Who receives bribes with an outstretched hand? Who gets angry if someone refuses to give a bribe? Who indulges in intoxicants, develops a habit of misconduct, or betrays trust—why should such people be called good? A person who goes to the mosque but also lies—will those who claim to guarantee his place in paradise even make it there themselves? Did the prophets and messengers ever grant them such authority? Yet, if someone donates a little money to a mosque or temple, contributes a large sum to a religious gathering or seminary, or supports an injustice, we elevate even the most inhumane person to paradise with the blaring sound of loudspeakers! We send murderers straight to Jannatul Ferdous! As if religion is their ancestral property and the Creator is a relative from their maternal lineage!
Someone steals twenty-five taka but donates five, and society worships them to the point of losing all sense. The bigger the monster in the state, the more respect they receive! Those who can bend the rules, flex their power, and threaten others for their own gain are the ones society bows down to! As if paradise belongs to them! The more irregularities one commits, the more institutions advertise them as qualified! When moral consciousness decays, looters become idols for the youth! Those who sell their bodies become models! The severe damage caused by accepting the wrong people as role models has already begun in society! To find genuinely good people, we may have to launch a census just for them!
Society places no value on an honest person. In offices, an honest worker is treated like a fool, and in the market, they are regarded as beggars! The level of decay that forces honest people into disgrace shows how deep society has sunk. When a person’s worth is measured in money, respect is given based on power, and goodness is determined by a deceptive façade hiding a corrupt mentality, the presence of truly good people is confined within four walls! Not even a bird knows that, beyond these walls, a couple of good souls barely survive! Meanwhile, those who have sold their conscience and locked the doors of morality are the ones now passing judgments in society! More often than not, it is the characterless who issue certificates of character to others!
Who earns the title of a “good person” in this society? Those who can invest billions in elections! Those who can smuggle vast amounts of the country’s wealth abroad or rent luxurious hotel suites filled with alcohol! Has society ever presented an honest person as an ideal for young people? Has a truly good person ever been given a state honor? Has anyone ever been told, “Be pure-hearted like so-and-so”? Children are raised to idolize actors, singers, wealthy frauds, and corrupt bureaucrats! While it is easy to name twenty-five of the country’s top corrupt individuals in one breath, naming just five truly good people at the national level would make one break into a sweat! The society and the state have never genuinely taken up the project of producing good people!
Children are taught that money is everything and shown that pleasure is the only true happiness! In families and institutions, there is a vast gap between spoken words and true intentions! In this society, evil is glorified far more attractively than virtue is respected! The scandalous red-letter headlines in newspapers, the sensational breaking news on television, and the glamorous presentations of actors’ and actresses’ private lives all receive far more attention than introducing a great person to society or recognizing good deeds! Yet, without the bridge of good people, society has no path forward! If we could be as selfless as we are selfish, positive change would surely come to our communities and our world.
