August 2011 Final Pages.indd - World Memon Organization ...

WMO IN THE CHANGING WORLD
beyond the obvious. It trains the human
mind to think and take right decisions. It is
through education that knowledge and information
is received and spread throughout
the world. Education is considered as the
backbone on which the social and economic
growth depends. History is evident that a
nation with high illiteracy rate ultimately
dooms.
Islam has also given great
importance to education.
8
Education in the largest sense is any act or
experience that has a formative effect on
the mind, character or physical ability of an
individual. In its technical sense, education
is the process by which society deliberately
transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills
and values from one generation to another.
Knowledge is identified as worship in Islam.
The acquiring of knowledge is worship,
reading the Quraan and pondering upon
it is worship, travelling to gain knowledge
is worship. The practice of knowledge is
connected with ethics and morality with
promoting virtue and combating vice,
enjoining right and forbidding wrong. This
is called in the Quraan: “Amr bil-l maaruuf
wa nah-y-ani-1 munkar”.
To seek knowledge is a sacred duty; it is
obligatory on every Muslim, male and female.
The first word revealed of the Quraan
was “IQRA” mean READ! Seek knowledge!
Educate yourselves! Be educated.
The Muslims today are the most humiliated
community in the world. Moreover,
should they persist in following the same
educational system as given by their
colonial masters; they will not be able to
recover themselves from moral and spiritual
decadence.
Education – both general and, either professional
or occupational, is essential for the
progress and well-being of the individuals,
communities and countries. A good general
education imparts effective language and
communication skills, creates awareness of
the past heritage. It also provides knowledge
about the current social, economical and
general environment and teaches how to
live in harmony therewith. On the other
hand, a good general and professional/occupational
education enables the individuals
to earn a decent livelihood without which
well being of the individuals, communities
and countries is at stake. A good general
and professional/occupational education is
a very effective tool in alleviating poverty.
Due to lack of a good general and professional/occupational
Education, many
generations of the community members are
facing poverty and have become permanently
dependent on Zakat / Donations.
To break this cycle of poverty, it is essential
that immediate steps be taken to attract the
younger generation to acquire the appropriate
general/professional/occupational
education and secure employment.
World Memon Organisation (WMO)
accepting the challenge has launched a
scholarship programme for Memon community
with the aim to educate each and
every child of Memon community from
Montessori to professional education. It is
observed that there are many community
and social organizations, which provide
financial help in the form of scholarship to
financially weak families for the education
of their children in their limited resources.
Due to their limited resources, they could
not fulfill the entire need of needy student’s
educational requirement causing dropout of
such students at different level of education.
WMO keeping the change in view and
with a better insight has started providing financial
help to the students having no / limited
finance for their educational needs. The
Scholarship programme initially started in
the year 2006 for the students seeking higher
education. In AUGUST 2008, “Education
for all committee” was constituted. The
main objective of the committee is to provide
education to the community children
who could not afford educational expenses
due to non-availability of the funds from
pre-primary level to college level.
It is a matter of great satisfaction that the
community has come to have a different
mindset. It no more lives in isolation, as it
was used to in the pre-partition period. the
community had by and large, realized the
significance of education as an engine of
progress.
The time ahead is forecast to be still
more fluid and more turbulent. What is
science fiction today may become reality is
a short period of time. We, as elders of the
time own great responsibility towards the
upcoming children and the posterity of the
community. We need to be visionary, like
our elders were. We are in more volatile
time and the future is more uncertain. We
need therefore, to show greater foresight
than them in reading the future and putting
in place plans for upcoming children to fare
better than us.
Let’s resolve to bring the change and
move ahead in steps with the changing
world, as those who lag behind will go into
darkness.
May Allah, bless our community..
MEMON ALAM AUGUST 2011