Fannami, Amasa Firdaws and youths of today (II)
Iwas taken aback when I discovered that what concerns me about the youths of today was equally of concern to Socrates too. I do not have to mention Prophet Muhammad whose niche was carved out of his struggle for the production of a group of young men and women who would take the world on to the golden road of Samarkand; youth who would set humanity free from worship of idols in order that they might worship the Almighty only. The description of the youth offered by Socrates during his time finds amplitude in our youth of today. According to him, “children of today love luxury more than their parents” -they know the brand names of the latest cars in town, cars that their fathers cannot buy; “they have bad manners, (and show) contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders”. Let me pause here to ask this simple question: when last did your daughter or son bow down while greeting you?. Socrates continue: “they (children of today) love chatter in place of exercise. Children of today are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers”.
Those were the attributes of the upcoming generation when Socrates was around. Attributes that were reminiscent of the young generation that lived in Makkah when Prophet Muhammad emerged; attributes that are similar to a group among the upcoming generation of today. A group which desire to live life in full in the now not in the future; a group that worships their bodies more than their Creator; a group which holds that in the world today, nothing is sacred anymore; a generation in whose estimation the fresh blood from the skull of their fellow humans costs not more than five hundred thousand naira. I refer to the assemblage of “Selfie-takers” and “facebookers”; a generation in which money and sex have become like the Quran and the Bible. A sage says if you want to destroy a nation without war, make nudity and adultery common and seemly in the eyes of the young generation.
I have grave concern for this generation- a generation that spends most of its time not in the library but on “whatsapp”; a generation that is usually all alone; but whenever it does it is with its hand-phones, with someone else in another world. I have since realized that the first day I bought a hand-phone for my daughter, was the day I “handed” the world over to her and the first day the world took control of her. It was the day she “entered” the world.
Face to face with the above reality, every bearer of the womb and the phallus have their tasks well defined for them. In other words, to bring a child into this world is to take a risk, to make a choice like the choice you make in the supermarket. Every choice you make in the supermarket has a price tag. The price you pay for fathering a child in the world today is a never-ending one. When the wares business bankruptcy even in the presence of the business, what can we say of he who left his wares unattended.
One way we could begin is to rededicate ourselves to provision of the best education we can afford for our children. If indeed education is the best legacy for the upcoming generation, then all of us must return to the “school”; we must turn our homes to the new school; we must seek a return to the past; the past of virtue, of honesty, of piety.
Parents of today need to realize that time has indeed changed. We therefore need to go the extra-mile in training our children in order for them to become responsible citizens in the society. Parents need to be extra-vigilant while conscientizing their children in regard to what is right and what is wrong. We need to monitor the kind of company our children keep; we need to show them, by and through our own conduct and action, examples of the man and woman we want them to be in future.
Our children and wards should know that so much would be gained from being truthful as opposed to escaping punishment or blame because of not being truthful. Not being truthful, in fact, leads us down a slippery slope, guaranteeing that with one lie, more lies must be told. Being truthful is not an option for Muslims, but rather an obligation, because our goal in being truthful is Paradise.
Teach these to your children the virtue of trustworthiness. Ask these of them: Who do you rely on? Who can you trust to come through for you all the time? Do people rely on you? Are you considered trustworthy?
Teach these to your children the virtue of self-Restraint; of thoroughness in deeds and action; of being focused; of the importance of punctuality. Tell them he has no integrity he who does not keep appointment. Keep this in mind- what is not expected is not inspected.