‘True Knowledge’ is a Must to ‘Reform Society and Civilization’

The eagerness to attain true knowledge is one of the prominent approaches humans use to reform a specific society, whether it is contemporary Bangladesh, the region, or the universe.

Mere political, social, cultural, or economic transformations are not enough to transform any specific society; rather combined efforts of the knowledge-based workforce are an integral part of reforming the existing social trends by removing evil norms, practices, and above all the traditional approaches of the mass people and its governance regime of a country.

This is not my deliberate intention to focus on the philosophical debate, the contradiction of idealistic and materialistic theories, or the doctrines of intuition and experience in driving knowledge, as such philosophical doctrines had been identified as the partial processes for attaining the understanding of human beings.

According to ‘The Oxford Handbook of Epistemology’, four standard basic sources of knowledge include perception, memory, consciousness, and reason.

From the perspective of contemporary Bangladesh, now a question may raise on the traditional efforts of all governments in 54 years of Independent Bangladesh in making knowledge-base workforce to transform Bangladesh into a higher-income status country.

As we are representing the contemporary civilization of Bangladesh, everybody should focus on the necessity or the time-befitting approach for making an educated and enriched people emerge a new Bangladesh that will be free from all sorts of corruption and degeneration as part of ensuring a secure future for the upcoming generation and competing for the international arena in all aspects of life.

In Bangladesh, almost 90% of people are firmly believers in Islam, and usually, Muslims lead their livelihood under the morals, values, principles, and above all, the guidelines of Islam. The tradition and cultural heritage of Islam are calculating the driving forces of the mass people in maintaining and dealing with their daily correspondences and commitments.

According to ‘The Hadith literature’ (Sayings of the Prophet), “Seeking knowledge is obligatory for every Muslim (men or women)”, indicating the universal necessity of acquiring true knowledge.

The necessity of making in making a knowledge-based society is also vividly disclosed through the ever-best speech of Biday Hajj or Farewell of Pilgrims by the greatest and last Prophet Hazrat Muhammad, “Seek knowledge though it may be as far as China”

Suppose we justify the declaration of Prophet Hazrat on attaining knowledge to establish peace and prosperity in society. In that case, it is a must for a Muslim to acquire true knowledge. The followers of Sufism identified the Prophet as the greatest philosopher in world history because of his wisdom, largely driven by a physical and spiritual journey of The Cave of Hira’, representing the effort and dedication required to attain spiritual enlightenment and closeness to Allah.

The Prophet’s visits to the Cave of Hira were motivated by his desire to contemplate the spiritual state of his society and to seek answers to the problems of idolatry, injustice, and moral decay. We are not prophets or scholars for reforming the society, country, or universe, but we all have an eagerness and dedication for the spiritual journey of life to perceive the ultimate beauty and truth of the creation.

Actually, the journey of true knowledge or spirituality is full of suffering and unbearable pain in the state of mind. Despite bearing the numbness pain, true scholars and man have always continued their perpetual struggle to carry a knowledge-based life journey for enriching themselves and establishing a humanitarian and prosperous society.

The incident of corruption and violation of nature had commenced with the creation of the civilization. Still, the protagonists of the specific society put their passionate and impact-oriented contribution to reform society or country from the adversity of the prevailing corruption, irregularities, mall practice, cruelty, hatred, intellectual hatred, greed, pride, jealousy, lust, and above all the contemporary evil corresponding of the contemporary society and the governance regime.

Suffering paves the way for gaining wisdom or the essence of true knowledge, which is closely related to the poetic line of Agamemnon written by the earliest poet of Greece Aeschylus, “Man must suffer to be wise”.

The degeneration and moral decay of society is not a new thing, it existed from the beginning of the creation that was artistically portrayed in the beginning stanza of John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’ –

“OF Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste

Brought Death into the World”

So, the existence of corruption and degeneration prevailed in every society after reforming the negativity and evil practices of all the present civilized society, which was artistically portrayed in the masterpiece of the Nobel winner poet, T. S. Eliot titled ‘The Waste Land’ in which the most influential poet in modern English literature narrated the London city with an wasteland. The starting lines of ‘’The Burial of the Dead’ are given below to guess the degeneration of Western countries like London during the period of the Industrial Revolution that took place in Britain, continental Europe, North America, and Japan during the long period of the eighteen, nineteen and early decades of the Twenty centuries –

“Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain”

Due to the adversity of the industrial revaluation, most people have lost their moral values and the ancient or traditional concept of humanism in fostering the brotherhood culture of the particular society. The human civilization adopted a self-oriented or Machiavellian approach to gaining their vested interest. The situation may be juxtaposed with the regime of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government when corruption and financial irregularities became the ultimate approach to running their governance regime. The so-called malpractice experts or the vested quarters turned into the authorizers in looting public money rampantly and the worst thing was that the sub-standard people in entire sectors, including the social, political, economic, and arena and such classes of people occupied the highest positions in Bangladesh. As a result, the good, educated, and honest people in society went into vulnerability to tackle the unethical propaganda of the Awami League-backed vested interests. The situation was nicely portrayed in the masterpiece poetry ‘The Second Coming’ by the great and artistic modern poet W. B. Yeats who proved the corruption of the Western societies during the period of industrial revaluation ——

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre  

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world”

Narrating on the evil forces of the governance regime, Yeats lamented in a way —

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere  

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst  

Are full of passionate intensity”.

So, corruption or evil forces prevailed at all times and persisted in the post-modern world. Still, due to the perpetual struggle and contribution of the virtuous class, a prudent and effective state policy is necessary to make more enriched people in society by ensuring the international standard education policy to make enriched people reform the true reform in Bangladesh. So, as an individual identity, every man ought to attain the spirit of true knowledge for the development and purification of the soul as well as to emerge a new Bangladesh under the regime of an interim government led by the Nobel laureate Prof Dr Muhammad Yunus.

Finally, acquiring knowledge and developing thoughts are crucial to enriching man’s understanding of himself or his soul. The authorities should implement effective policies to build a knowledge base in Bangladesh for its real transmission or reformation. The necessity of knowledge is a universal appeal that is nicely quoted with the philosophy of the ever greatest philosopher Socratic ‘Know yourself’ or the reference of our spiritual philosopher Lalon “tmatatta je jeneche, dibbo gani sei hoyeche” which means that “He Who Has Known His Soul, He Has Become Divine”.