God have mercy on us [Archives:2002/48/Focus]

COMMON SENSE
By Hassan Al-Haifi
For over than a year now a pious man has been searching endlessly for his son of some 20 years of age. He was a moneychanger trying to earn an honest living in a world that has come to be a world of deception and corruption and moral values have been shelved for another generation. This happened in Yemen – a country, where it was thought that evil could never find a niche on its turf. He never cheated anyone and he never forgot that having a good conscience was the only way to ever come closer to God, Al-Mighty. He also took everyone at face value and never thought that anyone would seek to bring harm to him. But in this world of ugly desires and poor moral suasions, it will always be the good people, who will have to bear with all the consequences from all the evil that lurks around them.
Answering the call of what he thought was a fellow moneychanger needing support, he sent out his son to respond to a request for US $ 15,000 from another fellow moneychanger. Our moneychanger has dealt with this kind of request before, without any significant problem to recall. So, there was nothing beyond a normal routine moneychanger back-to-back deal.
The son did not return home. The man went to call the moneychanger, who categorically denied having to request anything from him or his son. The moneychanger, after searching everywhere, where he thought his son might go, found no trace of his son. He went to the police. For a year, the man kept hanging on to the faintest hope that his son could still be alive after exhausting all his energy. He chased after every clue and every assurance that his son would still be found. But alas, the man could not find his son.
Eventually, thanks to a slip of the tongue of one of the culprits, the boy was indeed found. He was found dead. He apparently was killed on the day he delivered the loot.
Who did this heinous crime to a man who has never harmed a fly? A man who raised his sons to be good pious children, who never took part in any of the mischievous deeds that are associated with young kids today. He taught his sons that faith in God entails being deprived of the evil lurking of a commercial world that thrives on mischief. His son was killed on the day the delivery of the loot was made. After one year, he found that the loot, as well as his son, have both been gobbled up by the worst output of a society that has now come to regard money as the only driving impetus to life.
Yes, money must be obtained by any means, if one is to be able to enjoy the amenities of life, even if it means killing the son of a pious man, whose love for God, Al-Mighty is unbending and undisturbed by all the façade of materialistic life, which our society has come to regard as the only way to live. In such an environment, it is easy to see why men would butcher fellow men for a measly sum of money that is hardly enough for survival in a materialistic jungle that demands so much money out of you for every small thing required of life.
But honestly, is US 15,000 worth killing a man in the prime of his youth? The young son of the moneychanger was only starting to set his roots in life and was trying to follow in his father’s footsteps to pursue an honest life, knowing that the thereafter leads to accountability for all one’s sins. How ugly have we become that a bunch of hooligans can easily kill such a potentially productive citizen, for the meager sum of US $15,000, which will be worth nothing as it has to be split among all those involved in the caper? It is said that there were some 6 men involved in the conspiracy, including young men, who could care the least about earning an honest living, let alone that they will also be accountable to God for their heinous crime. They killed such an innocent well-bred son of a proud faithful moneychanger, who never harmed a fly!
It is this sad tale that leads one to wonder if we are really heading in the right direction, as we allow our cities to grow in leaps and bounds without insuring that those, who do enter the cities can find the work they need to sustain themselves and are not a menace to society. Who should be blamed for such uncontrollable streaks of human evil that have corrupted our once innocent and peaceful society, where one used to be assured that it pays to bring up children in, so that they will carry on their God-fearing values and traits towards building a safe and peaceful world. No. It just does not enter the imagination that it is no longer a remote possibility that one’s own flesh and blood can be found after one year buried somewhere least expected, because the evil have been allowed to trod on this earth without finding a deterrent to stall them.
Evil after all has permeated the very elements of those who are supposed to insure that such horrors do not arise. As if this was the fate planned for the poor and misfortunate Yemeni people, who are victims of an evil force that is engrained in the very fabric of those who hold the helms of authority in the land. Condolences go out to Sheikh Mophammed Abdul Salam and his proud family, who have patiently waited a year only to find themselves the victims of the evil that has overtaken us.
May God have mercy on us.

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