Morality is both an individual and social phenomenon. It tells you how to be happy. It's a kind of a secret a key that guides you to get the maximum joy, pleasure, meaning, satisfaction, peace of mind, and many other good things out of life.
And Islamic morality teaches the Muslim how to win the never-ending battle royal of good vs. evil.
Western civilisation scoffs at the very mention of words such as morality, decency and modesty. These are regarded as old-fashioned and incongruous with today’s culture of liberalism and unfettered freedom. Immodesty, immorality, shamelessness and fornication are regarded as progressive and fashionable. Yet this has been the very cause of the destruction of today's family. Too many a happy home has broken due to infidelity, leaving in its trail misery, heartache and an unstable society. Fornication also leads to illegitimate and unwanted children who become a massive problem unto society due to lack of proper parental supervision. Immorality is truly a curse on mankind and society.
The country that prides itself in being the superpower of today’s world and the leader of present day civilisation, the United States of America is reeling under the impact of immorality. Today every other child in the U.S. is born out of wedlock. Thirty-eight percent of children now live without a biological father; 6.6 million children live with divorced single parents, mostly mothers whose ex-husbands tend to fade away from their children. This is family life in USA. "Something is wrong with the entire American family," writes Martin Marty, professor at the University of Chicago, in the Los Angles Times. "One has the weird sense that America is a country with many children but without adults." This gruesome picture is the direct result of the absence of morality, decency and modesty in the U.S. and, unfortunately most of the Western world, and parts of Eastern societies.
Today, adultery and fornication are no longer viewed as the deadly crimes and sins they really are and are in fact commonplace. Married men are expected to have several mistresses in some places.
Premarital sex is now considered quite acceptable, normal, well within the bounds of morality, and indeed desirable. It has been this way for a long time and you can say it has become part of the "American Way". Dating begins at a very young age and every socially well-adjusted youngster is expected to have several girlfriends and boyfriends by a certain age. Couples are expected to live together. Those who grow up in the West are weaned on sex in both subtle and not so subtle ways. It is quickly learned through T.V. shows, commercials, movies, advertisements, songs, you name it, that being sexy is a desired goal and aim in life.
Even comic books abound with superheroes and heroines with fantastically well-proportioned bodies and they lead sexually active private lives where little is left to the imagination. Animated cartoon characters from Betty Boop to Jessica Rabbit make the message crystal clear about what makes a female desirable. The top selling video and computer games feature female characters with sexy bodies whose biggest audiences are adolescent boys and young men. Females are intensely focused on being sexually attractive and are conditioned to be so from the time they get their first Barbie. This is what makes the fashion, cosmetic and entertainment industries thrive.
Countless young girls admire and aspire to be 'superstar' beauty queens, models, singers, or actresses. There is a phenomenal proliferation of ‘fan’ or entertainment magazines that feature the hottest entertainment stars who are known precisely for their sex appeal. The highest rated T.V. talk shows are those that commonly feature people who expose their most intimate and outlandish sexual behavior.
Moreover, homosexuality has now become accepted by a large number of people particularly in the West as well as in other circles that are "westernized". An indication of this changed attitude is the fact that homosexuals are no longer portrayed as abnormal.
Apparently homosexuality has become largely accepted by Americans and Europeans even if some of them personally do not practice it. Accepted in so much as no one will report or condemn or discriminate against a homosexual in most areas unless they are flagrantly offensive in their mannerisms and behavior.
Pornography of all types and levels is a multi-billion dollar industry having increased in leaps and bounds within just the last decade.
Despite these realities, the entertainers and their producers, advertisers, writers and the like will claim that they do not adversely affect the habits of people at all. They insist that they don’t negatively influence society in any way. At the very same time most of them will say that one of the most gratifying rewards of their professions is the effect they have upon people!
After all that liberation, a woman's worth is still tied to her level of physical attractiveness which is still considered her only asset and one to be exploited in the worst and most demeaning way. Males are increasingly judged in this way but not to the degree as are females. Even the modern ‘super-woman power-executive’ who is supposed to be respected for her intellect and authority still wears a mid-thigh skirt. She expects... no demands, to be viewed as absolutely equal to her male counterpart, yet does she really believe that when dressed this way her worth is not at all being judged based on her looks by even the unemployed vagrant she passes by on the way to work?
Even in the face of this staggering toll in human suffering and degradation, the disbelievers and doubters in Islam still ask: You Muslims say that Islam orders women to be all covered up (veiled)?! They can't wear whatever they please shouldn't go out perfumed?! You're not supposed to go out on dates? You shouldn't listen to sexually explicit songs!? No swimming or visiting the public beaches in the summer (for women)?! Not even the same sex should see each other in scanty, skin-tight, or see-through clothing or even shower together at the gym?! You really place great value on chastity, modesty and virginity until marriage?! You encourage that men be jealous for and protective of their wives?! Premarital sex is a punishable crime and adultery is a capital offense?! No sex unless you are married to your partner?! You can marry up to four women?!!
Islam sets the highest possible standard of morality. This is bound to provide limitless avenues for the moral evolution of humanity. By making Divine revelations as the primary source of knowledge it gives permanence and stability to the moral standards which afford reasonable scope for genuine adjustments, adaptations and innovations that make everyone obey the moral law even without any external pressure.
Islamic morality and today’s world: Part one 
