Teaching children the art of humility is perhaps the best gift we can give, for it is in this trait that they will find success and solace. Humility is defined as the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance, rank, etc. What we now teach our children sometimes in the name of ‘life skills’ and at others self-confidence disguised, is to be loud, showy, street smart, and generally aggressive.
There is a natural thought process behind this philosophy, mostly borrowed from the concept of the survival of the fittest. However, as the world now sees, when each person is obsessed with the question of his own survival, he or she tends to overlook the needs and wants of others. Humility is that reality check that reconnects the dots of our origins to our end. No wonder the best place to touch upon humility is the cemetery, where hitherto real people have been reduced to names on a tombstone. When one comes across familiar names and the surrounding sand and dust, abuzz with creepy and crawly creatures, they would be forced to walk the earth in humility.
For all this teaching to happen, grown-ups need to stop talking too much and instead remain silent to facilitate the derivation of lessons at the graveyard, we need to ourselves show by example our humbleness, free from the baggage of our superior knowledge, wealth or beauty and in fact work harder to ensure others are not negatively affected by our conduct.
Once we can learn library silence in a cemetery, we will realise how mosque too is not an avenue for business deals and vain talk, we will then start paying attention to the society around us with true intentions to solve problems. At this stage, the first step of silence in Kabrastan seems a tall order, as indiscriminate group talking, business discussions, and vain talk dominates right next to the graves, much to the disappointment of the dead Muslims who are expecting us to pass a good deed, a prayer.
But again, to us, they were not as good as we are…
This initiative is made possible by the kind courtesy of Abu Baseer Eye Clinic, Bande Khuda Sponsors, G1 Security, Highways Car Hire Ltd, Max Fries, Meadows Academy, SD Dental Clinic & Ceramic Lab, SokoniAdvertiser and Xpress Rent a Car, and for the ISAALE THAWAAB of Marhumeen of Bhimji and Nayani Family and Marhuma Sarubai Abdullah
