Friday Meeting
Date: 24.06.11
This Friday thirteen people participated in the meeting which was facilitated by Arifhussain Sheva. After welcoming and praying, Sheva introduced the topic and the servant of the meeting Rahman Ali Javid. Javid started his speech on “Future Imagination” by three following questions:
1. Where are we going? (Goal Clarification)
2. How far we have come? (History and Experience)
3. What is our status now? (Evaluating Present)
He went on speaking the importance of setting our goals as individuals, communities and societies. Setting goals creates motivation for life and results in better use of resources and time. He then pointed to the bitter history of mankind and that of our country, Afghanistan. A history of sorrow and conflict has left its fingure print in each one’s attitude and in our culture and collective norms. As a result, in this country people do not imagine the future but gloomy and full of misery.
However, mankind is the most blessed and gifted creature of God. Mankind has been bestowed on the God’s spirit. He has got an internal judge called conscience and the power of intellect and emotion. Greater capacities are followed by greater responsibilities though. By our own free will we have to look back and learn. We have to switch to the right path and not only be blindly driven by accumulated vicious grudges held in the chest of history.
Mustafa Seerat: “We have experienced a terrible past”. Saying this, Seerat cited a verse of holy Koran which reads; translation: “the world stays with infidelity but not with cruelty”. He went on that how this short verse points out a principle by which the history of mankind has to comply, concluding that there are rules by which we have to abide otherwise we will perish. A deviation from the principles may resist for a short time and for too a short time if it is too a sharp deviation, what is important is that we have to correct things as much as possible so that to avoid a real defeat in the course of history.
Ameen Ebrahimi: “My personal experience has taught me the power of thinking about future.” By this Ebrahimi, who is a high school student, began talking about his life history. He said that he had a difficult past, but he had determined to surpass everything so that to get where he wanted. He used to walk six hours a day and go to school. There was no school in his home district and, though a small child, he had no alternative but to bear the hardship of walking through hills and mountains to reach to school. He studied his lessons on the way since he was so tired by the time he got home and unable to read or write. Besides, he faced prejudice in the district where he went to school and persecution from the children there who were jealous of the best student in all over school who was at the same time from another district. Still a child, Ebrahimi went to Iran and worked there to raise money for his school. He was always serious and focused on his future and school. The situation became a little rosy for him when his brothers moved to Kabul, and now he is able to go to a nearby school.
Ebrahimi has planned to work for the uplift of culture in his country. He ambitiously waits to finish his last year of high school and enter university so to be better equipped to serve the culture of his homeland.
Aseef Ulfat: “The mindsets of the people in this country is so negative and pessimist. Unfortunately the situation is darker with the youths” Ulfat gave the example of youths who used face book. If one carries a survey of these youths writings and comments it becomes clear that misfortunately the situation is disappointing. There is always an exaggeration for the sake of evil, a small bad event takes widespread coverage and at the end of the day not desire is left for the writer and reader alike to do anything, but a strong motive to commit suicide. According to Ulfat, you cannot find a single person in this country who does not want peace and happiness, the problem is that our actions mostly originate from our emotions which are always negative. Our leaders even are not safe from this problem. Most of the time instead of calming the people down, they act so emotionally and stir the situation further for ordinary citizens.
Ali Fayez: According to Fayez, most of the time we cannot determine where we head. In a bigger landscape It is true according to Holy Koran that “we are from God and we return to him”, but in this age it is difficult to draw an accurate path way of our life. Some people may like to write down everything even the date on which they want to die, but Fayez doubts in this, and in that such a planning is desirable. Nowadays it is two uncertain, the future becomes increasingly unpredictable.
Forough: “Whatever the situation has been in our past or present, one thing is crystal clear; that is many are dissatisfied. I really like to ask this question seriously and even do a research on: why everybody complains? I have curiously been after this, and carefully listened to people in this country. Everybody complains; the rich the poor, the indigents and the affluent ones.”
Ali Ebrahimi: According to Ebrahimi, there is a need to change. The negativism and pessimism has to change. Such an outlook on life definitely affects our life determinately. There is a need to spread the culture and thoughts of hope and optimism.
Noor Navayee: “Drawing on the words of my brothers, I have to say that our situation resembles that of a donkey rider who has been so impressed by the shining cars and glamour of sky scrapers when he just arrived in the out skirts of a city. The man gets rid of his donkey mindlessly. He can not find his way to the sparks of the center of the city but only walks in the slums where he is only welcomed by the dusts and smokes of old machineries and dirty alleys and sewages. He can not get a car to ride, while he has last his donkey too.”
Navayee pointed to the longer history of mankind, and mentioned that unfortunately the whole history had been governed by vicious desires and satanic powers. Human’s history according to him is a history of sorrow and misery. In most of the periods man has been busy preparing for wars or engaging in destructive wars. Prophets worked hard to correct and put the things back on the track, but their ways have not been the dominant guidance of the history. Believing in God, he looks at life as a flowing stream of joy and motion heading towards eternity. This kind of world view makes everything meaningful and understandable. Things went wrong and go wrong, we need to correct them; it is the only path leading to happiness. As much as mankind has selfishly limited his views and interests, they have much more engaged in antagonism.
Fortunately, now we are at a stage that we can better understand things. We have got a huge heritage of religious resources and our ancestors’ experiences. Now we find out how they are similar, and how all these efforts have been originally aiming at reminding mankind of his responsibility and importance in the order and process of creation.
Ahmadshah Estanekzay: “It is difficult to imagine about future. What is important is to try to have a rough sketch and make sure that our present as far as we know and can determine is on the right side.”
Sheva: “I believe the way we think is absolutely a determining factor of our future. Most of the time we are so buried in the past, some times we are only wishful box, wishing and wishing about the future. We have to live in the present but not be lost and so immersed to forget the sense of what we are doing.”
Conclusion: Javid concluded the meeting with the words that our country and our people had gone through a bitter past. This had led to negative mindsets and hopelessness. We needed to work hard and spread a culture of optimism.
