Counting on Lockdown

                Patience is Key 

The consistent lockdown needs patience and perseverance. What does it mean to be patient? In Holy Quran Allah says that only those people are successful who have patience along with righteousness and good deeds. In the Quran we see Allah testing his believers with the patience, like Hadhrat Yaqub (may Allah be pleased with him) when his most loving son was separated from him or Maryam (may Allah be pleased with her) who was blamed as an adultress by his people for giving birth to Prophet Essa (peace be Upon Him) and yet Allah directed her to keep silence or Prophet Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) whose own people persecuted him and yet He prayed for them in Taif. 

The idea of patience (Sabr) is one of the key tools in the kit box of one's life.  It is necessary to have it otherwise life will be very difficult to live under the circumstances we live in as of now. In all the instances of the lives of great men, we see patience was practiced to achieve bigger goals. One of the finest activities during the lockdown is writing.  Even some of the greatest stuff of history was written in jails, under the life of persecution, like Gubar-i-khatir by Maulana Abul Kalam Azad or Discover of India by Nehru. These men made the best use of an opportunity which lockdown provided them. It is not only the success stories that lockdown teaches us, but it also teaches us the changing of personalities from bad to good by achieving the quality of patience. It is so because during prison times you are left with no option other than to adjust, with all that you have in prison, unlikely of the immense possibilities during a free life. The process of patience begins here with adjustments and accommodations. You start developing relations with the walls and people around you, and those may be the ones you hated most in your life. You have to convert your 'hate' into, at least, 'like'. This process of changing your emotions from a  zone of comfort needs guts. This all will develop into you a good human being. And most of the people who come out of jails feel rehabilitated because they develop these qualities. Sitting in one place for a longer period of time demands good thinking, which is again a compulsion here, otherwise, you will put yourself in trouble.

Shift in Aspirations  

History. teaches us that people have shown tremendous patience in tough times. It must be remembered that we had in the past fewer opportunities to medicine, communications, and technology. But still, we managed a living, and multiplied our family members. We had obviously fewer opportunities to eat the varieties of dishes we have. If we find the time to interact with our grandparents, they express surprise with the modern lifestyle. It is from the metro to smartphones to the standardization of education, which they have not come through during their salad days. Instead of all these deficiencies, they will narrate the stories of happiness and peace. One of the reasons for this well being was their fewer aspirations in life, and all they wanted from life was to feed their nests. The basic necessities of life were the priority. The competition to overcome the neighbor's wealth was not a profound idea of decent living. Greed and vanity are enemies for perseverance and patience. These qualities are preferred by the modern education system and families. Consequently, most of us aspired differently. The joy and happiness is perceived in the material things which are not with us now. So, the shifting of priorities is a much-needed revival our schools and families can see after the lockdown. It should be impressed upon us that patience along with other forgotten virtues must return to the curriculum. We must not aspire only socio-economic prosperity but the ironclad consensus of policymakers should be the curriculum dealing with life through a moral approach.

Return to lost heritage

Modernity has struck a huge blow to the edifice of belief system.  We have never seen people questioning the spirit of religion before. One of the reasons for the popularity of much-debated phrase ‘Death of God’ was because the idea of holy and sacred was missing from our lives. The impact of enlightenment shook the centrality of the concept of God. The success of scientific rationality was enjoyed. But do we still believe in the centrality of materialism and scientific rationalism? The return of sacred is important during COVID-19 times. It may be true that a vaccine is approaching but in the long run and as Keney says “In the long run we all die….” We must not mistake the failure of science as an end to science. But we realized that when it comes to life and death, the finest of answers and explanations do come from religion. According to Mark Juergensmeyer, professor of conflict studies, when it comes to the question of life and death people often return to religion. In most of wars around the world, people have returned to their identities because it gives them answers who they are?  This lost heritage has taught us certain values that can be very beneficial for humanity along with science, which is as important as these values are. I hope the post-COVID word strikes a balance between science and religion.