Jeff Bezos, the American Billionaire, upon returning from his suborbital space tour decided to donate USD200 Million to Van Jones, the founder of Dream Corps and Josè Andrès, the founder of World Central Kitchen. At the end of his press conference, Bezos said that both of these courageous individuals demonstrate both courage and civility in their work; most importantly they try to be unifiers in a divisive world. It is actually an arduous task to unite people along racial, religious and especially political lines. These, together with other several divisive elements in society and the differing views on so many issues, the society is not just faced with a health pandemic but also need to combat the pandemic of disunity and incivility. Stephen Carter, in his book, Civility (1998) explains that a society cannot preserve its civility without its moral foundation as civility is more than the notions of courtesy and politeness. It also includes matters such as social relationships and proper conduct in human relationships. It is all about being well-mannered, considerate, courteous, sensitive, kind and modest. These qualities and the etiquette that motivates them are collectively called adab in the Islamic tradition. Islam places adab at a very high position in the religion. In a hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah, Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) said, “I have been sent to perfect good character” and in another hadith, the Prophet also said, “The perfect believer in respect of faith is he who is best of them in manners”.
The embodiment of adab or good manners is supposedly reflected in all our actions and behaviours. Individuals who possess good manners are often civil in their conducts towards others. Civility as practiced in society, can actually stem from initiatives and actions put forth by individual members in society and not necessarily through enforced institutional rules. Islam puts high regards to the importance of observing civility in social conducts and dealings. Allah SWT says in the Holy Quran:
“Invite all to the way of your Lord with wisdom and kind advice, and argue with them in ways that are best.” (An Nahl, 16:125).
Being civil is not a trivial matter. In today’s world where the pandemic has changed people’s lives in many ways and everyone is frustrated with the physical lockdowns and distancing, loss of employments and rising poverty level; unkind words, rudeness and insensitivities seem to be dominating the way people respond to each other. In the beginning, when the pandemic hit, everyone seemed to think that they had everything under control and the responses to it were adequate. However today, when the number of infected people rise to a total of more than 193 million globally and the death toll has risen to more than 4.2 million lives, civility and decorum start to falter. We let the virus to not just affect our health system, lives and livelihood, we also let it destroy our sense of humanity in so many other ways.
We do not have to go far to see how this is actually taking place. For a start, just scroll down our social media pages or read the daily news, we will learn how the world is unfolding day by day. As people spend more time online, there is the tendency to scrutinize everything that is shared on the internet. Sometimes in the process, people start to become unnecessarily critical of things to the extent that we feel that only our viewpoints are correct and matter most. To be firm on one’s point of view is commendable because it indicates our conviction to the principles that we hold so dearly. However, the problem occurs when we degrade other people’s opinion and beliefs over a matter or issue and become rude in the process. We feel that it is all about our right to freedom of expression without realizing that such actions might actually bring about more divisions and disunity to an already divided society.
Our country needs civility to prevail. Amidst all the divisions, frustrations and weariness that we see around us, the time has come for us to realize that we can be the brave agents of unity in our own capacities. No matter what colours of the flags that we see hanging around us, the greater message to spread is of positivity in our efforts to help other people get out of the quandary that they are currently facing. Do not sow seeds of discord and hostility because the agony that comes with those kinds of negativities would frustrate any kind of hope that might exist even in the smallest amount. If we are the ones facing difficulties, be assured that there are those who are there to help. These are the people who have the courage and civility to do good things for the betterment of those impacted by the ongoing health pandemic and its adverse effects on the lives and livelihood of most people today.