“What works for Sony works for God too”
Posted By Hilath
The “Hadhiya” (literally meaning “Gift”) program telecast on weekend (Friday) mornings on Television Maldives offers cash prizes for all callers-in who are able to predict the correct answers pertaining to questions on Islam. Like the “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” show, the callers can also up their cash “gifts” by being able to keep giving the correct answers, until some “difficult” question comes along like being asked in what obscure war an obscure personality got martyred.
My Islamic upbringing taught me that “monetary benefits”, i.e. materialist needs, are not acceptable regarding religious matters. So, to check whether the current Islamic school of thought has changed from the beliefs of the 1980s, I asked the opinion of a local Islamic scholar on what he thought of the “Hadhiya” program.
“It’s unethical that people should be lured to religion by attracting them with financial benefits. That is against the very spirit of the spiritual nature of religion. People should become interested in religion not because of any monetary benefits but because they have a pure and honest interest in following God. It is highly regrettable that state television should actually format and promote a religious program like that. There are halal (legal) ways to promote Islam on television,” he said.
I then asked an owner of a company who had once sponsored such a program which however was not religious in nature.
“What works for a Sony also works for God, too. It’s all about marketing. It’s all about catering to basal human nature which is greed and money. But this does not mean that the government has to officially endorse and encourage human basal nature by a program like ‘Hadhiya’,” he said.
I was thinking the same abt this program. Its another fake prog on TVM !