ARTICLE: By NIDA KHAN

Back to Idol Affection

It is the nature of human beings that he invents something in different periods of time and he achieves ultimate point of success. Since evolution of humans till today they are involved in different activities, such as agricultural developments, technologies and so on. Now they have entered in communication era, like radio,TV, internet and satellites have been developed by themselves but the question arises that, why they are moving backwards after achieving the top most and ultimate success.
Media is a very powerful means of communication, it is a source of information, knowledge and entertainment, and people also use media for, entertainment, self relaxation and awareness. But nowadays, it is observed that in our society, mostly people have been extremely inspired by media anchor persons and celebrities and they forget their moral values, ethical values and culture. They do not realize that, what they are doing? It is just due to lack of confidence and knowledge about their moral values, religious obligations and inferiority complex.
Is it love, devotion, affection, attraction or inspiration, what is this and what it should be called? But they are doing it without any consideration: We hears many proverbs in our daily life, such as " yar bhai ki film kia hit hai:, or "yeh bhai ka style hai samjho apna style hai", in these sentences " Bhai" is a famous bollywood star and favorite actor of youngsters and they feels it their moral and prime “duty" to follow "bhai's" style. They pay full attention to these film, personalities and styles, instead of their studies and goal of life. Same is the case with our women, they gives priority and pay full attention and preferences to " Nadia khan morning show" instead of talking to their family members on breakfast and males gets excitement by this morning show. What is this? These media persons and celebrities have become "idols of affection”, for our viewers.
Allama Muhammad Iqbal said when the first movie was screened in 1930s,

That was the religion of the ancient nations,

This is the exhibition and show of the culture and expressions,

That was the mud of the world; and this is the mud of the hell to be burnt,

That was idol and this is the ash.

In these verses The great philosopher Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal had made it clear about today's situation and he called media personalities as " Dozzakh ki matti", because in ancient age and pre Islamic era, human worshiped those idols, made from clay and those idols were the source of affection and inspiration, but now a days people are being inspired by those idols who appears on electronic media i.e. TV and films as well as on internet .
I would like to explain that, Hakeem ul ummat Dr. Allama Muhammad Iqbal did not mean that mankind has turned towards idol worship but the actual means of worship is that to expect or beg something from worldly idols, instead of Almighty God.
Obviously this lack of attention will move them towards idol worship. We observe the scenes that mostly people leave their important assignments and watch their favorite programs with full concentration. This is something very alarming. These effects of media are moving us away from our Islamic and real moral values and people are easily adopting other’s cultural values. It is all due to negligence, ignorance and lack of interest as well as lack of knowledge about religion and Allama Iqbal cautioned and warned us much more in advance regarding this evil.
It does not exists only in our society
But this trend is spreading all over the world, e.g., U.S.A, Europe, India and so on. The role of media has successfully played could not be played by the great rulers and dictators as well. The media can make and break public opinion. TV is up-to-date technology and it has many positive effects it is a great source of awareness of problems through entertainment. Educational and religious programs can be screened and presented in a better and interesting way. Our religious obligations, cultural norms and ethical values be kept in mind .The need is felt that use of media should be according to limits and on need to know basis. It is a natural factor and phenomenon that glamour does attract somebody but having given the priority, it means that to loose your aim and forgetting your basic mission and the reason of our creation is certainly not acceptable.
It is suggested that, the government and media people must also have their self made code of conduct, ethical norms and keeping the religious values in mind, while presenting any program on air, without competing with others, particularly the non believers. Educational level should be raised so that people can differentiate between good and bad, their should be no restriction on viewing the channels but the youngsters should be guided, obliged and instructed about good and bad, positives and negatives also (own culture and other’s culture, ethics and moral values) youngster not should make role model of any media personality, like bollywood stars and others. Government should promulgate the national values and national ethics and national issues and highlight the national spirits and patriotism. Leaders should set self and personal examples for the nation particularly for young generation.

PUBLISHED BY NIDA KHAN