Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Friday, March 29th, 2024

It is Time to Pursue True Wisdom

If we turn the pages of history we will be able to find some great societies – the societies that had value for knowledge, wisdom and philosophy. Though they lived thousands of years earlier, yet they had thirst for knowledge and great urge to discover the truths about human beings and the universe. One of the examples of such a society is the Greek society of antiquity. The great philosophers and thinkers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were the inhabitants of the same society. All of them are still known to the world because of their valuable contributions in the field of philosophy, astronomy, ethics, politics, literature and many others.

There are many other examples, as well, of such societies. One of them is, undoubtedly, the society that flourished in Baghdad years ago. Baghdad had great worth and respect for knowledge and philosophy and it also gave birth to many great philosophers among whom, Jaffar and Nizam may be named as the most prominent ones.    

By studying these societies thoroughly, we come to know about their traditions and values. These are the societies that have to be valued as much as possible. Every society is recognized from the types of its problems and the nature of its values and habits of its people.

If our society is recognized by its childish behavior, it is not really weird. Unimportant thoughts and false displays are within the roots of our society. In fact, we are suffering from the stagnancy of thoughts and lack of thirst for knowledge and wisdom within our people. 

The traditions and values in our society are really weird and out of understanding. A limited number of people have decided to devour the entire wealth of the nation. Another group is busy only in the false display of wealth and status. Certain old men have shouldered the responsibility of proving the wrongs of the ruling elite right through holy scriptures; while another honorable group is striving tirelessly to earn fame in every possible manner.

They have, in reality, lost their connection with the actual problems of the time. The most unfortunate fact is that the intellectuals have forgotten their responsibilities. Though they claim their rights from the society but they seem to have forgotten that the society which they ignore cannot be expected to understand their rights, as well. Has earning fame ever been a top priority issue for the sane people of the society? Our society has adopted the non-issues and wasting time on them. As a matter of fact, we are far behind our actual social, civil and philosophical problems. Our people are behaving like the immature boys and it seems to be written on our foreheads that we do not have any serious issues at the moment and for the times to come God will keep us away from all the problems.

Though we are human, we have forgotten the habits of thinking and understanding. The fact is that our people have not been provided the required sanity and boldness to ponder upon the challenges of time and challenge the prevailing values and understandings. We are habitual of saying only those words that seem appropriate to everyone as we are afraid to make others angry. We, from the very beginnings of our lives, are taught to compromise and adjust. Even if there is a place for one person to sit in a car, we can adjust two persons there. We strive to fit ourselves in the mould of traditions and practices even though they may be obsolete and insane.

Someone had said that whenever he considers the problems of others as his, they become angry and consider him their enemy. Same is the case in our society; if a person tries to divert the attention of others towards their actual problems, they mind it and consider it a lie.

We have only a single ideal to pursue and that is our ‘past’. Unfortunately, the past has not always been glorious and our people seem to follow the same portion of the past that was inglorious. It is difficult to understand why our people do not live their own lives instead of living the lives of their forefathers. If they really want to make difference to themselves and to the world they need to start living their own lives – their present, not past.

If we lack a serious consideration to our present and to the life, we would never be able to have a sincere relation with knowledge and even with our beliefs. Though we seem to have inhabited the cities, we have deserted our conscience and our spirits. We seem like alien in our own world. We need to wake up; we need to understand that we are pursuing the wrong directions and the wrong destinations. We must realize that we are not using our humanly attributes in their full capacities and we are not fulfilling the responsibility of being true human being.