I am sharing the words of two distinguished secretaries
of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
“Look, if you compare me with Amartya Sen, I would say that even though I haven’t received the Nobel Prize, I am ahead of him in certain respects. Because at one time I was a teacher at Dhaka University, and he is also a university teacher. If I hadn’t left my job to come here, by now I would have become a professor just like him. Rather, by joining the civil service, alongside my theoretical knowledge I have also gained practical knowledge, which Amartya Sen doesn’t have. So, considering this aspect, I am not inferior to him in any way; in fact, I am superior.”
“Salimullah Khan is a friend of mine. He didn’t join the civil service; I did. The other day I was going to office in my car when I saw him going somewhere in a rickshaw. I saw him and smiled to myself. I thought of calling him to get in the car. Later I decided against it; let him ride, let him ride in a rickshaw. He can talk big, he can write, but as a successful person, I am far above him.”
Amartya Sen is someone very dear to me—not because his family home is in Bangladesh, not because he is a Nobel laureate and respected economist, not because he is a person of high caliber as a writer and scholar, not because his wife Nabaneeta Dev Sen received his support as a husband in her literary pursuits and thus we gained such a fine writer in Bengali literature; rather because he is so optimistic about our Bangladesh, he dreams of Bangladesh, and in various speeches and writings he speaks so many good things about us. Surely one word from Amartya Sen carries more weight than a hundred words from a hundred other professors of economics.
If we were to list the living scholars of Bangladesh, Salimullah Khan’s name would certainly be among the first five. Reading his writings requires additional qualification. If asked to name scholars who write after extensive study and research, in recent times only two names come to mind that are comparable to him: the revered Muhammad Habibur Rahman and the revered Golam Murshid. Thinking of their contributions and scholarship naturally bows one’s head in reverence. We are supremely fortunate that they were born in this country. Yes, I and many others disagree with some of Salimullah Khan’s thoughts. But that doesn’t diminish our respect for his scholarship. Any thinker gives birth to some controversy and fallacy.
As a nation we are ungrateful and expert at diminishing great people. We don’t try to grow by humbly bowing our heads, recognizing our position. We think we ourselves are great. In proving our faults as virtues and living by that, we are more shameless than any developed nation in the world. We don’t know how to honor the accomplished sons of our own country; we gain a kind of sick satisfaction by pulling down those whose contributions make the whole world respect Bangladesh, whether they are at home or abroad.
We are a poor nation. Our overall position in the world is not very strong, this cannot be asserted with confidence. In daily busyness, our sources of joy are also gradually diminishing. When we get even a small reason for happiness, we become tremendously cheerful, we literally start dancing. Among the few such sources we have, one is our cricket. Our cricketers have given us much to be proud of. They are our national heroes. We get much that lifts our spirits from them. Happily, occasions for such uplifting of spirits have been coming frequently these days. But what do we do? I am writing some painful things.
Bangladesh’s Jonty Rhodes, Nasir Hossain, posted a picture with his little sister on Facebook. We proved that even seeing such an innocent-faced sister could bring perverted thoughts to someone’s mind. We are perverts, sick, shameless. Whenever we get the chance, we brazenly remove our masks. Shame!
Shakib Al Hasan is the world’s number one all-rounder. Among the few reasons the cricket world envies Bangladesh, having Shakib on our team is undoubtedly one of them. Yet the comments we make about his beautiful wife—if someone said even one-tenth of that about our wives, we would probably have killed them. As a nation we are envious of others’ prosperity and covetous of others’ wives. I’ll give you an interesting fact. The word “parashrikatarata” (envy of others’ prosperity) has no English equivalent. Why not? It is entirely our soul’s word, the symbol of our national character.
When Sabbir Rahman uploads pictures of eating at restaurants, we comment: What’s the matter? Don’t you have work? Why do you roam from restaurant to restaurant? Yet we forget that they too are human beings. Like us, they also need entertainment to relieve the fatigue of work. The fame that comes to our country from one of his shots comes in a few seconds. Could we, even with several lifetimes, bring half that fame to our country? Or has anyone among our fourteen generations ever managed it?
We know very well, we understand, to what heights Soumya Sarkar has taken our country with his performance. Having such an opener is a matter of pride for any team. Yet even during play we mockingly ask him whether he has kept the fast. Where in Islam is it prescribed for non-Muslims to keep fasts? If our sick taunts make him angry, if he misses a catch and we lose the match, don’t we deserve punishment for depriving millions of people of joy and pride? Have millions of such perverted taunters ever brought even one percent of the honor that one Soumya Sarkar brings to this unfortunate nation? Even when he sits with others for iftar, we don’t stop our taunts. Did we learn this from the life ideals of the greatest human being, our beloved Prophet? Read “The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam” by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, translated by Sir Muhammad Zafrullah Khan, which was the favorite book of the litterateur among litterateurs Leo Tolstoy, which he always carried in his coat pocket. (A Bengali translation of this book is also available for purchase. You might collect and read it. You can learn much about life.) After writing Anna Karenina, he fell into tremendous mental distress. To overcome it, he tried to enlighten himself with Islam and the Prophet’s message and ideals. His realization was that he had never found such peace in his life. He also wrote a small biography of our beloved Prophet, where he described the Prophet as an ideal human being who had the highest respect for people of all religions and beliefs. The Prophet himself instructed that it is a Muslim’s sacred duty to give priority to people of other religions over Muslims in all fields. Then why are we, inspired by what ideology, moving away from the liberal path of Islam shown by the Prophet?
I have rarely seen a gentleman as affable as Mashrafe Bin Mortaza. Through my work at the airport, I have met him a couple of times, and each time I have been charmed by his modesty. A completely simple, calm-tempered person. Even this gem of Bangladesh had to close his Facebook page to Bangladeshi users out of anger! Our excessive rudeness made Bangladesh’s most successful captain come to such a sad decision! If we had even a drop of his patriotism, we couldn’t have behaved so shamelessly.
What joy do we get from pulling down our national heroes? Respecting others reveals one’s own noble character. Let’s think for a moment—those whom we pull down to gain sick, perverted satisfaction, can even a hundred thousand rude people like us, with all our fourteen generations combined, bring even one percent of their achievements for the country? If a hundred boar cubs like us die on the streets, nothing happens to the country, but if even one Shakib Al Hasan gets injured, great damage comes to our country. A nation that doesn’t know how to honor its finest sons never achieves anything great. Because those who are dishonored may eventually lose interest in working for the country; and those who dishonor contribute nothing worthwhile to the country. They live only for themselves and their families. Great people also live that way, but through that living, the nation benefits. Everyone lives, but some live that life a little differently.
Read “Glimpses of World History,” the world-renowned book of letters written by Jawaharlal Nehru to his young daughter Indira from prison. A mere child of a girl, who spent her teens receiving from such a noble father’s teachings of world and Indian history along with the formation of elevated intellect and deeply emotional human character—if that girl doesn’t grow up to become Indira Gandhi, who will? We lead ordinary lives with ordinary thoughts, living only for ourselves, and think of those who serve others: who do you think you are? You’re just ordinary like me. The comfort of low-grade thinking is the biggest reason we cannot become great.
Among the few people I deeply revere—whose names make my head bow in respect automatically—A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is one. Among the few books that have greatly influenced me, his autobiography “Wings of Fire” is prominent. I read this book from time to time and draw fuel for living. Reading it reveals why I am ordinary and people like him are extraordinary. “One who has faith in his mind never bows before anyone, never weeps, never says he cannot do so much; never says no one is helping him, that injustice is being done to him. Instead, when such a person faces problems, he acts directly, then says, I am God’s child, whatever happens to me, I am greater than that event.” Just keeping this one thought in mind, one can move forward in life. Such a person is greater than a good university. His death is as sorrowful to us as losing a loved one.
There are many others like this. We don’t learn from them. How can we learn? We are greater than them! Ingratitude is so embedded in our character that when someone’s magnanimity or benefit through work becomes too easily available, we consider it our right. Not because that person has harmed us, but simply for not being able to help for some time or when some thought of that person doesn’t match ours, we don’t hesitate to abuse that person, drag him to the streets among pigs and dogs. We instantly forget everything we received from him before. It doesn’t occur to us that the person didn’t come to this world with a vow to do good for others; he too could have spent his life selfishly in “eat, drink and be merry” philosophy like me. We go to him hoping to get something useful for ourselves. We have no time to know how that person survives doing all this. We have only one purpose: to fulfill our self-interest. And once fulfilled, we throw that person away like used tissue paper. The cow whose milk we’ve been drinking and surviving on for so long—the day that cow gets a little agitated and raises its horn, we immediately become busy slaughtering it. What kind of mentality is this? With such a disgusting mentality, it’s never possible to become great. It’s impossible to do anything that makes people remember me distinctly among millions.
I began with the words of two secretaries. Because of such boastful, hollow people, we as a nation have to be ashamed at every step. They don’t know what they actually are. They don’t know how to respect great people either. No one actually respects such people from the heart; when people bow before them, that bowing is before their chair, not before their personality. “He is greater than me”—this very feeling is the first step toward becoming great in life. Those who don’t feel this never even try to surpass themselves. If one cannot understand that I am smaller than a great person, then satisfaction with one’s small position takes hold. My favorite writer Sunil Gangopadhyay once said in an interview with Shilalipi, the literary magazine of Kaler Kantho newspaper: “Self-satisfaction equals death.” He was asked whether his own vast creation gave him such satisfaction that all his work was finished.
Fortunately, in our bureaucracy and in responsible positions outside it, there are more people who don’t suffer from such foolish arrogance. They work from a sense of responsibility, and through this the country benefits automatically. Every intelligent person is aware of their own and others’ positions. One who thinks his journey is over—how can he go much further? Only one who thinks he has merely crossed a part of the path can move forward. When does self-arrogance arise in a person? When he can accomplish everything that is possible for him to do. Such people usually have limited capacity. It’s impossible for them to go further or do more with their strength. They are weak people. Because another person in the same position can be seen to be without arrogance. Because he trusts in his ability. He believes he can go as far as his capability will take him, and hasn’t yet reached his final point. Since he will travel further, he doesn’t indulge in the false satisfaction of having reached his destination. For an arrogant person in the same position, the point that is the end of the path is merely one-fourth of the entire path for a humble person!
thank you sir