The society

The quality of a society depends on the way of acting and behaviour of the people of that society. And the behaviour of an individual depends on the quality of education and training.

Education helps a person to know what to do and how to do. And training develops and inculcates the will to act according to one's knowledge. For example, education helps a person to know that lying is a hateful and disgusting act and that a truly serious and respectable person can not commit it. But the effort does not end here. The person must have the will to implement it also. Otherwise it will be like a theory enclosed in books or a story which is merely interesting to narrate/to pass time only. It is necessary to be trained in order to get the will to implement, that is, to say the truth and not to lie. Otherwise everyone knows that lying is bad. Despite that, people continue to lie when benefits are seen in it. In the same way, people do not hesitate to commit several grave things for personal benefits.

As for a well-trained person, he will say the truth even if he may lose out on some benefits. For such a person, saying the truth is more valuable than the benefits that he may lose. If he sees a lost object of value somewhere, he will return it to its owner. He will do it even if no one saw him picking up the object. This develops in a person when he is willing to practice upon his knowledge. The development of this requires a training which is generally lacking. That is why despite great effort in the field of education, we are unable to reform the society. Nowadays, we are content with education. In terms of training, we have done practically nothing, to such an extent that this generation no longer knows about moral values.

And whatever he knows also is restricted to knowledge with no will or interest in implementing. Religious authorities also are not protected from this negligence. Finally, there is total neglect in regards to the training aspect. As for the education aspect, we can say that the work has not been done as it should. Thus it requires an adjustment.

[English version of "La société" – Al Jamiat Vol.8 No.2]