Dear President, Graduates, undergraduates,
Parents and My Dear Brothers and Sisters-in-Islam,
Assalaamu alaikum warahmatullahi
wabarakaatuh.
It is indeed my pleasure and honour
to have been invited by you; the Majlis of Sri Lankan
Students at the International Islamic University
– Malaysia, to be with you in this significant
gathering.
I am very glad to associate myself
with you all on this memorable occasion of recognizing
the Sri Lankan students graduating from the IIUM
this year and honouring those who are graduating
with flying colours, obtaining Excellent Pass.
I wish to take this opportunity
to warmly congratulate all the graduates today and
especially those who have been blessed to gain the
Excellent Pass.
My heart is really pregnant with
joy and happiness as I see you all with thirst;
thirst for knowledge. You have made a decision to
quench your thirst at the IIUM. On the one hand,
this decision, I know for sure as I am still a student
like you, is a difficult one since you had to leave
your kith and kin and your beloved motherland and
come all the way to Kuala Lumpur. Yet, on the other
hand, a wise decision because you have decided to
slake your thirst at the IIUM, one of the popular
and prestigious seats of learning in Asia.
Real thirst for knowledge is that.
It urges you to venture into anything; big or small,
easy or tough and near or far.
While totally agreeing with your
correct and bold decision to sate your thirst, I
have a question within myself; Why knowledge? Why
appetite for knowledge? Why should you slake the
thirst for knowledge?
You, perhaps, would come up with
a ready-made answer that seeking knowledge is compulsory
in Islam and the first verse of the divine revelation
– Al-Qur’an was a clear-cut order to
read and recite; Iqra’.
Yes. I am in absolute agreement
with you. But my question is entirely different;
Why does Islam impose on you seeking knowledge?
What is the purpose of knowledge?
Man has to know the purpose of
life; Why has he come to this world? How did he
come? From where did he emanate? Where is he going
after death? Who are these people? What are these
relations – paternal, maternal and so on?
What are these creations – earth, sea, sun,
moon, mountain, river, forest, animals, birds, etc.?
What is the relation between him and these creatures?
How did he and all this originate?
Man ought to differentiate between
the good and the bad, pure and impure, useful and
useless, constructive and destructive, etc. Again
the purpose of knowledge is obvious.
If we, through the knowledge we
have acquired, apprehended the purpose of life,
are we acting accordingly? Do we adopt the lifestyle
prescribed by Islam? If yes, to what extent? Do
we translate our knowledge into action?
Knowledge is not for knowledge,
but for life. What you learn you must practice.
In fact, the concept of knowledge for knowledge
has precipitated all the current turbulence and
destruction across the globe. This is the repercussion
of seeking knowledge just for knowledge. Unfortunately
most of the people have failed to understand this
simple fact.
You must know your Creator. You
must know how and from where you originated. You
must know this world and the creatures therein.
All this is conveyed in the first five verses of
the divine revelation.
“Read with the name of your
Lord who created. He created man from a clot of
blood. Read and your Lord is the most generous who
imparted knowledge by means of the pen. He taught
man what he did not know.” (Chapter: 96, Verses:
01 – 05)
But sadly, we take just the word
‘Iqra’ and stop with that. We do not
look at the rest of the verse and the following
verses.
Knowledge is for life. You must
learn, find the truth and lead your life according
to your Creator’s guidance.
In other words, do I have to study
just because I want to be a graduate? Do I have
to study just because I want my name to be coupled
with some academic titles? Or do I have to study
because I want to lead a purposeful life?
The present world, indeed, enjoys
a great deal of scholars. No scarcity of academics
and professionals. Yet, there is acute dearth of
academics and professionals, who find the truth,
comprehend the purpose of life and live every minute
of life in accordance with the teachings of Almighty
Allah.
Certainly you are lucky. Allah
Ta’ala has given you the opportunity of pursuing
your higher studies at a fully-fledged Islamic university
whereas many students and perhaps even your friends,
who are eager to further themselves in studies,
are deprived of such a marvellous environment of
higher education. You should, therefore, be grateful
to Allah forever for this tremendous bounty.
Let us learn to live! Let us study
Islam! Let us practice Islam in our day-to-day life
to the letter! Let us fear Allah, the Exalted! Let
us enlighten others in the light of knowledge we
have gained!
With these few words, let me conclude, wishing all
of you every success in your life, praying for abundance
in your knowledge and accuracy and appropriateness
in application and extending my sincere gratitude
to the President and others of the Majlis of Sri
Lankan Students at the IIUM.
Thank you very much - ‘Jazaakumullahu
khaira’ for your patient hearing which was,
of course, a source of inspiration to me.
Wassalaamu alaikum warahmatullahi
wabarakaatuh.
