By Junid Tahir Brother Bilal is a scientist who works for a respected organization. While we were driving and chatting, ...
Brother Bilal is a scientist who works for a respected organization. While we were driving and chatting, he mentioned that his office provides him with enough supplies for work. However, he buys a separate pen and notepad for his personal use because he believes using office supplies for personal work is wrong. I heard him, but I didn't pay much attention.
Later, we stopped at a gas station to fill up. The bill was 37 AED. Bilal gave the fuel attendant 40 AED and expected 3 AED in change. But the attendant only gave back 2 AED and moved on to the next car as if nothing was wrong.
Bilal said, "Junaid, did you notice he took 1 AED? I heard him, but I didn't pay much attention. Then Bilal said, "Can you imagine if every service person in the city did this? How much corruption would there be?"
This time, Bilal made me think. I imagined both situations (stationery and gas) happening all over the city. I knew people like Bilal are rare, but there are millions of people like the service attendant (including businessmen, doctors, engineers, and officers). I imagined 5 million people in a city, each doing 1 AED of corruption daily. That would be 5 million AED of corruption every day!
FLASH: Everyone wants to fix the system, but no one starts with themselves. People give big speeches against corruption but don't check how honest they are. While the government's job is to make sure the right systems are in place and punish wrongdoers, our conscience is our built-in court. Our conscience tells us when we do something wrong. If it doesn't, we need to go back to our faith. A clean conscience is the best pillow. We should do more positive things to empower our conscience
