There are many
Islamic students that are badly trapped in life. When these
people left their homes, parents, country they had in mind
that they will learn and then deliver back to their nations.
But when they went to Hawza at that time they had less
requirements for personal life (being young & unmarried) and
also no knowledge about how they are supposed to deliver
knowledge & sustain themselves at the same time. Their focus
was to acquire the knowledge initially. By the time (10 yrs.
to 20Yrs.)they acquired knowledge they also realized that
they have financial requirements to sustain their families.
Also, they realized that if they go back to their homes now
then the ways to earn a living are far too less. One of the
major ways that the people want them to survive is charity.
Obviously, they are trapped in such a situation. They have
spent 10-20Yrs. of the best part of their lives to learn.
But now they are unable to spread the learning because of
total lack of opportunity.
Whatever little opportunities are available are only there
for the big names and mostly for great orators. How do we
expect the new generation of Islamic students to come out
and benefit the community. Hence, most of these students
leave their mission in life and take employment in some
other field or start businesses full-time, some others do
not leave their field but leave confidence in themselves and
start living a retired life like serving only as Imam Jamaat,
some have to resort to asking money from people to manage
their expenses, etc. It is also not good to ask a person
fully involved in religious work to come out of his domain
and take employment in a commercial venture.
This ways, the community is losing good human resource
non-stop. The student (in a way) has lost his 10-20Yrs. of
life and the community has lost the talent acquired in these
years. Money will not be able to get back the talent lost
and the community will have to again wait for 10-20Yrs. to
get similar talent.
Also importantly, the above will greatly discourage
brilliant minds to enter the Hawza. We will start getting
mostly awful minds entering the Hawza. Obviously, if such a
thing happens then we cannot expect much from the output of
the Hawzas.
Hence, we need to identify these talented students at the
right time, then provide them opportunities - to serve the
community and get reasonable financial returns. If we do
this for first 2-3years when a talented student comes back
from Hawza then he will get settled and there will be many
who will understand his importance and start working
together with him. We can leave this student and then start
holding the hand of another similar student that wants to
start his new stage in life of delivering what he has
learnt.
Similarly, there is a new generation of students who have
come back to their homelands/ are planning to come back to
their homelands and establish a madressa / other
organizations. They fail for many years because they are not
given the due importance because they are new for the
community. We must realize the importance of what this new
generation of students are doing and provide support to
their projects. Once they are successful in their first 2-3
years of project/s then there will be many people from our
community to hold-up their projects for them. But initially
is the difficult time that decides the fate of the student.
Hence, we should try and come into the picture at this
particular time in the earliest possible stage.
There are many individuals and organizations who are not
very famous/ old. Because they are not famous or are new
(though promising), they get killed/ lost without any help.
You try to identify them & help them if you can. Seed money
to such individuals or organizations is very vital now and
will bear lot of results for a long-time. Once they too
become famous or old in the field then there will come many
more hands that hold them.
Mujtahideen already have a financial system in place for
sponsoring/ enabling the living of those who are: firstly
learning and then working for the cause of Allah s.w.t.
(henceforth called as ‘worker’). Based on the limited
funding available, this system is more robust in case of
students who are learning in the howza for the cause of
Allah s.w.t. so as to be able to utilize this learning in
the future. This system is relatively shaken when it comes
to sponsoring after the period of learning is completed.
While a student is learning it is well-known amongst us that
there is the shahria system (monthly payment) for them to
take care of their living. In fact, after the learning
period also there is a payment system available for those
who want to gainfully work towards making people benefit
from their knowledge. This payment system designed by most
of the Mujtahideen is not well-known amongst the general
people mainly because it is not as robust/ penetrating as
the shahria system. In this system, the Mujtahid allows the
worker to generally take 33%-50% of the khums collected by
that particular person. The exact amount varies from person
to person. Out of this amount (33%-50% of khums collected)
the worker has the authority to use an amount that the
worker thinks is his requirement & the worth for his work
that he is carrying-out amongst the momineen. The reason
this system is not so robust because the ratio of momineen
paying khums is low and to add to this dilemma is that more
than 50% of workers do not get to act as a channel for khums
payment. The funding through the Khums money is so limited
that the mujtahideen are compelled to use them for
sponsoring one phase of the student’s life relatively
strongly than the other phase of his life (after completion
of studies).
There are also some other sponsorship systems/ sub-systems
designed by the mujtahideen.
We have to do our bit by identifying such students & being
part of a solution by Financial contribution / support which
helps them establish themselves |