Beauty and the Beast

They say that it is human nature to incline towards that which is beautiful! And once you start to incline towards ugly, there’s something wrong! From classical music to death metal! From calligraphy to graffiti! From suites and dresses to jeans and t-shirts! What has the world come to? Are we losing touch with ourselves? What are we becoming?

The more and more we start drifting away from nature, the more we start losing the nature in ourselves. We are stuck in a concrete jungle, with cars, mobile phones, TVs, computers and everything that keeps us from our natural selves. Not long ago, people would go down to the river near they’re town. Have a picnic, and enjoy the fresh air. Just to keep in touch with nature. Listening to the birds sing their songs, watching the sun rise, watching the sun set! Picking flowers and climbing trees. Letting the sun and breeze soak their skin! Till then, everything still had its charm and beauty.

All of that has gone, and now a time to enjoy is, going to a restaurant, watching a movie at the cinema, or just sitting at home in front of the TV or the Monitor. It might seem like nothing is wrong. But that’s not true. It’s frightening how we are getting so dependent on things like the internet, cable TV, cars, and mobile phones. Yes, all these thing have done a great deal in making the world a better place to live in but they’ve also done the exact opposite. Thats because we have not been able to maintain the balance. Racing towards all sorts of advancements, we’ve lost track of the contribution nature has in our lives. Thus, leading to unhealthy and short lives.

I keep recalling movies about the past. I’m really intrigued by the way people use to dress, eat, greet and value the valuable.I missed out a point in my previous post, about the importance of teachers. A long time ago, before the invention of books, people use to memorize everything they heard and then passed that on to the next generation. Once books came along, memorizing was not necessary anymore. However, a book is nothing without a teacher who understands that book. A lot of things became clear to me after hearing this. A teacher is a key to the books. A guide, who can help us understand what the writer meant when he wrote what he did. The magnitude of importance of a teacher has becomes clear to me. And hence a school, a place where there are teachers. A lot of people think that religion is something that should be taught by the parents and that’s where it should remain, at home! I detest this approach. We did study Islamiat in our school, but that was just a formality. Why is it that we send our children to become engineers and doctors, to universities. And when it comes to studying about something as important as our religion and the Prophet (SAW) who brought it to us, we think home schooling is great. I’m not saying that our parents didn’t do a great job, they did, but there is a difference between a scholar and a parent. The way, we can not fully understand the concepts of Physics and Chemistry without a proper professor and equipment, the same way, we cannot understand the concepts of Islam without the proper teachers and environment.

Sorry for deviating from the main point. We need to bring back the intricate details in our lives, which will bring finesse to it. And revive the actual meaning of beauty! The beauty our nature desires! We shall return, from death metal to classical music! From graffiti to calligraphy! From jeans and t-shirts, to suits and dresses! This is what we need because this is what we’ve lost!