This Ramazan, Pakistanis have yet again surpassed all other nations in performing Umrah. By November last year, out of around a million Umrah visas issued by Saudi Arabia, 262,695 were given to Pakistanis. Performing Umrah has become so common among wealthy Pakistanis that now it seems more a fashion than a religious ritual, with people boasting about the number of Umrahs they have performed.

Presently we see mosques and madressahs adorn almost every street and mohallah (neighbourhood) of the cities and towns. Children are being sent to madressahs in such large numbers that it seems pretty soon the number of madressah students will surpass students of schools and colleges. Dars mehfil (sermon gatherings) are in vogue across the country, from posh localities to city slums. Bearded men grace the national landscape in such huge numbers that it can only be matched by the constant deluge of religious messages that keeps the social media inundated.

At the same time, the whole country has become a true sin city. Corruption is so rampant that it’s a norm of Pakistani life, cheating is common, and counterfeit items, including life-saving medicines are sold everywhere. Telling lies constitutes the common language of the people from the rotting ruling classes to the abject subjects, while deceit in daily dealings is bragged about as one’s sharpness; no one can trust anyone and cruelty is overwhelming. Open trash and sewage litter every nook and corner of our towns and cities, there’s largely no concept of cleanliness and hygiene in our society, including in our eateries — whether it’s a hyper expensive multinational outlet or a humble dhaba, from Karachi to Islamabad.

Busy flaunting faith and religion in the most superficial ways, our society has discovered ways to take their deep-rooted deceit and corruption to the drycleaners

Except for a few housing societies, there’s hardly an open space or plot left that can be termed as safe from the land mafia. In fact, mafias of all sorts rule the country and no one is safe anywhere, particularly children and women. There’s an absolute dearth of social, moral and civic norms, values and manners, and there’s no law for the powerful and no justice for the weak in this deeply religious Pakistan of today.

Back till the late 1970s, there were fewer mosques, madressahs and dars mehfils in proportion to the population than today. Few would go on Umrah; few men grew beards or don skull caps. Hypocritical pretence of piety was not common, neither were corruption, lies, deceit, murders, land grabbing, extortion, water theft, counterfeit medicines, cruelty and mafias. It was a much calmer, cleaner, more humane Pakistan. But that should have been the case today. Today’s deeply religious Pakistan should, in principle, have been socially and morally a much better place than yesteryears. But it’s the other way round.

So what went wrong?

During Gen Zia’s rule from 1977 onwards, armed and extremist sectarian and ethnic organisations were created and nurtured. Afghan refugees, arms, ammunition and drugs spread all over the country. But, more lethal than all this was the propagation and proliferation of a tailor-made model of Islam catering to the needs of the changing and corrupting Pakistani society. In that model of Islam, all sins are forgiven against performing Umrah and Hajj, offering prayers and rituals, attending religious gatherings and places, and displaying religious signs and symbols on one’s body and dress. From imams to preachers and other religious figures, with a few rare exceptions, all are fixed in their absolute focus on prayers and rituals, believing that all sins are forgiven simply by performing prayers and rituals.

This made everything easy and simple for everyone. Now whether you have amassed immense wealth by embezzling public or private funds, or by taking bribes or land grabbing or selling counterfeit medicines or by any other form of crime, including deceit and cheating, all you’d need to do is perform Umrah or offer prayers, observe fasting, dole out zakat and khairat from the dirty money, or don religious symbols and dress, and all your sins will be forgiven and all your dirty money will be cleaned. Soon this concept covered and cleansed every sin and crime one can think of. Ruling politicians and generals boast their Umrahs and other religious acts as their expression of piety.

It’s common practice for most imams, preachers and other religious people to regularly talk about all sins being forgiven against prayers and rituals. But they do it without emphasising that not even a shred of sin pertaining to huqooqul ibad (the rights due to other beings) will be forgiven by Allah unless sincerely forgiven by all the affected persons. From looting the nation’s wealth to refusing another driver his/her right of way on the road, huqooqul ibad encompasses our every act that in any way affects other people and other living beings and society.

In Islam, there are huqooq Allah (the rights due to Allah) and huqooqul ibad. Allah has decreed that if He so wills, He may forgive any shortcomings pertaining to the rights due to Him except shirk (associating other deities with Allah). However, when it comes to the violations and sins of huqooqul ibad, Allah has bestowed the right to forgive only on the person(s) whose rights have been violated or usurped in any way.

Furthermore, there is no prayer, ritual or good deed in Islam that will turn haram (forbidden) into halal (permissible), and this includes haram wealth amassed through any means. If generals and politicians and their respective mafias have looted this nation’s wealth, then no Umrah, no prayer and no good deed will turn their haram wealth into halal. Their sins will never be forgiven by Allah unless every one of the 210 million or so Pakistanis, whose money they have looted, forgives them by heart. They will have to answer to Allah for their every rupee and every act and will have to face Allah’s wrath and punishment sans any bail or relief or health reasons — and this goes for all of us.

The consistent and prevalent insistence of our clergy and other religious circles on focusing only/mostly on huqooq Allah, and associating them with forgiveness of “all sins”, has led this nation away from huqooqul ibad. This has mired us into the practice of “sin laundering” by making us believe that “all sins” committed against other beings, and the filthy wealth that is accumulated will be forgiven and “cleansed” by performing Umrah, Hajj, prayers, rituals and by adopting overt signs and symbols of piety on body and dress.

This “sin laundering” has turned our society into an ever-deepening cesspool of sin and crime. “Sin laundering” has corrupted, depraved and decomposed the entire social structure of our country. It is said that corruption has weakened the country’s institutions, thus weakening the country. And it is the concept of “sin laundering” that sits above practically every ill in society. It justifies and cleanses every sin and crime and ill-gotten wealth in this country.

“Sin laundering” is sinking Pakistan.

The writer is a socio-economic change strategist, a freelance journalist and a creative communications professional. He can be contacted at moazzamhai@yahoo.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 16th, 2019