Fear or Desire

Dedicated to all the students who entered the new academic year!

Are you at school, college, university, etc. out of fear? Or, you headed towards these academic institutions for your desire to learn, study and obtain knowledge in your life?

The fear here is related to fear of parents, neighbours, relatives, society, and above all fear of earnings in life.

Hey students! Are you investing your precious years of life by getting hooked on those, who are having a big house, car, office, etc. in their lives? Are you the kind of person who gets infatuated by seeing anyone having a successful and blissful life, and immediately dreams of it? Like a doctor, walking and followed by his team of subordinate doctors, who carry the diaries, pads, etc. and jot down each and every prescription decided by him.

Our minds are often fascinated by these types of socially successful people, and immediately start imagining this coveted status. The mind is unaware of the thousands of hours spent attaining this perfection to lead a blissful life. The mind doesn’t see the toil and efforts required to reach this stage. This status is not possible without a burning desire. Desire diminishes the realisation of toil and efforts in life. The navigation of all the activities in life should be based upon it, rather than getting infatuated every new dawn by a new desire.

Identifying the desire, before starting to work on it.

I am writing this article during the commencement of the new academic year when the fear of failure is less in students, and their motivation level is very high. They have new aspirations, passions and inclinations in life.

However, as I discussed earlier all these aspirations are often the outcome and impact of the observance of the socially successful and prosperous people. These reactions seldom have the element of what they really long for in life. These obscure aspirations lack enough motivational fuel which can last till the end of the academic year. The reason behind this failure is very simple. If we are influenced and charged up by any prominent and popular figure on any given day and thenceforth when we see another figure who has more popular social status compared to the earlier one, the earlier one is overlooked by the latter version. Hence, when a student comes nearer to the end of the running academic year his desire converts into fear.

The important aspect for students here is the realisation of self-potential and to work accordingly. The potential can’t be recognized by just dreaming in the fantasy world. It’s about identifying the strengths and weaknesses. And the best time to keenly identify them is during the commencement of the new academic year. During the initial days of the new academic year, the spirits are high. Also, the new environment, the new books and stationeries which have an illuminated lustre look fascinating. This is the time when students can take a quick start and remain persistent.

A few live examples

I want to share a couple of my experiences of life. A student came to me at the beginning of the academic year and asked; Saab! If I want to improve my English language skills what did I require doing? He also mentioned, that last year, I scored low marks in English, and owing to that my overall result is affected. I simply asked him, how many books are you ready to read this year? His answer was “ten”, and that too seemed a big figure to him. I told him, that if you really want to bring change in life, you have to read at least fifty books this year, and this one activity alone is not enough. Moreover, the second important activity is, rewrite essays more than five times before submitting the final draft to the teacher. The real change doesn’t occur if efforts are regular; the results are evident only after giving extra-ordinary efforts.

In the same way, one student asked me, Saab!  i had memorised the entire al Quran al Kareem, but during a pandemic, owing to online classes i haven’t appeared for the final (Nihaee) ikhtebaar. Now, what is the best remedy for me?

 I told him that the best remedy to revive your ajza is by revising the entire thirty ajza at least fifteen times, not a single timeless. He was shocked to hear the count of the revision of thirty ajza fifteen times. He asked me, saab! Fifteen times seems too much. My reply was, if, you want to clear the ikhtebaar in one sitting then fourteen is also less. And this fifteen times should be done by abiding by the rules and regulations of tilawat. My second suggestion to him was, to seek advice from any competent muhaffiz about his current level of hifz, for true evaluation. However, the journey for nihaee should not begin ignoring the above aspects.

Students often make mistakes in realising the health of their memorized ajza. They diagnose the health of their memorised ajza by their own selves and start working accordingly. In the medical field, doctors follow the protocol of diagnosis on a priority basis before initialising any treatment. The real test shows the real ailment. The acuteness and chronicity of the diseases are known only after proper diagnosis. And, diagnosis can be done in the true diagnostic centre only. And in this context, an experienced and competent muhaffiz can diagnose the real health of hifz and prescribe the murajaat cycles accordingly.

For hifz, the component of desire and fear is very important. If the memorisation of learnt ajza is done out of fear (fear of failure in ikhtebaar) then the chances of recovery, and triumph are less. And if the same activity is carried out by the inner motivation then giving the best efforts becomes a “plain sailing”. The chance of triumph is also high, and above all, true satisfaction is achieved.

In the end, we can conclude that the efforts coming from the inside motivation will eliminate fear. And, if an effort comes by dreaming of an unrealistic task or by getting influenced by an eminent social figure, invites fear. The stage of a student’s life is the stage of moulding the mind. If a proper mould (a tool used for shaping metals) is used, the proper shape is achieved.

Best of luck to all the students for the new academic year!