Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Sunday Guardian | Oct 8, 2017

Corruption begins in the mind. Any movement that intends to achieve its goal must target individual minds, rather than the system. To eradicate the corruption we see today, we need to re-engineer individual minds. This requires a spiritual campaign. We need to replace the money-oriented mind with a values-oriented mind. We need to make people believe that money is a need, and not a goal. People's concern of self needs is to be replaced with concern for the nation. To eradicate corruption, we have to give individuals a goal greater than money, just as to shorten a line, you only need to draw a longer line next to it. In the same way, to eradicate corruption, we should have a higher goal of intellectual or spiritual development. In other words, we have to replace money as a goal with wisdom as a goal. We have to convince people who pursue money to pursue wisdom. Although it is a long process, it is nevertheless the only process that can produce results. There are no shortcuts.

Anti-corruption movements generally demand the enactment of anti-corruption laws. We already have anti-corruption laws. But these laws have obviously failed to eradicate corruption. Why? Because without implementation, laws are just words on paper. Laws can only be implemented by people. These people have to be people who are not corrupt, and who possess full authority. People such as these are the rarest of the rare; they seem to be non-existent. Had such people existed, the laws we have would have been sufficient.

The pursuit of wealth will only lead to discontentment, while the pursuit of wisdom will always lead to contentment. Only the content can abandon corrupt practices. To achieve this goal, we have to address individual minds, not attract crowds. A spiritual revolution cannot be brought about by a mob. And only a spiritual revolution can root out corruption.