Our ability to understand is innate and inborn, but gaining knowledge is something that we have to acquire and actively seek. The good news is we have all the important knowledge that we need around us if we look carefully and teach our children to do so.
A farmer learns the important law of the harvest which states that everything has a time and a process. He learns that you can’t rush things no matter how strong you are. Do what you may, a seed just won’t grow until the appropriate season arrives. He learns that you have to work and struggle to achieve results. Those who don’t plow, plant, irrigate, and tend their crop will have nothing at harvest time. He learns that, with cooperation, everyone gains more then by working alone; no man is an island.
A shepherd learns that the weak need protection and vigilance in light of predators that seek to overtake them. He learns that inaction is sometimes action. Leaving others alone to live and grow is an act of love. Leveling other alone to perish is an act of crime. He learns that when he sleeps others awake. He learns primitiveness and strategy. Perhaps what he learns most is to reflect, think, and have patience.
A fisherman learns that not everything is under your control. You are only a very small part of the equation. What you catch and how much you catch is ordained by fate. He learns that things can happen suddenly and ruin lives or livelihoods. He learns time depreciates everything; our lives as much as the food we eat. We have to make the best of what we have now.
The important lessons of life are around us in Allah’s creation, but we are too busy and it is too boring. Media is the fast-food of the mind. It is very tasty but bears little value.
Learning from the things around us gives more than knowledge or understanding. It gives us wisdom which the ultimate mixture of both.
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