Assess Your Piety before the End of Ramadan

Muhammad Abdullah Javed
June 3, 2019

Before the completion of the blessed month, Ramadan, its last few days provide you with an exceptional opportunity to assess and test the quantum of Taqwa and apply its power. Yes, we are talking about that Taqwa which has been nourished with days of fastings and prayers.

This could be one of the most relevant questions to seek for, isn’t it? But to know its answer a parameter is quite essential as the vastness of Taqwa doesn’t permit us to guess and strive vaguely for its assessment. The Quran presents a verse which is quietly justifiable to what we are looking for:

And be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord and to a Paradise as vast as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the God-fearing. (Surah Aal-e-Imran: 133)

Just look at the verse, it speaks of a speedy action. For the assessment of Taqwa it specifies “speed” and “goal”.

The Speed – Why speed is needed? Why can’t a person accomplish the task with his own routine? There can be two justifiable answers; one, by virtue of fastings and prayers the person has succeeded in getting loads of good qualities and the speedy action is just to test how far those qualities are true to their formation. Second, to move from a place, energy is required. If the place happens to be powerful, large amount of energy is needed. You can raise your feet from the ground with ease but the same doesn’t hold good when the ground is sticky. Again, look at the way an object is put into space. To get rid of earth’s gravitational pull, the object needs to escape from earth’s atmosphere with a velocity greater than the gravitational pull that comes around 11 km per second. Any object with less speed will fall back on the ground as we see the stone thrown up falls back.

So you need to be quick else the ground will pull you back. Your ground is quite sticky with its own lavish preferences, unfulfilled dreams and unfinished desires. The Quran clearly states that the under-performance of a person and his idleness is for the same reason:

O Believers! What is amiss with you that when it is said to you: “March forth in the cause of Allah”, you stick heavily to the earth? Do you prefer the worldly life to the Hereafter? (Surah At-Tauba: 38)

The Goal – It’s a pillar that acts as a reference point to gauge the direction and speed, it stimulates a person to motivate himself for the achievement. Here, the lofty goal — “forgiveness of the Lord” and the “paradise” has all the attractions to enhance a person’s motivation and speed to the maximum extent.

The days of Fast and Qiyam must have ensured the required fuel and passion in you to register greater speed and get rid of the worldly pleasure for attaining Allah’s forgiveness and Jannah. Stand up on your toes; just check your amount of fuel and speedometer. Few days left, energize yourself to the maximum as you need to maintain that greater-speed for the rest of eleven months to be an epitome of Taqwa.

 

The author is the Director of AJ Academy For Research and Development, Raichur, Karnataka. He can be reached at [email protected]

Comments

Asifuddin Qhaize
 - 
Tuesday, 19 May 2020

Alhamdulillaha We will be thankful to Allah for Making us Enter in this Blessed Month of Ramadan. Now we have to Make the most of this blessed month.

Jazakallaha

Abdullah Javeed Sahab

 

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News Network
June 7,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 7: An eminent scientist on Sunday suggested a shift system in schools to prevent spread of the coronavirus and continuing with online classes with focus on project-based learning in a big way to promote creativity.

Former Director General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) V K Saraswat supported the idea of online teaching in the absence of regular classes in view of closure of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But, he said it should be organised in far better and more interactive ways so that delivery of knowledge can be better. The NITI Aayog member stressed the need for schools to have a strategy when they reopen keeping in mind the safety of students.

May be they will have to organise shifts so that within the same space they can handle the students; May be they will have to employ more teachers, and they can run two shifts. "May be half the strength in a class can come in the morning and others in the afternoon.

Or students of first to sixth standard can come in the morning and seventh to tenth can come in the afternoon, Saraswat told PTI. Reopening strategy will have to be worked out by the education department, added the former Chief Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister.

Along with normal classes, online education should be continued as a regular system in future, and promoted in a big way because that is the way technology is going to help delivery of knowledge, he added. Saraswat also raised the pitch for reforms in the education sector, saying India is facing the problem of rote learning.

Rote learning has to give way for more project-based teaching, he underlined. Children should be made to work on projects at home and that can be done online. That will also support the changeover from rote learning to creative learning.

I personally believe the education delivery system -- primary, secondary and college levels -- has to be completely changed because creativity in India is less and creativity would come only if we replace rote learning with project-based learning, Saraswat said.

On some academics holding the view that the marks-based model is killing the education system in India as it does not promote creativity, he said evaluation of any outcome is important. Even when we perform in our normal way, evaluation cannot be replaced.

Otherwise, you cant find out how much you have succeeded in delivery. Certainly evaluation cannot be dispensed with. He did not agree with some experts, who favoured a single, uniform system for school education in India by dispensing with CBSE, ICSE and state boards. I am not for normalising everything in life.

I personally believe variety should be there. This concept of one kind of a system is okay for a Communist society, society which was trying to drive everybody like a herd, he said.

Creativity comes with variety, and there is nothing wrong in having different kinds of education system, but one thing which is important is we have to integrate vocational training as part of the education curriculum," Saraswat said. Vocational part cannot be kept away from the education system, he added.

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News Network
May 17,2020

Udupi, May 17: A total of 1,460 migrant labourers left for Uttar Pradesh from Indrali Railway Station in Udupi in Shramik Special train on Sunday.

This is the first train to ferry migrant labourers from Udupi. As many as 236 from Karkala, 323 from Kundapura, 901 labourers from Brahmavar, Kaup and Udupi left for their native villages.

More than 2,000 labourers had gathered at the railway station and only 1,460 labourers received tickets to travel.

Those who did not receive tickets were disappointed and got into heated arguments with the officials.

The labourers were promised that they will receive tickets to another train, that would depart from Udupi before May 20. One bogie of the train was reserved for pregnant women, women and children.

As many as 1,712 from Jharkhand, 770 from Odisha, 977 from West Bengal, 1,600 from Bihar, 379 from Madhya Pradesh, 280 from Chattisgarh, 110 from Uttarkhand, 379 from Rajasthan had registered on Seva Sindhu portal.

Additional Deputy Commissioner B Sadashiva Prabhu said that there are plans to make arrangements to send migrant labourers from UP, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.

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News Network
May 3,2020

Bengaluru, May 3: Undergraduate and postgraduate students skipping online classes held by their universities run the risk of being debarred from writing their exams. 

State universities, which are monitoring the attendance of online classes, are asking their affiliate colleges to send the monthly online attendance details and this would reflect in their regular attendance. This would apply to those studying professional courses like medicine and engineering. 

State medical education minister Dr K Sudhakar has asked all medical colleges to regularly send attendance details to the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS).

RGUHS vice-chancellor Dr Sachidanand confirmed to DH that the varsity is indeed monitoring the attendance of students. “Online classes are equal to classroom teaching. (Such method of conducting classes) are necessary during the Covid-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown,” he said.

According to the Supreme Court directions, students should have 75% attendance to be eligible to appear for the final exams. There could be relaxations if they have health issues. If students are bunking online classes, it would reflect on their minimum attendance necessary to appear for the exams, the vice-chancellors of state-run varsities said.

Bangalore University vice-chancellor Prof K R Venugopal said most of the students are attending online classes and teachers are messaging the parents of those who are irregular. “(Of course) if they fall short of the minimum attendance, they won’t be allowed to appear for the exams,” he said.

Bengaluru North University vice-chancellor Prof T D Kemparaju said the administration has asked its teachers to record details of students attending online classes and update the university.

Mixed signals 

Meanwhile, the University Grants Commission (UGC) on Wednesday issued guidelines directing all universities to treat the lockdown period as “deemed as attended” for students and research scholars. Experts pointed out that the order would prompt students not to take the online classes seriously.

“Arrangements have been made at the state varsities to make students attend online classes compulsorily and students are also serious about it. Now, because of the UGC guidelines, they may bunk classes,” said the vice-chancellor of a state-run university.

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