By Afzal Usmani for TwoCircles.net
Today is Sir Syed Day, 199th Birth anniversary of one of the greatest leader and reformer for Muslims of India.
Email Networks, Social media, Whattsapp groups will be flooded with “Happy Sir Syed Day” messages. His final resting place Aligarh will be lighted up with tonnes of festivity and entire AMU campus will be decorated like a bride. Thousands of Aligarians across the globe will be enjoying Sir Syed Day dinner and will be praising Baba-e-Quam Sir Syed for his great work and concern for the community.
I am part of the same crowd for many years. But few questions always bothers me and never got satisfactory answers;
1. Do we really care about Sir Syed and his mission ?
2. If we care, do we really know what was his mission ?
3. If we know what we are we doing to fulfill his mission ?
4. Are we really trying to fulfill his mission or promoting our self under the pretext of promoting Sir Syed Mission ?
We have hundreds of Old Boys/Alumni Associations across the globe. Tonnes of money is spend to commemorate Sir Syed and his legacy. But at the end do we ever feel that we moved one inch closer to know the answers of all or few of above questions? At least I do not.
Do not get me wrong. I am not opposing the celebrations. But I do not want this to be the main focus while commemorating Sir Syed and his legacy. Everyone has their own interpretation of Sir Syed and his mission.
Just give few seconds to get answers of the above questions and if you have or get do not forget to share with us.
Anyway let’s enjoy this festivity and remember the great son of soil who put his life to secure the future of his community.
“Badi Mushkil se hota hai chaman me deedahwar paida”
The author did his Masters in Engineering (Electronics) in 1997 from AMU and is currently a resident of Baltimore, Maryland, US.