NEGLIGENCE: A MORAL DEFICIENCY

The Invisible Enemy

It is hard to believe that anything could be more terrifying than a man-eating tiger. Yet the greatest danger to human life does not come from tigers or bears, but from something far smaller—microbes invisible to the naked eye.
These bacteria multiply at a staggering rate: under favourable conditions, a single bacterium can reproduce itself ten thousand times within just ten hours. While a wild beast may rarely attack humans, harmful microbes constantly target the human body.

Fortunately, 99 percent of these microorganisms are harmless or even beneficial. It is the remaining one percent—tiny yet deadly—that cause fatal diseases. Their minuteness allows them to penetrate the human body through avenues no external defence can block.

A Negligence More Harmful Than Germs

People fear large, obvious dangers and assume that such threats are responsible for most misfortunes. However, the truth is that the greatest harm often comes not from something large, but from something small—moments of negligence.

These fleeting, seemingly insignificant lapses can damage us far more than any external enemy. Negligence appears trivial: a delayed decision, ignored advice, postponed responsibility, missed opportunity, or a moment of heedlessness. But left unchecked, it grows like hidden bacteria, silently eating away at moral strength.

If not stopped early, negligence becomes a habit, then a mindset, and finally a form of moral corrosion.

How Negligence Wastes Life

A negligent attitude leads people to waste their time day after day, without thinking of the future. Similarly, they squander their earnings on unnecessary or meaningless pursuits.

A few hours of wasted time or a small portion of wasted money may seem insignificant. But over a year—and certainly over a lifetime—these small losses accumulate. One eventually discovers that nearly half of one’s time, energy, and earnings have been dissipated in fruitless pursuits.

A National Loss Beyond Imagination

If this personal loss is multiplied across an entire society or nation, its scale becomes unimaginable. Collectively, it results in massive loss of productivity, potential, creativity, and progress.
Negligence, therefore, is not a small weakness—it is a national calamity disguised as a personal flaw.

A Call to Moral Discipline

The lesson is clear:
We must train ourselves to act on time, think responsibly, and avoid letting moments of weakness become patterns of life. Just as harmful bacteria must be prevented from entering the body, negligence must be prevented from entering the soul.

To live purposefully requires vigilance, awareness, and moral discipline. Without these, one slowly loses half of life without ever realising it.

Moral Vision by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan 
Goodword and CPS