We are approaching the 2009 X factor. People will watch and laugh at some peoples attempts to get on TV, have a laugh, or try and make a name for themselves in the music industry. 

Whilst admittedly some of the contestants cannot sing, don’t we all have the X factor? What I mean is that we have it, or have the potential to unlock the X factor within us. Should the X factor be restricted to a person's stage presence? Or is it a deeper human quality that lets a person win our hearts? Many previous contestants have got through the auditions, not so much for their pollished performances, but more for their sad situation, and us wanting to give them a chance.   

Humans have always had the ability to wow each other for different reasons, and just because it may go unnoticed to most people, there are others who know the sacrifices that many ordinary people make. I might not see the help that a young person might give to the elderly , but I know it happens. I know people help mothers with prams at train stations, and other such acts… this is what I think really is the X factor… a hidden quality that makes you go out of your way for others, at ‘no extra cost’. Some may say that this quality is on a steep decline, and maybe so, but as mentioned earlier, we all have it in us to be kind, charitable, merciful, helpful. 

The problem in the UK is that when most of society is on a ‘get rich quick scheme’ it can be highly detrimental to others. Look at the economic disaster the UK and the rest of the globe are experiencing due to the greed of bankers and brokers. The casino economy has ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and lead to increased levels of poverty, unemployment, starvation and death. It only takes a few people on the ‘scheme’ in the right places and the economy is brought to its knees. If there was more altruism and goodwill, the UK might be a better place, but when only a few are going against the tide of greed, it is easy to get swallowed up.  

Society's greed is not a peripheral problem, rather it's a natural consequence of believing we are free... utilitarianism.  Get as much pleasure as you can, and damn the rest.  It makes little sense, but years on from when the idea first came out, it has caught hold… greed is good.  If greed is good, then the mess the economy is in is as good as the ideas that made it.  One year on and the bankers are back to big bonuses again. Greed again overcomes common sense. 

Islam does not teach that greed is good. It does not teach us to make more and more money at the expense of everyone else, although it does teache us not to reject our share of this life. Islam teaches responsibility and accountability for ones actions. Islam teaches us that the gaining of wealth does not supersede the qualities of altruism, or of humanity, or religiousness.

Islam teaches humans that these qualities are in everyone, but we must have a balance. To help create that balance, Islam has a set of ideas, values and laws for humans to use to live by, thereby trying to become ‘better people’.  If people open up to the ideas that Islam presents, the X factor isn’t just a programme on TV, but a hidden quality that can make us all human again and not just money making machines that destroys lives.