Are Newspapers a waste of Time?

I have been sat on this train for a while now enjoying my daily newspaper, it was an ok read today; in some places it was very distressing as the news of our Ummah’s rapid meltdown in full glare of the world is dominating everything. The mass media are like vultures, they pick and prod at this dead carcass of an Ummah…but they never seem to be full. Each day there are front page headlines about Muslims and inside the front pages there are countless stories of Muslim misbehaviour or stories of Muslims trying to live their life according to the teachings of our Beloved Prophet and how the non Muslims can’t cope with it. At times it feels like a witch hunt.

So after I had finished with the paper I decided to read some of the blogs that I have subscribed to. I wanted some inspiration and who better, I thought, than Hazarat Shaykh al-Hadith Maulana Muhammad Zakariyya Kandhlawi (ra). As I was reading I fell upon a most relevant story for me.

Here, Sheikhul Hadith (ra) complains about student’s lack of interest as shown by their reading of newspapers. Subhanallah! I wonder what he would say about today’s situation?

“In my early days of teaching, no student of Mazahirul Uloom had the habit of reading newspapers. Even in Darul Uloom, apart from a few students, no one even knew what a newspaper was. In those days, the best past time activity was to read the writings of the Elders of the Sufi order to which you belonged, e.g. Hazarat Nanotawi, Hazarat Gangohi, Hazarat Sheikhul Hind, Hazarat Saharanpuri, Hazarat Thanwy (Rahmatullah Alayhim). These writings were our newspapers. Generally great enthusiasm was shown by both teachers and senior students to pursue their works. Now, unfortunately, the interest has shifted towards newspapers and useless writings.”

http://aapbeti.blogspot.com

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