We have discussed the linguistic meaning, definition religious vision and reasons of resorting to corruption. The answers varied between lack of self-trust or of others and loss of good vision of life.
Tracing the history of corruption, we can find that the first mention of “Corruption” was in the Old Testament “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”The corruption spread out in the time of Noah so much that God sent a flood to wipe off humans of the earth’s face. Corruption was due to injustice. Thus, there is an interrelation between injustice of man and the corrupted state he ends up in; surely, the ultimate result will be destruction and deterioration.
Thus, some consider corruption as the violation of a person or a country’s rights. It is similar to injustice or discrimination that results in weakness and disintegration of societies. According to religions, God abhor s injustice, asked man to avoid it and to let justice prevail between humans. David the prophet said, “The Lord tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.” It is also written in the Bible,” Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. Let none of you plan evil in his heart against his brother.”, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages.” In Qur’an, “And never think that Allah is unaware of what the wrongdoers do. He only delays them for a Day when eyes will stare [in horror].” and ” When you judge between people to judge with justice.”
When man becomes wronged he will lose his trust in others and in himself. He will either be an aggressive person who gets his rights by force or an isolated person with no desire whatsoever to interact with others. In both cases, his values and morals will be changed and that will be reflected on the society in general.
Sorts of Corruption:
There are many sorts of corruption, decomposition of the flesh after death and isolation of the soul from the body; leaving the corpus to decomposition. There is also corruption or disorder of human cells thus affecting the functions of human organs.
There is a spiritual corruption: immersion in sins and leading ungodly and evil life. It also means giving up on all the good morals like love, mercy, justice and righteousness and letting envy, injustice and evil prevail. Spiritual corruption is clear in Noah’s story, when people resorted to evil and God wiped them off the face of the earth by flood. The only solution of that sort of corruption is repentance and turning from the evil way to a good one. As repentance is the royal way that caused many to turn over their ways form death to life… to be continued
Anba Ermia, General Bishop Head of the Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
