Continue Sparkling in your Twilight Years

Continue Sparkling in your Twilight Years

Human life goes through many stages; the last stage of life is retirement, wherein, generally children start earning by the grace of Allah; responsibilities come to an end; and girls get married. This is the leisurely stage of a person's life.

Due to loneliness and lack of purpose at this stage of life, old people often suffer from boredom and depression, and become fed up with their life. What we don't realise is that, this stage of reduced responsibilities is an underutilized boon for people in their golden years.

Take for example the madrasa graduates. After having fulfilled their familial responsibilities, they can now discharge gratis services to the community. Imam Nawawi and Imam Qurtubi narrated from Imam Malik that "When the people of Madinah reached the age of forty, they would retire for worship until death."

Madrasa graduates also happen to be the messengers of RasulAllah. They have been schooled from their childhood to carry forward the message of Islam to the future generations. This is how Quran and Sunnah have been passed down from generations.

If this work is not done, over time the future generations will become alienated from Islam and slide into disbelief. Observers of the situation know that if the cities are excluded, people in the villages are merely Muslims in name. Many a times they can't read even a single word and have never seen the Quran in their life.

The only sign of them being a Muslim is that they have Urdu or Arabic names. Their social and cultural life is no different than that of an infidel or polytheist. This is not just a matter of one individual. This is the norm in many villages, where the majority of our community reside.

Moreover, Christian missionaries and Qadiani missionaries with their ceaseless efforts are making them either Christian or Qadiani. I am an eye witness of these events in Telangana, Andhra and Tamil Nadu. The situation of other states is not much better.

The fact is there are thousands of such villages, where no Maulvi or a madrasa graduate goes, nor does he like to go. Even if anyone from a village happens to become a Maulvi, he moves to the city as soon as he becomes Maulvi, and then on to the Gulf. And when he returns, he prefers the city lights to the obscurity of the village. Thus, he forgets his relatives and his community.

Therefore, I request all students of knowledge to go to these villages at least once a year to fulfill the duty of "بلغوا عني ولو آية" i.e. "convey from me even it is just an ayat" or keep visiting the villages atleast in the autumn of their life.

The field here is so empty that you will never complain about not getting a stage or not getting a name in the poster. Here, the angels are waiting to register your name. Are we willing to have our names registered in them??