One of the most unsettling paradoxes in Pakistani society today is the gap between outward religiosity and inner moral emptiness. Many individuals who publicly display piety - through ritual practices, religious attire or familiar rhetoric - seem curiously untouched by the ethical and transformative demands of the very faith they claim to uphold. Their religiosity is loud and visible, but their relationship with religion - as a vehicle for self-reform, moral struggle and justice - is often hollow. It is a religiosity stripped of its moral soul.

This disconnect is most apparent in how many religious individuals rationalise unethical behaviour or excuse injustice by invoking theological explanations. If you question why some people suffer under corrupt systems while others thrive despite wrongdoing, you are told it is all predestined. If you suggest that a social collapse is a natural consequence of moral failure, you are met with the claim that God is merely testing the virtuous. In this way, difficult questions are not confronted - they are deflected. Instead of leading........

© The Express Tribune