The most valuable thing on Earth.
While interviewing some engineers for my team we posed every candidate a question, “What is the first thing that you would do, if you were to be made the Prime Minister of India?” These were young engineers who had just finished their College and were trying to find their place, their identity in the professional world. India produces more engineers every year than the number of job positions that the country can offer and finding a reputed company with a stable career and more importantly a better salary is a challenge. The question was more philosophical in nature and subjective and I cannot say about others but for me it had taken a long time to reach my answer as to what is the most valuable thing on our planet, so to be fair to these candidates we were not expecting them to give an accurate answer; the intention was rather to sow a seed in their minds to look for answers themselves. The candidates who succeeded in clearing their technical tests and interviews obviously had the privilege to learn the answer.
None of the candidates actually came close to the probable answer, they were actually thinking themselves to be the “Prime Minister” and the pressure was evident; some said education was the key, some said economy needs to grow and they would take steps in that direction, most of them said that farmers should be paid well, some said the health system while others said the defense system should be improved.
Within themselves even if they had asked the right question it would have taken them some time to fathom out had they not thought of it earlier. Had they asked themselves, is it money or gold that is most valuable thing on the planet? Are diamonds that they claim “are forever” more valuable? or a large estate on top of a mountain by the sea is more valuable? They would have realized that life is the most valuable thing on the planet.
As human progress and more debates are happening, we are moving towards a safer future compared to how things have been in the past. Countries and cultures who have not understood this wisdom have either remained backwards or have continued to oppress or wage wars against the weaker nations of the world. One does not need to carry out much research to find out that countries that considers human lives as most valuable are more progressive, this principle of honoring the “human lives” forces them to build their better roads, their safer dwellings, more research and development, better educational institutes, creation of wealth and a more successful economy and trade with other nations. Their laws revolving around this principle causes even their criminal justice systems to be more just, as their laws are created to discourage capital punishment.
“A society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but by how it treats its criminals.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Honoring lives promotes trust even between two nations whose ideologies might be poles apart. This principle is so strong that it has major impact on our environment, it prevents us from tampering and misusing the resources, anything that effects any life is automatically rejected.
Understanding this principle forces us to appreciate the fact that God has made life sacred.
[Quran 17:33] You shall not kill any person — for GOD has made life sacred — except in the course of justice. If one is killed unjustly, then we give his heir authority to enforce justice. Thus, he shall not exceed the limits in avenging the murder, he will be helped.
It is painful to see that such an important principle has been ignored in most of the Muslim world, the consequence of such heedlessness has resulted in millions of families from such nations either being killed or displaced and the most vulnerable have always been the children and women. God does not differentiate between a believer and a disbeliever, He provides equal opportunities to every single soul and we should do what He teaches us.
