Do you think you're bright? No, I think I'm still in the dark...

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

“Proclaim! (or read!) In the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created” is a verse taken from Surah Al-‘Alaq in the Koran.

Rasulullah s.a.w. reminded his ummah, “Learn, albeit way to China.” This reminder should have been accepted by the Muslims in every nook of the world as a stepping stone to make learning as a life long activity. Allah loves His servants who are knowledgeable, indeed.

A statistics about a rising mental illness phenomenon among college students in the States has captured my interest to share with you, guys. In 2006, 50% of college students in the USA said they feel depressed at some point that they cannot function properly. As Muslims, we should be grateful, for we have Allah to ask for help when we are down to the mouth or in hassles. Ironically, the non-Muslims take the easy way out by committing suicide to escape from the deepened gloom, hence, resulting in a considerable number of such cases. In this article, we will be discussing about the ways to glean knowledge without putting ourselves under a great pressure. Reading, socializing as well as traveling are the ways, to name a few.

The Koran verse as mentioned earlier touches on reading as an order from Allah to Muhammad s.a.w. Here we can see how fundamental it is to read, in that by reading, we can enhance our knowledge about one particular thing. We can feel the pleasure of reading if we try to reflect what we read into our daily lives. Among all of the books in this world, Koran al-Kareem is the best one, which contains everything the humans want to know, ranging from economics, education, politics, and the like, everything is in there. However, it is undeniable that other sources of readings are useful, either. It is not simply the thing that the author wants to tell us is precious, but the terms used by the author could also be useful for us. Say, we are reading an economic article, thus, we should have added many inputs about economics through the reading. At the same time, we make ourselves known the economics terms used in the article. Even if we are not studying economics, but at least, we can reflect the knowledge that we have gained to our lives. For instance, we will be more aware of the banking systems that we are using i.e. interests, fees, etc.; also, associating the economics principles to our action of booking flight tickets i.e. we would think why the airline companies sell cheap tickets to the customers. Conclusively, there is no doubt upon the fact that reading widens apart the way we think without giving too much strains, only if we apply a right way.

Aside from reading, socializing is also an aid for us to be more knowledgeable. Don’t get me wrong with the word socializing. I do not mean to encourage you guys to be sociable. Islam itself encourages its ummah to mingle with anybody as long as those people do not drag us to a social stigma. Nevertheless, we are told to find good friends since they give huge influence towards us. Who are good fellows? They are those who have wide knowledge, who are well-mannered, and who hold tight on Islam principles. Know-it-all companions are easy to get along since we can discuss many things with them, even if a few things are not at their expertise. By assimilating with different types of people, we may learn how to deal with the public and control ourselves. This is a good practice for us in the process to raise our kids to be a high quality generation, for we always want the best for them. It is good to highlight here that our social circles should not be bounded by ages, let alone the religions and races. For example, we got to know a fifty-year-old Japanese bloke with a Buddhism background who is ace in information technology. Beyond our realization, that old man is a good person for us to obtain more knowledge from his past experiences, probably, if we want to know about his career experience in his favorite field. Plus, we may also try to understand his religion so that we would be more aware of the sensitivities of other Buddhists. It also a benefit for us to know more about Japanese cultures as displayed by him. It is clear that socializing brings us closer to the knowledge about people and their life styles, apart from being a platform for us to learn something conveniently through communications.

Finally, one can gain knowledge through travels, too. Traveling is not merely a mean for us to have a whale of a time, but indirectly, we may learn people’s cultures and the place’s history. Each place offers unique story that we can only know by being there. Perhaps, we just know that the trademark of Venice is its gondolas in the canals. What we have in mind is that, When I get there, I must try out this one. Suddenly, a friend who just came back from Venice told us that the fare for canoe ride was very expensive. If we do not know how to bargain, they could charge us up to 50 euro. See, it’s all through traveling. We would only know the truth when we were there. Therefore, we would learn something about the culture of Italians in this context. Thus, we can relate that incident to the socio-economics of the people in Italy. This relationship helps us in learning about not only the country, but also its people, culture, and economics condition. We commonly learn from a minute thing, nay, an insignificant one. It is proven that traveling gives us more experiences and knowledge. The further we go, the more things we see and the infinite knowledge we gain.

All in all, a thirst for knowledge is a good sign to be a better person. We should not be expecting that knowledge can only be obtained by going to school. Reading, socializing, and traveling are some of the ways that promote to gaining knowledge without keeping us under a great force. It is because we have fun whilst learning. Believe me, how knowledgeable we are is not being measured by looking at our academic results solely, it is our extra knowledge about what’s going on in our daily lives that matters most. Something which is not taught in the class… But in live…