BaKhabar, April 2010, Page-7

better light a candle than curse the darkness

Prayers in Islam, Part-5
- Gheyas S Mahfoz Hashmi, Jeddah hgheyas@savola.com
……. Continued from previous issue.

In Mar 2010 issue we have discussed about good tidings for those who are punctual in perfuming 5-time prayers and also discussed that such self-punctuality is not enough but we have been made responsible to invite our near and dear (children, wives, brothers and sisters, neighbours, etc) for the same. Here is also good news for them of warding off their small evils by performing 5-time prayers, in addition to that the prayer will work as a shield against evils and against fire of Hell. On the contrary there is severe bad news for those who neglect 5-time prayers.

We not only, by saying prayers, get plenty of rewards, but also it helps us refrain from indecencies and evil deeds. The Quran says in Surah (Ankabut):

"Establish regular prayer. For prayer restrains from shameful and unjust deeds".

Allah has created mankind in between virtue and evil. Only the prophets are innocent. A man can do mistakes and errors. That is why the door of Taubah (repentance) is open. It is Salah that also washes out the minor mistakes a man commits. The Hadith related by Imam Ahmed رحمة الله عليه at the authority of Abu Zer رضي الله عنه says," In winter, the prophet came out. It was the season of autumn. He caught two branches of a tree with his hands and leaves started coming down. The prophet said, O Abu Zer! He replied, Yes our prophet. He said if a Muslim prays, his (small) sins fall off similar to the leaves dropped from the tree."

In nutshell, those, who don't perform Salah:

* are similar to unbelievers, according to some of the best companions of the prophet and scholars. In view of this some scholars are of the view that Zabiha (slaughtering) of such Muslims is invalid and their Nikah gets nullified too.
*  will be put behind the bar till they repent and start praying. According to three schools of thought (Shafai, Malki and Humbali), the ruler of Islam has the right to prosecute them.
*  will be resurrected with those who claimed themselves to be Allah like Pharaoh etc.
*  will not have any promise from Allah and His prophet.
*  earn sins and don't get forgiveness for their mistakes. Instead, their sins get accumulated.
*  will not get any acceptance of their supererogatory actions.
*  are subject to punishment.

On the contrary, those who perform Salah are free from the above shortcomings. Allah Almighty says in Surah (Maida):

"O Ye who believe! Take not the Jews and the Christians for your friends & protectors. They are but friends & protectors to each others".
Your (real) friends are (no less than) Allah, His Apostles, and the Believers - those who establish regular prayers and regular charity, and they bow down humbly (in worship)".

According to these Ayahs, holy friendship is permissible with believers only and with those Muslims who say Salah, pay Zakat and display submissiveness and humbleness in their worships. We can't derive from these verses that we are not supposed to have good relation with non-believers. They are our friends as long as they respect our religion. This relationship and friendship can be regarded as philanthropic not spiritual or religious.
….… to be continued.

If you are a parent

- Azim H Premji

If you are a parent, I suppose you have many aspirations for your child that include him or her becoming a doctor, an engineer, scientist or another kind of successful professional.

I believe that these aspirations are driven by your thinking about your child’s future, and her centrality in your life.
Since good education is often the passport to a good future, I presume it leads you to getting your child admitted to a good school. Then you encourage your child to study hard to do well in school exams. To bolster this, you send him or her to tuition classes. This would have primed your child for board exams and entrance exams, thereby leading to admission into a good professional course. Doing well at college increases the probability of landing a good job. And a good job means that the child’s future is ensured.
I am neither a psychologist nor an educationist, and what I will now state may seem counterintuitive. I think that these aspirations and actions might be doing more harm than good to your child. To understand why, we need to re-examine some of our fundamental assumptions.

In the first place, I have seen time and again that living for some distant future goal also means you do not live in the present. The distant goal will always translate into an external measure of success, such as exams. And most exam-focused children start forgetting what it means to be a child – to be curious, mischievous, exploring, falling, getting up, relating, discovering, inventing, doing, playing. Childhood is very precious; precious enough not be wasted by the artificial pressures of contrived competition, by too many hours of book-ish study, and by school report cards that simplistically wrap up an entire human being in numbers.

The second assumption is that education is merely a ticket to socio-economic success. Given the state of our country, this reality cannot be ignored. But restricting education to only this aspect is, I think, a very limiting notion of the aim of good education. The primary purpose of a school is to guide the child in her discovery of herself and her world, and to identify and nurture the child’s talents. Just as every seed contains the future tree, each child is born with infinite potential. Imagine a school which sees children as seeds to be nurtured – here the teacher is a gardener who helps to bring out the potential already present in the child. This is very different from the current view which sees the child as clay to be molded – where the teacher and parents are potters deciding what shape the clay should take. There is an old (and forgotten) Chinese saying, “Give a seed to a potter, and you will get a bonsai.”
Even in a commercial organization, to make profits we do not have to chase profits. Rather, we need to build an institution that gives every employee an opportunity to do meaningful and fulfilling work. We need to create an organization driven by values of innovation, integrity, customer centricity and care. And as you practice these values everyday and moment, you will see that the profits take care of themselves.

Similarly, dear parent, this is my request to you. Do not give up your child’s present to secure his or her future. Give your child the freedom to explore life truly and with abandon. In doing this, you will see your child flower into a creative and sensitive human being. And when this happens, everything else – money, social success, security – will fall into place automatically.
Let your child be a child.

Email: bakhabar@biharanjuman.org