“Apni Aukat main Raho”
By: Faaiz Gilani
Tags: Blogging, Respect, Life Lessons, Life, Growth

The question is, what is your “Aukat”?

You may have heard this phrase in your life before? If you haven’t, consider yourself lucky as only barbaric maniacs with egos as big as the Burj Khalifa can have the audacity to make such a below-the-belt statement. Well, let me explain the art of channeling your anger, frustration, and hatred into one sweeping statement that serves as a hollow attack with no substantial backing or justification that may validate such claims. The statement above does all this and much more (apart from tarnishing an image of another human who you did not think was so low) to the personality of the bloke who used this phrase as an insult.

If you consider a rational human, what have they been taught? All humans are equal, with no one having the right to claim they are at an exalted stature in comparison to the rest. Even from a religious point of view, the crux is that the human race descended from Hazrat Adam, us being brothers and sisters of one another. Yet, even within families, forgetting other cases, there is a distinction with regards to respect and importance simply based on the wealth one may have amassed. The wealthier one believing it is their inherited right to proclaim themselves as a class above the rest, free to dictate their opinions as facts, outrightly rejecting the rest. There is this ego associated with wealth where the person is willing to get irritated, annoyed, and infuriated when his claims are revoked with facts and evidence. They say, “Little knowledge is always dangerous”, but if you couple that with an arrogant elitist, deadly cancerous combination. This elitist mentality of Pakistan is hands down one of the pivotal reasons why society is failing to progress at a rate other developing countries go at. Your mere adoption of an accent different from your own, only to later mock those who struggle, reflects how Colonial Ideals still overshadow our mentality. Want to know what serves as the Cherry on top? The worst, in this case, is when an individual is nothing on his own. His job, salary, status, and luxuries are far inferior to others around them, but the wealth of their father and forefathers corrupt their minds to develop that sense of superiority.

Next, people take leverage from the caste they belong to. As absurd as it sounds, be it India or Pakistan, the caste/sect plays an unprecedented role in determining the value of a person. Why? Why would you even do that? You did not work hard to be born somewhere! You did not appear in an entrance exam in Heavens before you were born that determined where you meant to go. Did we have an 80% marks cut-off in Heaven for being born in a Syed household? I admit it is something to be happy about but does that entitle you to view the rest with a sense of superiority?

At the end of the day, when we leisurely lie on a sofa, pondering over a chain of events, one can deduce some conclusions. What’s the first thing people notice about you? Your mannerism. The way you greet those around you, the ability to pass an odd smile to friends when they show up. The ability to treat people with the respect they deserve, be it elders or those younger. Were you willing to help when a person went through a financial crisis and celebrated their later success? Did you lend a shoulder when a person needed to cry? If you can answer all this while looking at yourself in a mirror, then you indeed are one of the most invaluable people walking on the surface of this planet.

However, if you are someone who shouts abuses as if you are the only one who knows how to shout, cannot control your fists and mock elders, and question the “Aukat” of others, you definitely need help.