A few days ago in London I visited a British woman whom I have known for a number of years. She has visited the Middle East, including the Kingdom, many times and is a great supporter of Arab causes as well as being a promoter of Arab development. In addition, she is the wife of a peer who has an impressively aristocratic background. We discussed, as we always do, the current situation in the Arab world and especially in the Gulf.
She is most concerned that while other countries are leaping ahead, making progress on the social, economic and scientific fronts, we are standing still. The usual large quantity of talk accompanied by a similar amount of no real progress. Despite realizing this painful truth, her focus is not pessimistic. She feels there is still time to improve the present situation; the way to do so, she believes, lies with our young people, with non-governmental organizations and with giving women greater roles than they have today. I could not have agreed more heartily since, along with many others, I have long believed the same and said so countless times.
My old friend said she was trying to stimulate certain institutions and organizations, spread throughout the Arab world, to become more conscious of their social responsibilities and to create some awareness of those responsibilities among the Arab young. Her method is to travel to the countries and once there, she engages in long and frustrating battles with the sadly familiar indifferent and uninterested bureaucrats who offer a million excuses for doing nothing and an equal number of reasons for why what she suggests is impossible. Once again I smiled, for I knew from my own experience exactly what she meant and exactly what she had been through. What Arab doesn’t?
She is particularly keen to help develop institutions that will highlight conditions among the less well-off members of society — the handicapped, those who have little access to proper facilities and women. These are all people to whom society has obligations, but they are also unfortunately people whom society often overlooks and pretends to forget. As most of us rush about, striving to achieve our goals and turn our dreams into realities, we should also notice those among us who are not as privileged as we are and who deserve help and respite from the problems which plague them.
“How,” I asked her, “do you proceed? How do you go about doing what needs to be done?”
She gave a typically British answer and one which we Arabs should ponder and learn to emulate. “Well, I begin by organizing myself and by making sure that there is financial backing. I do that by visiting individuals privately and also by knocking on company doors and explaining to them their corporate and social responsibilities. In addition, the British government helps finance overseas projects which focus on human development.”
We discussed possible ways and means of fostering both action and cooperation. I assured her that some of us in the media do indeed share her passionate concerns. She looked me squarely in the eye and said: “Khaled, I am 59 years old. I am running out of time and I have to pass the torch to somebody.”
What she meant of course is that the work she is doing must go on even when she is not here to do it. I was dumbstruck. Here is a woman who lives in what is, by any stretch of the imagination, a mansion, who owns a historic country house and who has access to wealth and power. She could easily enjoy life in Cannes or Nice, visiting the Alps in season and cruising in the balmy Caribbean. Yet her interests and her passions are to improve the lot of the Arab world and the Arab people.
There are, it seems obvious to me as I grow older, two types of people in the world: Those who only live and die and those who are remembered beyond their private circles because they were able to enhance and improve the quality of life for all. We should all pray that God leads us into the latter group while sparing no effort to become a part of it.
In the Arab world, most of our organizations revolve around one individual or a very small group. In the West, on the other hand, the focus is on well-managed entities. Yes, discrepancies, fraud and illegal actions occur there but the difference between us and them is that in the West, accountability is very real. At the same time, accountability accompanies a sense of genuine social responsibility and obligation, which are two powerful motivators.
We Muslims don’t have to go far afield to find examples of social responsibility. Our religion teaches it to us, though sadly we often ignore it.
If we study the life of the Prophet (peace be upon him) we will find hundreds of examples that, if followed, would not only vastly improve our societies and the lot of all who live in them but also make us the envy of the whole world.
We talk a great deal. We value the kind of pride that is built upon all the wrong bases. We waste time. We feel anxiety about our status and how others will perceive it. Do we really want a society of mindless unthinking mediocrity and unfair privilege? Or do we want an open society built upon virtue and talent? That question should prey on our minds until the answer bursts forth in all its clarity.
Some will no doubt criticize me for presenting an example from outside Islam and from outside our region. To them, I say, “Have we Muslims not been told to seek knowledge from even the most distant and remote places?” Does anyone really believe that we can learn from none but our own people?
Are all other human experiences and all other human knowledge except our own to be rejected? Unfortunately, we seem to have stumbled as we make our way on the journey of life. The chief aim for too many of us has become making money by any means whatsoever; in other words, the material world has triumphed at the expense of everything else.
It is important that we re-establish some of our traditional priorities: bringing up children who will be an asset to our society and the world, learning things for their own sake and judging ourselves by real Islamic standards rather than by the standards of our fellow men.
The root causes and the root cures are within us. We must develop our physical and intellectual capabilities so that we can take our places among those who have lived and died but who have also left the world better than they found it.