In old times people lived in
the "Age of Ignorance." It was mainly because most of them were illiterate and
ruled by tyrant monarches, kings or tribal heads. Both the the rulers and the
ruled suffered from many personal or collective drawbacks /character failings.
This made the general living conditions miserable. The humanity passed through
the “Dark Age” with no chance to improve.
Surprisingly the Modern man with high rate of literacy, busy in gaining accurate
information about celestial bodies in the space, and planning to inhibit the
other plannets, enjoying the benefits of Democracy, and claiming to be Protector
of Human Rights, has started claiming to be enlightened, modern, civilized, well
educated and well mannered. But “Self praise is no recommendation.” An unbiased
and impartial judgement will prove that we, living in the modern era, are
actually passing through the “Modern Age of Ignorance.”
The enlightened, as we claim, are really illiterate. We lack wisdom and ability
to analyse/rationalise things. An analytical mind remains worried on seeing the
degree of dishonesty, mistrust, corruption, lack of responsibility, race for
accumulation of authority, wealth and resources even through unjustifiable
means, inefficiency, fraud, adulteration, injustice, exploitation, emancipation
of the fellow beings through all possible means including bloody wars killing
millions of fellow being in the modern era of advancement of which we are so
proud of, and negative character trends so rampant in the societies of the
modern time. The Modern man has made miraculous advancements in all the fields:
warheads, weaponary, means of delivery and methods of enhancing colatoral
damage.
Look at the Defence budget of advanced countries viz a viz amounts spent in
social sector and development of Human Character in the real sense. Have we
realized that the collective resources of mankind must be spent for the
betterment of mankind? Have we, as individuals or as a nation, shun our beastic
sense of over powering other individuals or nations through possible means
including threats, coercion, or even Naked aggression against the meak and poor
nations/individuals? “Are you with us? If not you will be pushed to the Stone
Age.” Was this message given by a monarch or a tribal head of 5th or 6th Century
i.e. “Age of Ignorance.” Has the Rule of Jungle been buried for ever by the
modern civilized man of our time? If so, is there any justification of fleet of
war ships, innumerable war planes, stockpiles of ballistic missiles, heaps of
weapons of mass destruction/nukes and huge standing armies? All these amply
prove that we are living in the “Modern Age of Ignorance.”
This pathetic dilemna is mainly because of the power hungry, narrow-minded,
insincere politicians, pseudo thinkers and the shortsighted teachers who could
not give proper guideline to mankind. We need “Men of Character” and the
institutions where such men are groomed. Leaving aside the first two categories,
i.e. politicians and pseudo thinkers, my focus is the third category i.e. the
teachers first. Their main concern is only attainment of degrees, good grades
and positions for their students in the concerned examination. They never lay
stress on development of mental and thinking capabilities and character building
of their students; so importnt for a nation/mankind. With a new trend in the
approach of parents to send their son/daughter to a school at the age of 4 or
even before that, the whole responsibility of character buiding is shifted from
parents to the the school administration / teachers their son / daughter is
admitted to. The parents do not owe any responsibility regarding Character
building of their son/daughter. But it is irony that the educational
institutions, with the passage of time have totally absolved them of this
responsibility and are only worried about the academic aspect of the education.
Has any Educational Institution ever claimed that it produces men of character?
They only boast of their academic achievements and the same are displayed in
their yearly reports or advertisements attracting new admission. This amply
proves that in the absence of any proper policy, guidance, stress and
supervision by the Policy makers nothing is being done for character building of
the students. Hence the teachers and owners of Educational Institutions took it
for granted that “Character building” fell out of the perview of Educational
Institutions, and the same was the responsibility of some other institution; no
one knows where does it exist. Alas! What a dangerous drift in our thinkig.
The religious clergy, through Masjid and Madrassa used to provide some religious
education to our children (So important to mold them into a useful human being)
at early stage. The role of the Clergy, over the years has diminished to a great
extent for obvious reasons. More over under the changed circumstances, the
clergy, in stead of modifying their modus operandi, as usual, lay more stress on
naration of old stories and less on practical implementation of the Commandments
of Allah (S.W.T) given in the Holy Quran relating to character buildings of
individuals and establishment of a community free of social ills. They are
unaware of the fact that trend of the youth and students to offer prayers in
Mosques and join the Juma Congregations, is showing a serious downward trend.
There can be many reasons and factors for decreasing interest in observance of
religious obligations. But the most important is non availibility of time and
facilities. Leaving aside the other days of the week, the timings in educational
institutions have been extended purposely on Fridays so that the students are
unable to reach home, make necessary preparation and reach Masjid in time to
listen to the Sermons of the Khateeb. Thus these students are deprived of the
weekly motivation talk. The closure of educational institutions by 30 minutes
earlier than the prevalent timings on Fridays and delaying the prayer time by 15
minutes will enable all the students to reach Masjids in time and thus benefit
from the weekly sermon of the Khateeb. Can we do something in this direction?
It is due to various attractive packages offered by the Mobile Phone companies,
and other facilities on internet, and electronic devices, the people of all ages
in general and the youth in particular are losing the maximum. Free packages at
mid night or around have done the maximum damage to the students. The youth
especially the students remain busy in chit-chat with their friends for extended
hours and thus devote very less time to their studies. Lack of proper rest and
late sleep at night has alarming negative effects on their health. “A healthy
mind in a healty body” is losing sight of the teachers and the taught. (There is
a need that a proper study should be carried out to ascertain the ill effects of
the use of such devices on our health. A team of patriot expert doctors and
psychiatrists should take the lead). Another serious development; the youth,
invariably, are unable to get up in the morning, and offer Namaz-i- Fajr in the
mosques. Thus they deprive themselves of the Divine Blessing showered by Allah
Almighty on Namazis coming for Namaz-i-Fajar. Moreover they negate the old maxim
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, weathly and wise.” They
don not benefit from the daily short sermon of the Imam, delivered after the
prayer. There is none to compensate for this loss.
Because of late sleep at night the students are inattentive during lectures.
Many of them suffer from dozing phenomenae in the class rooms. They lose their
retention power hence shallow level of knowledge and poor performance during
studies. But the realization of the poor performance comes at a very late stage.
Thus every student is after some short cut whereby he can get good result in
examinations and save himself from the embarrasment. This is how “Booty Mafia”
comes in to play. This has bred another shocking phenomenae: the students have
degrees in their hands but the same are not backed up by the requisite level of
knowledge.
The increased and indiscriminate use of electric devices have germinated many
other serious ills our youth, in particular, is becoming vulnerable to. All
those concerned about the pathetic dilemma the nation is passing through, have
to deliberate on ways and means to get out of the critical situation!! It is
already too late!!