How can one keep their motivation and sincerity while doing good works and services—and keep it as fresh as at the beginning? What can be done to inspire new generations to devote their lives to lofty goals?

It is true that people usually start off with utmost sincerity and devotion in their acts of charity, expecting nothing but God’s good pleasure. At least, this was the case a few decades ago in our generation. People that gathered around a certain lofty cause used to have a very strong sense of solidarity and friendship with their colleagues on their shared journey. They used to read a lot and had intense discussions with a sense of curiosity and desire to learn more and explore the truths about human life. They would study different works and analyze them with a scholarly endeavor. I don’t remember ever departing a gathering in the past without reading a book and praying together. We would study a holy verse or a Prophetic saying and contemplate on the truths of faith. People were usually very enthusiastic to learn these truths—first for themselves, and secondly to teach others. Such a process of learning and teaching kept people well-nourished and fresh. Of course, the results out of this nourishment and freshness were abundant and satisfactory.

Sadly, we have lost that desire to read and learn, and this has caused the gap between us and our sources of knowledge to grow wide. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to keep one’s motivation for charitable work as high as it used to be. Some continue to have that desire, but the number of such people has not increased, at least not proportionally to the growth of their community. One reason for this has to do with the fact that in the past, people used to take a deep sense of pleasure from what they were reading; today, the same text does not sound as novel as it did before. There is a need to introduce a new style of reading, but those who are in a position to teach knowledge to others have not transformed their content to be more appealing.

What is more, as individuals have started to assume higher positions and status, their charitable work has become somewhat routine. They might have been deceived by people’s attention on what they had to say. They mistook this attention as if there was no need to change anything in the content they offered, so they went on repeating the same things over and over, which in time resulted in even the best truths seeming stale.

It is very important to find new methods and formats to rekindle the enthusiasm to read, explore, and do research. A mobilization is needed for this; otherwise, our spiritual motivation will not survive.

The firsts

The first followers of God’s messengers and those that came after them had unique qualities. They studied in the circle of such giants and witnessed their qualities firsthand; and this enabled them to reach distant horizons. Take students of Bediuzzaman: not only did they read his works very carefully, but they also asked questions to benefit from him even more. Perhaps, the fact that his students turned to him with full attention and concentrated their efforts in his works might have inspired him to say new things.

This level of excellence cannot be expected from everybody. It really requires an intellectual surgery, so to speak. How to do that is another question, but the main objective should be to analyze the subject matter we are reading with all its nuances, metaphors, and implications as comprehensively as possible. An effort in this direction will reveal the fact that we actually do not know enough of what we thought we already knew. This may ignite a spark in our soul, spurring us to save ourselves from the suffocating atmosphere of familiarity.

Today, we are not reading as seriously as we should. As a result, many lack knowledge even about essential matters. Many do not have a sense of curiosity to learn. It is really surprising to see people who call themselves believers but do not wonder at all about the message God sent for them. It is disturbing when people flip carelessly through scholarly works which normally demand serious contemplative effort. We act like we understand when in fact we do not. Superficial knowledge, shallow convictions do not answer the needs of our time, nor do they convince others and appear appealing.

Stuck with formalities

Along with losing an enthusiasm to read, another problem is that we are taken aback by many formalities. In the past, nobody had any titles, statuses, or ranks. There were no administrative boards, no inspectors, no management roles. Everyone was considered to be in the same rank. Everyone respected and cared about one another. The main concern was always to educate ourselves so that we could convey our message across in the best way possible. All efforts were directed at cultivating the “perfect person” and teaching others about faith. Everything else was just secondary or unimportant.

However, in time, someone has become a representative of a certain organization; others took on the responsibility of a place; while others still became members of a board. Meetings followed meetings. Perhaps, these were unavoidable consequences of growth and institutionalization. Yet, the real problem was when people forgot that these were in fact secondary issues and they made them turn away from the main objective. They even wasted their time and the time of others by engaging themselves with an agenda that did not really matter. They deceived themselves by assuming that they were doing something important, for the sake of which they in fact gave up on reading and prayer.

Administrative positions are there to facilitate charitable work and services for faith. They should never be the ultimate goal or given precedence over more important work. Everybody, regardless of their status, should see themselves like a messenger who is expected to deliver a message, a letter, or a greeting to the addressee. His or her duty is to fulfill their role so the system can operate as efficiently as possible. For those who devote themselves to a lofty cause, no worldly status or position can be something to attach our hearts to. These positions are nothing more than mere tools to help us convey the Divine message to those needy souls.

If we take these positions as the main objective, then we mistake instruments as the target. If we turn them into opportunities for fame, then we abuse what has been entrusted to us. If we abuse these positions and statuses for personal benefit, this becomes treason. What is it worth to hold these positions compared to the lofty cause of seeking God’s good pleasure? What is it worth to be famous when we have obtained our true objective in life? Maybe it is even better to be unknown so we can be safe from weaknesses like ostentation and self-conceit.

Reasons for loss of navigation

One major factor that has distanced us from our sources of knowledge has been our engagement with diverse social affairs. Many projects, which we think are necessary, engulf us so deeply that we always speak about them; we are even occupied with them in our dreams. When we get together, we spend time on these projects assuming they are our good work, but we forget what we should in fact devote ourselves to. In time, we lose our enthusiasm to read and understand—even that we need them. “Why do I need to read them?” we start asking with a false sense of self-sufficiency. The outward form, shell, and formalities replace the essence and meaning. As people get further away from truths of faith, many problems and shortcomings ensue.

Many activities that serve as an expansion of good services turn out to produce some unfavorable consequences. Now busy with opening cultural centers, dialogue institutions, schools, being employed in these organizations as a manager or as a teacher, meeting with other community leaders or public officials, even coming together with representatives of other faith groups, we distance ourselves from our own world, from our sphere of thinking. Many of us are now going through such a volatility, a loss of navigation.

To conclude, in order to rekindle our sense of enthusiasm, it is important to open ourselves up to the love of knowledge, research, seeking truth, and reconnect with our sources, as “the firsts” did in the best fashion in their time. We need to develop new methods to attract people’s attention to our works, those sweet wellsprings of treasure. This is how a new generation who can devote their lives to lofty causes can be raised.

Of course, there will be organizations and programs we put together for our mission. But these are secondary matters. Our meetings, organizations, etc. should primarily be about reading and studying, learning, and teaching, improving ourselves and helping others improve, and offering our prayers together in order to seek God’s good pleasure and spread His word.

Imagine the volume of learning that must take place while travelling from a dark and small room of several square inches to a most sophisticated world, which is beyond comprehension for even the most intelligent and educated human beings. But fortunately, she has somehow been granted the capital of enormous motivation allowing her to set out on this journey.

A great deal of learning takes place during the first couple of days or months, and it happens with almost no help from grownups. This initial burst of learning might never be equaled later in her life.

Her motivation and curiosity make such quick learning possible, but she is also aided by the gift of a wondrous computer with an excellent processor and vast memory – the human brain. These are the major resources in place when grownups begin to intervene in (or should we say interfere with?) the child’s learning.

There are two main possibilities for how parents, caretakers, teachers, and other adults might influence a child’s learning. The first is to optimize the use of the two capitals mentioned above, paving the way for continued and meaningful learning that has been going on successfully since birth. The second is to interfere with this natural progress with aimless, and sometimes forceful, attempts to feed the child with information. Parents or caretakers may not realize the enormous impact their approach will have on a child, especially one at the beginning of their journey. Yet the approach they choose significantly influences the habits of a child’s mind.

Let’s illustrate this with an analogy. If we think of every stimulus a child receives as a Lego piece, then the job in front of the child is to connect these pieces in a meaningful way. The goal for the child, then, is to continue to build a magnificent “knowledge palace” made up of these Lego pieces. Naturally, only the Lego formations toward this goal that are meaningful, self-coherent, and inspiring would be helpful and cognitively valuable.

Following the same analogy, it can be said that there are two main functions grownups can meaningfully perform in the child’s progress in building her knowledge palace. The first is to introduce the child to a great variety of Lego pieces, so that the palace does not become a narrow, dull, and uninspiring construction. This can be accomplished through providing the child with the most comprehensive sample of the world she will be experiencing and living in. Such a sample should include objects, phenomena, thoughts, and feelings reflecting as full a picture of our world as possible. The second is to be a role model and help the child connect the Lego pieces so that she learns to always make connections between the stimuli she comes across. By doing this, adults help the child meaningfully connect the Lego pieces, continually expanding and beautifying her knowledge palace. Otherwise, the stimuli will be left unprocessed, unconnected, and meaningless, cluttering the child’s mind.

What is worse is that for the child, piling up meaningless stimuli will become a habit of her mind. Such disorganization of the mind will, in turn, significantly damage the development of holistic and coherent thinking, undermining the child’s reasoning and problem solving skills. A thorough discussion of these extremely undesirable outcomes is beyond the scope of this article.

Grownups might facilitate the child’s true learning through a successful combination of the two functions mentioned above. Trying to keep the curiosity of the child high while not providing enough Lego pieces will not help. Dumping lots of Lego pieces in front of the child, but not caring about whether they are properly connected by the child, will not mean much, either. Parents, caretakers, teachers, and other adults should try to maintain the child’s motivation and curiosity while guiding her to connect the Lego pieces in a meaningful way. This is only possible through letting the child enjoy learning on her own terms. In other words, grownups should not try to build the knowledge palace for the child. They should not leave the child alone with the Lego pieces, either. Rather, they should serve as role models for learning and allow the child to become the architect of her own knowledge palace.

These guiding principles, though seemingly simple, have huge implications for raising children. Things like how a household is arranged, what toys parents choose for their child, and how to design classroom activities have a meaningful impact on how the child learns. Only two examples will be briefly given here. The child’s room or even the entire household should be a heaven for exploration, with a wide variety of toys or objects serving as a mini replica of what exists and happens in our world. Especially at the beginning of her exploration, the child should be served a full menu of materials, activities, games, hobbies, etc., so that she will have the opportunity to envisage as many different parts of her future knowledge palace as possible.

To present material to be learned while maintaining the curiosity of the child, the grownup should let the child taste the pleasure of learning. In this respect, an ideal setup for learning would be to present most of the material about the topic, while leaving room for the child to do some investigation on her own. Likewise, the child should be guided to do self-reflection after processing material, allowing her to reach her own conclusions and interpretations. This is an effective way for the child to connect the Lego pieces and beautify and expand her knowledge palace.

It should be kept in mind that the child arrives in this world with no prior cognitive preferences or habits. Therefore, continued successful employment of the approach presented above will establish and sustain a sound way of thinking and learning in the child’s mind. Every single effort to use these strategies will create a brilliant mind, always ready for true learning.   

Looks ecstatic with a Godly gown,

With spangled Paradise all around,

Proclaims Who holds the crown.

In the broad wondrous sky on high

Like an imperial azure eye,

Evoking awe beyond confusion,

Our Lord displays His heavenly dye.

The moon twitters with solemn impulsion

Amidst the shooting stars and the sun,

Ears and eyes of enthusiasm, deeply enjoys

How its Glorious Lord has revealed His art.

Power and dominion under His Hand,

The soil, the air, the water, surrender.

Every being adores the same Lord

While every entity reflects His splendor.

Victor H. Earnest