No one can deny the importance and value of education. Education on one hand helps a person to manage his day to day worldly affairs in a better and smoother way and on the other hand enables us to establish the right relation with our creator. That is why Islam lays a thrust on   acquiring and spreading of knowledge. Education assumes more importance in times of crisis, calamities and hardships.

We, the Kashmiris, as a nation are going through a phase of crisis for the last two decades. We have lost about hundred thousand lives, no doubt for a cause – to liberate our land. Such movements take a long time. Look at   the example of India only which  remained under the British occupation for more than two hundred fifty years. First war of Indian independence was fought in 1857 and it was after a long gap of 90 years that India attained its freedom in 1947.

So for such long periods of crisis we cannot ignore our education, because educated mind is a liberated mind which can neither be misled nor subjugated. Without education even if we manage to attain our freedom it   will either be short lived or meaningless.  Example being   Afghanistan. Afghans fought against the mighty Russians and managed to defeat them. But is Afghanistan a free country today. Has peace prevailed there? Russians have been replaced by Americans. Was this what the Afghans had laid down  their lives for? What went wrong there? Major reason is lack of education among the   Afghans. Their considering education  a waste of time has led them to this miserable condition.

Turning back to ourselves now. In the conditions prevailing during last twenty years we have somehow managed our education system in an acceptable if not in an appreciable manner.   Recently, statements by some people have appeared in the press where it seems that they consider education is not so  important in the prevailing turmoil and it is some thing we can ignore for the time being. This will be the biggest loss to our nation and the consequences will have to be borne by many generations to come. Without education our ongoing movement will also suffer a lot or I must say has already suffered a lot.

Didn’t Ikhwanis emerge from the ranks of Mujahideen and inflict irreparable loss to our movement. Were not huge rallies during Amarnath land dispute followed by election rallies damaging the credibility of our leaders. Now what heroes do we expect to emerge from stone pelters. Can it be ruled out that even a handful of them may be playing in the hands of enemy? And some day they will turn heir back towards the movement and may be used to undermine the very cause for which they had seemingly fought for.

My brethren! We are pitched against a clever opponent and we should fight both with courage and wisdom. We have to pass on the baton to the next generation but at the same time we have to prepare the next generation for taking the struggle to its logical goal. If somebody thinks that our Gen-next can deliver any good without being properly educated, how far he is right or wrong needs not to be explained. For better and desired results it is a must to educate our next generation. Educate them only then they will liberate you.

Lastupdate on : Fri, 6 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Fri, 6 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST