Humanity has come up with many beautiful things, and has made great inventions up to now. In a way, it is thanks to these efforts that the people of our time are enjoying a life of comfort, never equaled in any period of history; at least, this is potentially so. Even though it would not be correct to speculate today on the days to come, those who predict the future of the world say that it will, in a way, become so attractive for the people of physicality and carnal pleasures that it will make them forget Paradise. With a feeling and passion that gives priority to immediate pleasures and delights, they will say like Omar Khayyam, “The past and future are all but tales; enjoy yourself, do not spoil your life.” Thus, they will see life as only eating, drinking, and lying down, constantly making their choices in favor of worldly ease and comfort.

Actually, we can see this even now in many developed countries, and a great number of people around the world are enviously trying to imitate them. Almost everybody speaks about “material welfare and comfort,” without seeing other values than these, or rather without wanting to see them. However, in spite of the dizzying developments brought by science, the new opportunities offered by technology, and so many means promising us welfare and happiness, the people of our time do not seem so happy. Let alone seeming happy, they are seized by unease and depression more than ever. Though it could not be expected to be any other way, mere worldly opportunities, which are not supported by their relation to faith or knowledge of God, not deepened and given meaning, would obviously not mean much. In this respect, what we need in this modern age is nothing but to choose the best stature as suggested by the truth of having been created as “the perfect pattern of creation” (Tin 95:5), and to read the essence of being human accordingly. We can call this human beings’ realization of their difference with respect to spirituality and heart, reviewing their relation with the Creator, and finding their own orbit as befits the purpose of their creation. It seems that until they learn to read their essence correctly, it will not be possible for human beings to put their affairs in order and attain the happiness they expect. And particularly so if they are trying to suppress their spiritual appetite through luxury, comfort, and seeking to satisfy their physical pleasures due to not being able to know their real problems.

Even though the gravity of problems varies according to the country and society, almost all of humanity today faces serious dead ends. Almost everywhere, in every society, the masses experiencing a void in the name of faith and knowledge of God are pushed-consciously or not-into a disordered life, their animal desires are constantly triggered, and they are intoxicated into oblivion. Obviously, there cannot be sound spirit, sound thoughts, and sound judgment in such carefree, lawless, and immoderate masses. Masses of this sort have no aim or activity other than satisfying their carnal senses and consoling themselves with alcohol and drugs. Such a society can be considered to be spiritually dead, or to have entered the grave before dying. For such miserable souls who have lost their feeling of being human to some extent, it is just ordinary to have perverted habits, nervous problems, stress, and depression. Unfortunately, along with the entire world today, Muslim countries are also afflicted with the same diseases, and they are going through their most unfortunate days in desperation. In this world, individuals are diseased and shaken, the home is miserable and messed up, the masses are delirious and aggressive, and the representatives of brute power are cruel and merciless; nobody knows where it will lead and what kind of an end awaits humanity…

Due to such intermingled uncertainties and misery, most are unaware of what they are doing, what purpose they are serving, and what kind of disintegration they are heading toward. Most are completely unaware of the background of these dreadful problems, the real reasons for the total degeneration of societies, and the spiritual deformation of masses. The cause or causes of disease are not known exactly, and therefore the remedies offered are mistaken to a great extent. The question of how many people have been able to diagnose the problem is always arguable. And God knows how many of them are even given the right to speak.

It is for these reasons that in spite of all means of welfare, humanity is unhappy, weary, worn, delirious, and bent under the burden of bad conscience. Individuals and the masses are in an intimidating void-the void of conflicting with our primordial nature-generated by not knowing one’s Master. This is the void of being ignorant of faith and wisdom and the void of having been dragged into the pitfalls of the carnal self. Therefore, people are in constant anxiety as if journeying through the corridors of Hell and are extremely uneasy. Neither leading their life in luxurious buildings, nor their fantastic clothing mean anything in the face of this void in them. Sometimes the delirium of intoxication is resorted to, and sometimes contentment is sought within material and carnal desires… but to no avail. None of these suffices to fill the void inside, and the generations of today, who are deprived of spiritual support, keep drifting from one delirious state to another.

Because of mad crowds detached from their past, with no connection with their future, and vulnerable to committing crime, almost everywhere human life and property are under threat, those who care about chastity are anxious, and those responsible for security are ashamed of being unable to cope with the different illegal organizations they face every day. Those who see these on television or in the newspapers wonder, “Is it the end of humanity?” and they shake with the fear of being dealt a divine blow. We cannot consider them wrong, since Sodom and Gomorrah were smashed to the ground in chastisement for such spiritual disintegration and debasement. The people of Noah was destroyed for a quarter of today’s present immorality. If the destroyed peoples of Ad, Thamud, and Ayka were to witness what is happening today, they would probably be deeply ashamed. As the poet Mehmed Akif expressed it:

Modesty has been raised, shamelessness all around,
What ugly faces that thin veil proves to have disguised!
No fidelity, no loyalty to promise, not a sign of the word “trust,”
Lies are favored, betrayal required, right is out of sight.
Let virtues be ignored, let consciences fall into silence.
If this moral corruption lasts, there will remain no independence.

In the face of such realities, the only way to be saved from the present dangers and from being caught in the torrents of misguidance is faith in God, the belief in resurrection and the afterlife, consciousness of the final judgment, and a new call to a total revival toward being ourselves. On the other hand, other cures which have been resorted to so far are obviously of no use at all.

The entire society is afflicted and faith is the treatment,

For souls starving for faith, other ways are torment.

We will wait and see; maybe one day God Almighty will open our eyes too.

I only care about myself. Whether the rest of the world collapses or not does not concern me, is the idea reflected by such events. This attitude of indifferent haughtiness leads to the following result: A world in which I have no welfare must be destroyed or If I am not loved, no one else can be loved. Our welfare level today has been unable to stop other peoples suffering, for we have not noticed what they experienced in the past. Such people were as glad at this tragedy as if they had taken revenge themselves, in the true sense of the word, while watching the tears and shock of the rich. We have just realized that the world is small, and that violence impacts everyone.

Terrorism is an absolute threat to all civilizations. As there is still no commonly accepted definition of terrorism, any state’s reaction to it will not lessen the threat it poses; on the contrary, it actually might strengthen it. The future of the world rests upon reaching a just response to this horrible tragedy and discussing the matter comprehensively. The fact that politics has gone clerical and that religion has become politicized makes some global events of the modern world more global.

The September 11th tragedy shows that terrorism is able to span regional and continental borders. This obliges the entire world to unify itself in order to face this challenge. To this end, we need to deal primarily with social problems and poverty, close the economic gap, and prevent strong countries from oppressing weaker ones. In the face of our world’s real contradictions, there is no second alternative to stopping terrorism, which constantly produces the most cruel incidents. In order to benefit from Earth’s riches, we must channel human consciousness, science, and technology properly so that they may serve good instead of evil; so that they may serve humanity’s collective development instead of destruction. Globalization can absolve itself only if it solves our world’s global problems.

The quality of the services provided by the welfare state depends upon its level of prosperity. For this reason, welfare states came into existence in industrialised countries before developing countries. Where these states have been economically and politically stable, improvements in social welfare have been made. However, there has been a claim that in recent years the concept of the welfare state is in crisis and that in practice governments have been unable to meet the needs of vulnerable people adequately. Welfare pluralists have claimed that the welfare state has failed to meet needs and provide services. They assert that the state must withdraw from direct provision and recognise the potential of both the family -especially in providing personal social services, and the voluntary sector. With the provision of services transferred from the state to the community, the cost of social services will become less and effectiveness will increase. However, will ‘the community’ shoulder this responsibility? Can the family be expected to meet the needs as effectively as welfare pluralists envisage. There are serious doubts whether a well formed family structure neighbourhood actually exists.

‘The community’ is now seen as the main source of care for vulnerable people. ‘Community care’ implies ordinary members of local communities such as families, neighbours and friends providing help and care for those who are in need.

Abrams (1977) defines community care as the provision of help, support and protection by lay members of societies acting in everyday domestic and occupational settings. It is possible to say that community care is care provided by the community itself.

The community is composed of families, neighbours and friends. Most of the care for the elderly and for children is provided by families and relatives. Only a limited number of elderly people, children or the disabled are cared for by the statutory voluntary organizations; the rest are looked after by their families and relatives and to a limited extent by neighbours and friends. In the United Kingdom during 1987 fewer than 243,000 out of a total of 8,6 million people aged 65 and over were resident in local authorities’, voluntary organizations’ and the private sectors’ homes. This means that only nearly 3,5% of the total number of elderly people were living in institutional homes: The rest of them were either taken care of by their families or were trying to cope with living on their own.

If the burden of social services provision is to be shouldered by the community, can families, relatives or neighbours manage to act as a realistic substitute for the welfare state? Can they meet the expectations of the welfare pluralists?

In today’s industrial societies most relationships are based on reciprocal interests. Individualism is at its highest level. The ties of kinship and family are withering away. Social and moral values are being undermined. However, as Abrams (1977) points out, the effective social bases for community care are kinship, religion and race, not ‘the community’.

Although the family is seen as the strongest and most reliable source of care, it is at present undergoing severe problems, particularly in Western societies. The family is affected by a number of social and demographic factors, the most significant ones being: the age structure of population, its marital structure, the size of the family and the changing roles of the family members (Nissel: 1980).

The population is ageing. The number of elderly in need is increasing and the level of provision is decreasing. On the one hand number of the people dependant on family care is increasing and is likely to continue increasing; on the other, the number of carers is declining because the idea of having a family is disappearing and the size of the family is getting smaller. Birth rates decreased from 84,3% in 1971 to 64,2% in 1990 in the United Kingdom and the percentage of births outside marriage rose from 8,1% in 1971 to 30,3% in 1990 (Social Trends, 22:1992). This may mean that there will be fewer potential carers when the present generation of parents reach old age (Johnson: 1990). The family is also faced with a changing marital structure. There are increasing numbers of one-parent families caused by separation, divorce and deaths. Many of these single parents have young children. Divorce affects the care negatively; the estimated number of divorcees in Great Britain was about 517,000 in 1971 and increasing to 2,374,000 in 1988 (Social Trends, 20:1990).

Another set of demographic and social factors that affect the relation between the family and the welfare state is the change in household structure. It would be argued that women are more likely than men to be the carers of the family. This is because women have been seen traditionally as the main people responsible for the care of children and the elderly, while the men have been seen as the bread-winners working outside of the home for the family. However, during the last two decades this situation has changed in Western societies. Although most of the family-based care is shouldered by women, the number of women in the labour force has been increasing. According to the statistics, there were 9,3 million women in the British labour force in 1971 and to 11,8 million in 1988. It is also projected that there will be 12,7 million women working in the year 2000 (Social Trends, 20:1990). The number of working women is likely to continue increasing, and as a result this may mean that the care provided by women is likely to decline.

In today’s world, particularly, in Western industrialized societies, the family has gradually been losing its strength and increasingly unable to perform its functions. It may be true to say that we now live in a world where family, social and moral values are being slowly destroyed. Policy makers, politicians and religious scholars are worried about what should be done to avoid the impending consequences.

How can men and women be encouraged to stay in marriage? How can their children be motivated to care for their frail parents? What are the motivations that keep the society in order and ensure that its members help each other? How is altruism managed in societies where individualism exists? How can social solidarity be re-established? There are many other questions; however, most agree that the main problem is with the social and moral values of society.

In recent years, the managers of the welfare state have found it difficult to meet the needs of its ever increasing number of vulnerable people due to high costs, ineffectiveness and lack of resources. This has led them to try to shun all responsibility for provision of services and to put the onus on us ‘the community’.

However, as society as a whole changes, relationships between children and parents, between families, between neighbours are changing. People’s behaviour in a society is usually formed by their social position and by the moral and religious beliefs with which they have been brought up. It may be impossible to expect people to take care of others especially those who are in need, if they do not feel that they should do so. In today’s societies it is clear that most of the elderly parents are not looked after by their children and they have to cope with living on their own which they usually cannot manage. Most neighbours are also reluctant to get to know each other.

We can conclude that societies need to be supported by strong social and moral values which form the norms of social behaviour. Only then people will try to behave as they are expected to as human beings. In this context, I will leave you with the words of the Messenger, upon him be peace:

‘None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself’, ‘He who does not care about his neighbour’s starvation, while he is in wealth, is not among us’, and ‘He who desires that he be granted more provision and his lease of life be prolonged, should treat his kith and kin well’. 

References

• ABRAMS P. (1977) Community Care: Some Research Problems and Priorities Policy and Politics No.6
• JOHNSON N. (1990) Reconstructing the Welfare State Hertfordshire: Simon&Schuster Int.
• NISSEL M. et al. (1980) The Welfare State-Diversity&Decentralisation, London, PSI
• Social Trends 20 (1990) London Central Statistic Office
• Social Trends 22 (1992) London Central Statistic Office
• SPICKER P. (1988) Principles of Social Welfare, London, Routledge
• WALKER A. et al. (1986) The Debate About Community, London PSI