There are two main points to this question – this matter has aspects that relate both to the people of guidance who are attached to God, and to those who are not.

It is the duty of the people of guidance to communicate to other people the truth as they believe, the truth they have found and had a taste of; the truth they are satisfied with or a view with which they mature with, and to guide them to peace. First and foremost, this is a debt of conscience we owe to humankind. A person who knows these truths, the content of which has been bestowed to our consciences as a divine favor, should communicate them to those who do not know and open for them the doors leading to God.

Now, let’s have look at how God has commanded about this matter: “The believers, both men and women, they are guardians, confidants and helpers of one another. They enjoin and promote what is right and good and forbid and try to prevent the evil” (Qur’an 9:71). Another verse reads: “O you who believe! There must be among you a community calling to good, and enjoining and promoting what is right and good and forbidding and trying to prevent evil (in appropriate ways). They are those who are the prosperous.” (3:104). God has always referred to those who promote what is right and good as an honorable community: “You are the best community ever brought forth for (the good of) humankind, enjoining and promoting what is right and good forbidding and trying to prevent the evil, and (this you do because) you believe in God” (Qur’an 3:110).

These divine lights considerably clarify this obligation towards humanity. This matter is clarified by many other verses and hadiths and it is so open and clear that it does not require any further interpretation or explanation. Therefore, we can gather from these verses that we are responsible for communicating the divine truths. This is such a compelling responsibility that if there was no one left on earth one day in future, then we will entertain the possibility that there might be people living in a colony near Sirius or some distant planet around some unknown star in the Hercules constellation and somewhere in the Milky Galaxy, and with an urge that is unique to human species to reach out to them, we will build colonies and cities as interim stations on our route toward them, and we will communicate our heart-felt inspirations to the people there (if any). We will intermingle and sympathize with them and we will show them the roads that will lead to God. We will say, “Say, ‘There is no god but God,’ and be saved and be prosperous,” as the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, put, and this will always be our main motto. This is our duty. On the other hand, their duty is to lend an ear to this call of ours that invites them to peace and to search for the straight path wherever they are and everywhere they go.

If we do not fulfill our duty, we will fail to comply with our obligation towards God. Then, Almighty God will ask questioningly: “You knew the truth, but you failed to communicate to other people? You knew God, but you did not introduce Him to other people? You could see the straight path, but why didn’t you show it to other people? You were aware of the light, but why didn’t you turn other people to look toward that direction?”

In the light of divine revelations, I can say that on that day, Almighty God will say to them: “Although you satisfied all of your animal drives to the full, why didn’t you search for the way which would provide you with full gratification? Even during your most troubled and distressed times, you did not think for an instant to experiment this way? In other words, you have resorted to all sorts of recipes for your worldly welfare, but why didn’t you consider making the truth which you somewhat heard about even for once?”

In the final analysis, Almighty God will hold every individual against his or her own sins. Since we are responsible only for communicating the truth to them, we will be questioned only for our faults in fulfilling this duty of ours. On the other hand, they will be questioned for failing to search for truth or lend an ear in a sincere manner to the truth, if they have already heard about it. May God save us from falling tumbling down by failing to enjoin and promote what is right and good, and forbid and try to prevent the evil while having capability to do so!

“The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger, the second time you are an honored guest. The third time you become family, and for our families we are prepared to do anything, even die.”

This astonishing book is a nonfiction tale of those three cups of tea Greg Mortenson had with the people of Korphe, a remote village in Northern Pakistan. Co-written by acclaimed journalist David Oliver Relin, the 368 page long book met with enthusiastic acclaim, and since its publication in 2006 has sold more than 2.5 million copies in 29 languages. Moreover, in an official ceremony in March 23, 2009, Mortenson received Pakistan’s highest civilian award, the Sitara-i-Pakistan (The Star of Pakistan) for his courage and humanitarian effort to promote education for the last fifteen years.

Mortenson’s story begins in 1993, after a failed attempt to climb the world’s second highest peak, K2, to honor the memory of his younger sister Christa, who died from a massive seizure after a lifelong struggle with epilepsy. Alone, exhausted and emaciated, Mortenson wandered into the impoverished village of Korphe, where the villagers took him in and nursed him back to health. “They had very little but they gave me everything they had, and I was very touched by their hospitality” said Mortenson in an interview to CBS News .

While he was recuperating in Haji Ali’s – the chief of the village – home, he learned more and more about how people lived in this part of the world; that the nearest doctor lived a week’s walk away, most of the children suffered from malnutrition and one out of three children died before their first birthday. Mortenson felt he owed the people of the village, who had already begun to call him “Dr. Greg,” although he was a nurse. He thought at least he could get some supplies for Korphe’s school. Yet, taking him to an open land, Haji Ali explained that they didn’t have a school, and a teacher cost one dollar a day, which was more than the villagers could afford. Mortenson watched boys and girls kneeling on the frosty ground to write out their multiplication tables by scratching in the dirt with sticks. “I felt like my heart was being torn out. Can you imagine a fourth- grade class in America, alone, without a teacher, sitting there quietly and working on their lessons? I knew I had to do something,” Mortenson recounts in the book (p. 32). At that very moment, notes from Mortenson’s heart translated into a commitment. He put his hands on Haji Ali’s shoulder and said, “I will build a school here, I promise.”

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time traces Greg Mortenson’s efforts to fulfill this promise. Along the way, he encountered enormous obstacles. Upon his return to California, he sent 580 letters to celebrities asking for funds for the school, which yielded only one reply, a $100 check; he sold everything he owned, lived in a car to reduce his expenses and accepted donation in pennies from schoolchildren.
In spite of the challenges of raising funds, separation from his wife and newly born daughter, and an eight day kidnapping by the Taliban, Mortenson eventually succeeded in building the school. From his earnest promise grew Central Asia Institute, which built more than fifty schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. “I see education least invested in, that can bring the most change” says Mortenson. In this respect, he is convinced that extremism and terror must be fought with books, not with bombs. He places particular emphasis on educating girls; their education, he believes, can affect the whole community. He gives the example of Jahan, the first educated woman in Skardu, who, after completing her studies in healthcare, could help reduce the mortality rate of women during pregnancy from about twenty a year to zero.

Along with recounting Greg Mortenson’s personal determination to build the school, the book also makes frequent mention of the villagers’ passion for education and their many sacrifices. In one instance, Haji Ali hands over twelve rams – half the wealth of the village – to Haji Mehdi, a mafia boss who ran the economy of the region and didn’t want the school built. “Don’t be sad,” Haji Ali told the shattered villagers. “Long after all those rams are dead and eaten this school will still stand. Haji Mehdi has food today, now, our children have education forever” (p. 153).

In another instance, he shows the Koran to Mortenson, and asks: “Do you see how beautiful this Koran is?”

“Yes” replies Mortenson.

“I can’t read it. This is the greatest sadness in my life. I will do anything so the children of my village never have to know this feeling. I will pay any price so they have the education they deserve.”

Mortenson’s story is uplifting in many ways. It is a story about “compassion in action, not talk” as Mortenson puts it. It is about taking notes when our hearts begin to speak and leaving our comfort zones to achieve what we deem right and necessary. In Brokaw’s words, his story is proof that “one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world.”

There are other stories of anonymous heroes all around world, who pack up their lives into a suitcase and move to remote places to turn stones into schools. Their stories are yet to be told.

Notes

1. http://www.threecupsoftea.com/greg-mortenson-bio-and-professional-photo
2. ttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/04/sunday/main4697362.shtml
3. http://www.threecupsoftea.com/2009/01/21/msnbc-jan2009/
4. http://www.blogs.targetx.com/wildriverreview/penworldvoices/2008/02/greg_motensons_mission_to_prom.html
5. Three cups of tea One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a time, Greg Mortenson and david Oliver relin, 2006, Penguin Books, review of tom Brokaw.