that Almighty Allah protects those who earn their mother's and father's approval from many calamities that befall them.
Asking how many people had mistreated their parents, hurt their feelings, neglected them or abandoned them, the sermon urged listeners to help their loving mothers and fathers, who had sacrificed sleep when they were young and worked to ensure their happiness and contentment. It said those parents were now elderly and physically weakened, in need of their children's compassion and assistance.
The sermon said undesirable conduct in society also included violating the sanctity of mosques. It said some people lingered near mosque doorways after prayers, engaging in backbiting, malicious gossip, fault-finding, arguments, obscene language, verbal disputes, attacks on people's honour and the spreading of lies.
The sermon said such people deprived themselves of the great spiritual rewards and merit earned through prayer. Those who returned home quietly and humbly after prayers and greeting their fellow Muslims were more virtuous, it said.
Noting that honesty in business is an act of worship for which Almighty Allah has promised great rewards, the sermon said cheating in business is an act cursed by Almighty Allah and carries severe punishment. It also said that deception and trickery in business, wrongfully using other people's wealth, failing to pay zakat, hoarding wealth and squandering it on wrongdoing and wasteful pursuits result in Almighty Allah withholding His blessings from that wealth.
The sermon said societies become socially and morally corrupt when people forget the great blessings bestowed by Almighty Allah, grow arrogant over their prosperity, defy Him and become heedless.
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