Building more for the hereafter than for this world

Building more for the hereafter than for this world.

1991 9 September 8 Building more for the hereafter than for this world. (51) A Muslim of Medina had just built himself a house, and was spreading mud on the roof when the Prophet passed by. “What are you doing?” the Prophet asked him. “Applying some mud,” came the reply, to which the Prophet said: “The Hour is nigh; closer than that which you apply.”

Choosing the Best Method

1991 9 September 8 Choosing the Best Method (235) Five billion dollars are spent annually on drinks by The Australians. So writes the Australian journalist, Mervyn Hardinge, quoting from a statement made on the subject by the Australian Minister for Health Services. (Reproduced in The Statesman, August 6, 1990, P.6)

It seems that this massive consumption of alcohol has resulted in a serious increase in road accidents and that ailments which are known to result from heavy drinking have become prevalent. One out of ten Australians suffer from alcohol-related brain damage. Attempts to check or reduce drinking through anti-liquor campaigns and increased taxes on drinks have been a dismal failure.

Certain Australian intellectuals have made a proposal to solve the problem through education. But Mr. Hardinge is sceptical. He says, “Any anti-liquor education programme must inevitably fail, for the simple reason that most of the prospective converts would be too fuddled to attend class.”

The view expressed here about anti-liquor education holds true for other efforts of this kind. For instance, the many programmes shown on television in Pakistan under the scheme of Islamization were watched only by those who had no need of them, for the people at whom these programmes were actually targeted switched off their TV sets as soon as they were announced.

The truth is that any such reformation in thinking can be carried out more effectively through consistent missionary campaigns than through formal school education or T V programmes.