A group of tribal elders came to visit the Holy Prophet (PBUH) to inquire about the teachings of the religion that he had introduced and which had raised a great uproar in the Arab tribes. These chiefs were warmly welcomed and given due respect and honor. Our Holy Prophet (PBUH) told them about the teachings of Islam and left upon them to decide if they would enter the circle of this new religion or not. It was sure that if these tribal chiefs converted into Islam, every member of their tribe would follow their foot-print and would also convert to Islam. Anyhow, after listening to the Holy Prophet (PBUH), they left Madina saying that they would consult with the other members of their tribes to reach to a decision in this regard. After they left, the noble companions of our Holy Prophet (PBUH) inquired why these chiefs were given more importance and respect. Our Holy Prophet (PBUH) said to them, ‘whenever you meet the elders of a tribe or a nation, you should try your best to be polite to them and give them due importance because they have their importance in the hearts of thousands of their community members and if you disgrace them, you will hurt the feelings of thousands,’

This unique teaching has two lessons for us. One is psychological that when one is in habit of receiving importance and respect from everyone and on every occasion (which is the case with the elders of a tribe or a nation), he feels it very bad when he is not given his regular dose of which he is too much habitual. This is just like a cigarette or other addictive habits that one gets too much habitual and when not provided with them on time, he feels too bad about it. Secondly, a public figure is liked by thousands of people and in some cases, this feeling reaches to the level of obsession and people become so much attached to a specific person or figure that they cannot tolerate anything against him. So when such a figure is insulted or not given due importance, it not only results in the humiliation and insult of thousands who are strongly attached to the person but may also result in any extreme reaction by one of his close and emotional fans.

In old days, when there were tribes and people lived in small communities, there used to be national or tribal chiefs and elders who were given too much importance. In today’s modern world, there are not present such chiefs but it doesn’t mean that such a concept has absolutely vanished. Rather, we have developed such public figures in such large numbers that we cannot take risk to annoy anyone of them. There are sports icons, showbiz celebrities, famous writers, influential journalists, religious leaders, political figures, tribal elders, business tycoons and many more. In our country Afghanistan, there is strong influence of leaders of a specific community or sect like Ahmad Shah Masood of Tajiks, Abdur Rasheed Dostum of Uzbeks, Hamid Karzai of Pashtoons, Baba Mazari of Hazaras and many more. All these elders carry great importance for thousands of their community members or in some cases, outside their community as well. Today, we will not talk about the different qualities of these leaders rather we would like to analyze the situation from the angle of their supporters and especially how we ridicule others and expect that they will not do the same with us.

This is not a hidden secret anymore that time and again a person tags a photo of a leader of another community on Facebook or any other social website and writes a comment that he was a very corrupt leader and did such evil works. Then a war of comments starts in which some people criticize the leader while people belonging to his community praise him and admonish the act of those who posted such shameless comments.

In some cases, another interesting thing happens. When you criticize the leader of a community, they start criticizing your leaders or elders and then members of both the community jump into the battle field with all their energy and thinking capacities. Usually such a war of words ends up in bitter statements in which they don’t hesitate even to abuse each other.

Another interesting thing has been noted in this regard. Some people keep the picture of their leader and start praising him. This is not easily accepted by others and they come up with some weak points about the leader. The result comes out very much similar to the one mentioned earlier.

Similarly, I have been noticing this trend that people and especially our youth have developed extreme emotions and attachment with some football players. When you sit to watch a football match with some people, half of them would support one team while another half would support the other. Some of them would praise one player while some of them would try their best to make another player appear best among all the world players. In my close friends and students, some support Messi while some are obsessed with the love of Ronaldo. Usually they keep arguing with each other about the good and bad points of the two players and in some cases, they get so much emotional that they may plunge into a quarrel if any elder doesn’t interrupt to disrupt their argument.

Many days before a photo of a famous tribal chief and leader was posted on Facebook in which he was compared to a dog and below the picture was a long list of fiery comments in favor of and against the picture.

This is a fact that such behaviors are dividing us on different places. We get divided when we talk of the religious leaders, when we compare the political leaders, when we compare the football players and many more. This is a problem that is spreading with a viral speed and infecting the minds and thoughts of every member of this country.

It is said that when you will throw stone on others, you will not be replied by a rose from the other side. They would return your question with a brick. When you will criticize the public figures and beloved leaders of others, they would definitely criticize yours and it would never end. The solution to this problem is to follow the exact opposite of the above practices. When you will say good things about the leaders, elders or celebrities of others, they would definitely show better opinion about your leaders, elders and celebrities. We may be having bad opinion about a leader or elder but here this is not the problem; we have to keep our mouths shut to avoid hurting the feelings of others and to save the unity in our lines.  

Another important responsibility lies on the shoulders of our educated and mature countrymen because mostly such stupid acts are started by those immature minds that carry with them an air of stupid and baseless superiority. Whenever you see such a heated dialogue starting, you should jump in with some rational comments, without taking any sides. When you will do so, you would definitely find a lot more who may be having the same positive attitude and thoughts and your supporters would increase who would then silence those who are making such stupid remarks or comments.

This necessary job must be done now and efficiently as, otherwise, it would badly harm our national integrity and unity.