Political Change vs. Individual Change: A Modern Predicament

Too much focus on political change has caused us to ignore our primary duty of changing ourselves first.

By Rayhan Al-Safawi

A great deal of modern culture is focused on changing the world through political, cultural or economic revolutions. This is what happened in the 20^th century and this attitude has not died out. The downside of this prevalent modern trend is that little focus is placed into changing where all this evil first begins: ourselves.

A gentleman can join yearly demonstrations protesting the oppressive activities of certain governments in the world, or spend a substantial amount of his time pursuing his social activism through social media yet at the same time ignore his own oppression at home. Consider, for example, the teacher who spends his time trying to change the lives of his students yet systematically neglects his own children at home. Consider the person who seeks justice in his country and fights governmental oppression yet systematically abuses his spouse and children at home.

The same evil that permeates corrupt governments and political groups also runs through our own hearts. Without programmatically addressing the corruption in our own hearts we will never have the desired outcome we want in the outside world.

The reason is simple. Islam teaches us that all evil in the world stems from a dark and corrupt heart. Many adults are the way they are because of the way they were raised. People kill, cheat, steal and deceive because of an inner spiritual disease they have. This disease begins with the human heart, without addressing this fundamental subject no outer behavior will change.

As social animals, we influence each other. You would be surprised at how little our words mean for they come a dime a dozen. The greatest influencing factor on other people’s lives are the kinds of inspirational lives we live and above all, the auras we carry with us. It is by cleansing our souls of evil and becoming people of honor that we can become an inspiration for change. It is this individual level of change that will bring about a domino effect in society.

Rayhan al-Safawi is a blogger at the World Shia Forum. He lives with his family in the West Coast, United States.