Evil eye or as it is more commonly known in Pakistani society as "nazar" is a look that is believed by many cultures to be able to cause injury or bad luck for the person at whom it is directed for reasons of envy or dislike.
Rationally speaking, there is absolutely no reason to believe in nazar. Think about it; how can someone simply effect another person's fate/future/luck just by being envious? Short of magic, this seems rather far fetched. Everyone faces and will face both good and bad luck, nazar or no nazar. This is just how life is and its something we need to deal with. However, to associate bad luck (which no one has control over) to some person is simply irrational.
Pakistanis love to blame others for failures and bad luck. Perhaps shifting the blame from random cruel chance to a potential envious person feels more concrete and less cruel to them. And doing so gives them the illusion of being in control of something they hardly have any control over! Hence, nazar gives them the belief that they can avoid bad luck (something which is not quite true). They would sacrifice goats, wear sacred lockets and say "mashallah" with anything they want to protect. But if bad luck is going to come, it will come, regardless of how many goats were sacrificed etc and they would be simply either left claiming "it was the will of God after-all" or left believing that their "protections" weren't enough.
Nazar is simply an excuse to look away from the hard realities of life. The extent to which this idea is believed in our society should give us an indication of where we stand.
Rationally speaking, there is absolutely no reason to believe in nazar. Think about it; how can someone simply effect another person's fate/future/luck just by being envious? Short of magic, this seems rather far fetched. Everyone faces and will face both good and bad luck, nazar or no nazar. This is just how life is and its something we need to deal with. However, to associate bad luck (which no one has control over) to some person is simply irrational.
Pakistanis love to blame others for failures and bad luck. Perhaps shifting the blame from random cruel chance to a potential envious person feels more concrete and less cruel to them. And doing so gives them the illusion of being in control of something they hardly have any control over! Hence, nazar gives them the belief that they can avoid bad luck (something which is not quite true). They would sacrifice goats, wear sacred lockets and say "mashallah" with anything they want to protect. But if bad luck is going to come, it will come, regardless of how many goats were sacrificed etc and they would be simply either left claiming "it was the will of God after-all" or left believing that their "protections" weren't enough.
Nazar is simply an excuse to look away from the hard realities of life. The extent to which this idea is believed in our society should give us an indication of where we stand.
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