Since we in Saudi Arabia follow the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him), we do not have among us corrupt officials, people earning money through fraudulent means or those embezzling public funds.
Neither do we hear about any Saudi drug cartel or liquor barons thanks to the Book of Allah and the Sunnah. It is the reason why a woman in our villages can travel to another place without being molested, let alone a woman traveling from one city to another.
I also believe that it is because of the influence of the Qu’ran and the Sunnah that my wife can visit a neighbor two or three blocks away in the evening without being molested or harassed.
I say all this as a preface to a recent report I read on the number of preachers and moral campaigners toiling to reform our society.
Various departments employ 30,000 men annually for preaching and awareness campaigns across the country. The number is so huge that it is enough to reform 10 societies like ours. I don’t think there is any other society in the world that employs even one-tenth of our preachers.
On the other hand, no other society needs any preaching to restrain their members. On one of my recent visits to Istanbul, I saw a voluptuously beautiful woman dressed skimpily walking down the street.
Many young men were passing her but none of them bothered to look at her, let alone molest her. I have also seen women employees in Kuala Lumpur leaving their offices and mixing in with the crowds without any men staring at them lustfully.
I have seen school buses dropping off girls on streets in Alexandria. The girls walk along the side roads and no young fellows were harassing them in cars.
This made me wonder why no one in our cities dares to let his wife or daughter visit her close relatives in the same district in broad daylight without ensuring they are escorted.
What I don’t quite understand is why we behave in this hideous manner despite the continuous efforts of thousands of preachers and moral campaigners.
The next question is — what kind of brutes would we have become had it not been for the Book of God and the Sunnah?
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