Modern-day Muslim pirates
Admittedly, you may find the headline a bit obtrusive yet at some point, we will all have to concur of how picaresque the human population is becoming. Day by day, so many individuals feel robbed off their most valuable assets. In contemporary terms, these assets are not merely physical assets like wealth and property, the sci-fi era also reminds us how today’s most prized possession is information, and how this too is so susceptible to theft. What you may know as intellectual property rights is, to a great extent under threat at all levels. Besides, the actual ownership, in the face o an ever-fluctuating world morality code, is also a decision yet to be made.
In simple terms, piracy is theft, but the understanding of theft is so distant from the human race and the correlation is filled with moral justifications and rationalisations, so much so that, no one, in his or her private time, ever thinks that they are guilty of this misdemeanour. sayyid Ai Akbar Sadaaqat in his book ‘Anecdotes for Reflection – Part 2’, says “Denying the wife her dower, not repaying one’s debts, not paying one’s obligatory zakat and so on, are also examples of theft, but the meaning that immediately comes to mind upon hearing of theft, is ‘taking into possession the property and wealth of others, secretly and deceptively”. In extracting a segment of this definition, we can well understand how taking into possession the property and wealth of others, secretly and deceptively, is part of the whole process of stealing.
The ingenuity of human beings is far from from exhausted, just as interest’ is translated as commission or profit, and hence permissible, and just as there are a 1,0001 types of musical instruments that determine whether a piece of melody is halaal or haraam, notwithstanding the complete ignorance of most able-bodied men and women to determine thus, piracy and theft are today commonly see as important street smart culture that helps people progress, economically and socially. Ironically, these are the same individuals who used to look down upon those caught stealing exam papers in school or those always copying frm the others during class tests.
As the World Wide Web, apt for its christening, broadens its net and tightens the noose, inadvertently, there is en masse copying of ideas, services, products, concepts and what nots. Fortune favours the… has been a favourite adage of very sly people, who lacking in their own ability to think and invent or innovate, speak volumes of how their daring nature propels their fast and furious climb up the financial and social ladder, leaving the actual inventors deviod of any claim to the very same level of success.
Extremely cleverly crafted verbosity such as ‘why re-invent the wheel’ or ‘being inspired by’ is flirted around, now more than ever, by Muslims of all people, as they steal ideas, repackage products, mimic strategies and also spy on their neighbours, to the chagrin of the vulnerable, and amidts standing ovation from a world filled with celebrity-hungry personalities. These vultures and parasites of society were, perhaps foretold in history as circumambulating the Holy Kaaba in th form of beasts and wild animals, and having amassed their lustfulness for fame and richness, will eventually face the ultimate promise of Allah (SWT), and that will be sufficient for them.
