In different countries of the world, there are different kinds of Digests that are famous among their readers. Usually a Digest contains small articles and stories and is published once in a month. There can be separate Digests for women, children, doctors and others. Digests can also be divided on the basis of their contents like scientific, religious, horror, biographies, history and many others. A Digest was famous among the people in which true stories were published about the lives of people. People from all around the country and world used to send their stories and as it is said, ‘Human life is the most interesting story in the world’, so this saying was perfectly applicable for this Digest and it had hundreds and thousands of readers who eagerly waited for the Digest every month. Similarly, people also used to send their stories so that people may learn lessons from them. Some of these stories were about any single event that had a great impact on a person while most of the stories contained complete description of the life of a person that how he or she did a good or bad act in a certain period of his life and later on, how he was rewarded for the good work or was made to pay by nose for the bad act.
One of the stories was very common in them. A family suffered of a tragic event or time like the death of family head or failure in business and if the person stood upright and struggled a lot, he was rewarded after a number of years and was successful to regain the lost honor, wealth and happiness. While some adopted negative ways and were able to gain some temporary success as well but in the end, they had to face the bad result of their bad deeds. From these stories, it appears that nature has the perfect system of accountability and in no condition, it can make any error in its calculations and a person is rewarded or punished for every single act.
There were so many stories when a child was left alone after his or her parents died and he was handed over to a family; in most of the cases the relatives or sometimes, to the strangers. This newcomer is treated in two different ways. Some families treat him equally, just like their own children, educate him and provide him with all the facilities. In the end, he turns out be one of the most obedient, sympathetic and responsible member of the family and brings prosperity and success to the family. Especially, he turns out to be very nice and comforting to his step-parents.
On the other hand, in some cases, the newcomer child is treated badly. He is kept just like a servant and loaded with all the works of house. He is often beaten and insulted by almost all the members of the family and is given less to eat and passes days and nights in ragged clothes and poor circumstances. Time keeps passing and at last this child manages to escape somewhere. Then he establishes himself and when returns to the family of step-parents, he finds that the family has reached to the edge of destruction. Children have turned out to be very inefficient or criminals and are the permanent source of mental and physical torture to their parents. Poverty has crippled the family and now the parents are in the poor of their health. Their own children are no more interested in them and it looks as they are paying for all their cruelties and injustices.
Such stories are too much repeated that one develops a firm belief that there is present a strong hidden force of accountability that is always busy in its job.
From the stories often with the same results, we can draw one conclusion. There is one very easy way of doing good for yourself and it is by doing good to the others and your act of goodness will not be ignored or left unchecked and you will be definitely rewarded for it, maybe tomorrow if not today and in the form of your good or bad children, health or business and other emotional and material wealth.
A few weeks ago, when I was passing through a very busy street in Kabul where there were a number of small shops, I witnessed a scene that reminded me of the stories of the Digest. The weather was cold and a man was sitting inside the shop, with a cup of tea in his hand and a gas stove burning in front of him. He had made a small boy sit outside the shop. He was not having enough warm clothes on him and slight shiver in his body could have been noticed. He was, no doubt, a servant working in the shop.
With this came to me another philosophy of education invented by the dedicated educationists. This philosophy came into existence by those who used to leave their hometowns and countries for the sake of educating the new generations with modesty, morality and good values, ignoring themselves and benefits. This philosophy states that, ‘Give full attention to everyone of your students, not only in school and studies, but in every matter of his or her life and be so close to him that he should like you, your conduct and the way you follow. Then he will automatically follow your words, give importance to your advices, and mould his personality according to your guidelines.’ As a true and dedicated teacher always keeps high targets and emphasizes for the best moral and ethical standards, his student will be one of the best members of society, acquiring academic success and developing a sound personality, with the pain of humanity and society in his heart.
But this is not an easy task as it appears. Its first requirement is very important and tough to be achieved. The teacher needs to be the best person him or herself with unique qualities in his personality. Secondly, he needs to forget himself and never look for any benefit, fame, status and appreciation and should be willing to work incessantly with his or her students. It appears to be impossible but there are definitely present some teachers who work so hard with their students that people term them to be abnormal.
This philosophy can be expanded to so many other fields of life as well. The shopkeeper, who has been mentioned earlier, can earn a very loyal and dedicated worker by giving his work the equal importance and treating him equally.
The base of this philosophy is capturing the hearts of people and once you do this, rest of the things become very easy. For capturing hearts, you need to extend good deeds and these good deeds will always pay you manifolds in future. This was the way followed by the prophets as well that they captured the hearts of people and then turned them into their most loyal fellows and followers.
Just like the stories in Digests, we also come along a number of occasions when we are given a chance to do goodness and capture hearts or ignore this and follow the opposite of it. The choice is ours now!