Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

A Sad Joke!

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A Sad Joke!

This interesting conversation happened many years ago. After the democracy was established and country became stable, a person opened a school. He had left his established school in Pakistan and sacrificed a lucrative source of income just for the sake of equipping new Afghan generation with quality education. As he was honest in his mission and dedicated his full energy and efforts for this, soon his school was successful and increased rush made him to open numerous other branches of the school in different parts of the city. He was successful because, contrary to majority of the other private schools, he was not running it as business and for earning money. One day, when he was sitting in his office, some important people came to meet him. He greeted them warmly and served them with tea. They looked very decent members of the society and most of them were bearded. They were the members of a local organization that worked for the promotion of Islam. After a brief routine discussion, one of the group members, who appeared like the head of the group, started telling about the purpose of their visit:

‘Mashallah, we have become delighted to hear that your school is doing very well and you are doing a noble job of serving the coming generations’

‘Thank you very much for this. I have just tried to impart what I had learnt’.

‘This gives you a golden opportunity to serve your community’

‘Yes, I think we are all trying our best to serve as much as possible’

‘But with this, you can also serve your religion as it also requires that every member of society should work in this regard.’

‘Yes my respected fellow, you are right. It is the reason why we have established new branches in many different parts of the city’

‘I think you did not understand me. Opening new branches is merely good for the community but how can this be any service to the religion of Islam?’

‘Sorry my respected friend, I have not understood what you are intending to say’

‘I am saying that you should utilize this opportunity to promote Islam in our coming generations.’

‘So what do you think how I can do so?’

‘Now you have come to the point’ a light of success was shone on the face of the man ‘We have come here to guide you in this regard’.

‘So what do you suggest me to do?’

‘First of all, you should work about the uniform of your students. All the female students should wear veil and male students should also have a proper Islamic dress code’.

‘That is good. And how would you define the proper Islamic dress code for the male?’

‘Hmm, well I think….’

‘You think or is there any specific rule in this regard?’

‘No. There is definitely a rule in this regard. As far as I know, it should be decent enough.’

‘So don’t you think that our uniform is decent?’

‘It is decent but it would be a proud matter when they will have the proper Arabic dress. They would appear like a true Muslim in that dress’

‘Now, is this your idea or there is any specific order in this regard?’

‘There is not present any specific order but just try to imagine what a great feeling it would be when all your male students would be in a typical Arabic dress. You would thus form an environment as if they are in the blessed city of Medina.’

‘Okay, if I accept this, what about the dress of ladies? Do you suggest anything in this regard?’

‘Yes, I see that your female students are wearing pants and their faces are not covered. This is again not Islamic’.

‘So is this forbidden in our book that they should not wear the pants?’

‘No, there is not. But you should try to understand. We live in an Islamic country and we have our own cultural values. How can they wear pants in this society?’

‘I can understand your concerns. So what do you suggest for them?’

‘They should not wear pants and they should have a complete Islamic dress code in which only their eyes should be open and whole body should be covered’.

‘I agree with you, my respected friend. But I could not find in any of our religious books that female should cover their faces’.

‘You are right, it is not in any of our books but you know, we live in a corrupt society so this step must be taken as a precaution and girls should cover themselves completely, otherwise, immoral and evil deeds and thoughts would prevail in our society’.

‘That is so nice of you. I would try my best to follow your guidelines’.

‘And in this way, you would be able to win great blessings in both the worlds’

With these words, these respectable people left the school, leaving my friend lost in thoughts.

Almost two years ago, two boys in our neighborhood graduated from a Madrasa. Their father was very happy and I also congratulated him, like other neighbors. Usually, women are active in transmitting small issues from one house to the other. A month had not passed that every day; I heard new news about these late teenage boys. First, they banned the ladies of their house from going outside. Then they forced their father to sell the television set. Then, they demanded from some of their relatives to keep beard and not to wear the Western dress (pants and shirts) and wear the Islamic dress. I knew these kids and many others like them who were the fresh graduates of Madrasas. They knew a little Arabic, memorized some of the verses of the Holy Koran, and had heard the sayings of the Prophet (PBUH) chosen by their teachers. Beyond this point, they had no actual knowledge of religion. They had not studied the true sources of religion called Ahadith and Tafseer of Holy Koran. It is almost impossible to expect that they should have studied something modern like psychology, or other modern sciences.

Because of this, our society is facing two drastic and frightening circumstances. First, anyone, who has the incomplete and slight access to religious studies, thinks that he has the duty to work for the betterment of society and the religion. But as it is shown, majority of them don’t know what to do in this regard as their knowledge is very limited so they think that by bringing external change, they would be able to change the society. Secondly, when they do not have knowledge, they also do not know how to do so and usually; they resort to extreme measures which give birth to so many other complications. It is the reason why, there are many who support ISIS morally because it is doing what they were also dreaming of doing. Their limited knowledge and study make them ignore the fact that the cruelty and extremism of ISIS has no place in Islam and changes brought by ISIS add will only add to the miseries of region. However, it is real miserable that Islam has been limited for some external changes only and it is the reason why, it is not serving what it aimed to serve.

Muhammad Rasool Shah works as Academic Coordinator at Barakat Int’l School, Kabul. He can be reached at muhammadrasoolshah@gmail.com

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