Ramadan is underway and will eventually conclude with Eid Al Fitr. The entire month carries a message of service to mankind. More precisely, the message is: Let hearts be filled with love and compassion, and minds with wisdom. In short, it is a call to uphold and abide by basic human values and a respect for humanity.
Generally speaking, humanity is a blissful virtue that every person under the sun needs to have and cherish. Selfless service, compassion, empathy, tolerance and truthfulness are the cardinal principles of humanity. Purity of heart, too, is one of the basic components of humanity. A person whose mind is pure and devoid of any deceit, attains peace with God, while one whose mind is full of deceit, as he indulges in fraudulent acts, deception and vanity, can never realise and attain the real pleasure of life. His mind will always be absorbed in ways wherein he could cause harm to others, look down upon them, accrue wealth by illegal means and misuse his power for personal gain.
However rich or famous such people might be, they would never be able to succeed in attaining peace of mind. Such arrogant persons would perpetually be surrounded by worries. Their sinful acts would haunt them always and disturb their peace of mind, and one day, they would stand exposed for their wrong deeds.
Therefore, in order to remain happy, fearless, cool and content, one should adopt virtues of simplicity, purity, humility and compassion. Also, one should discard harmful traits of deceit, shrewdness, vanity and hatred, and thus bring his words, mind and deeds in complete harmony with humanity.
The question arises as to how these moral virtues of humanity could be generated in human minds? Till now, educational sources of moral and human values, standards and virtues in the world come from religions and their allied scriptures. However, with the growth of materialistic pursuits and a general decline in religious beliefs in modern-day society, there has been a considerable deterioration in human conduct.
An apathetic attitude towards learning and imbibing high moral values, as laid down in our holy books, has added increasingly to people’s materialistic and vain mentality. It is, therefore, necessary that social and moral education, based on the values inscribed in our holy scriptures, be imparted to knowledge-seekers, and especially to the younger generation.
- The reader is a former teacher based in Ajman.
