Bermuda, we must return to the value system of our past

FRIDAY, JAN. 13: Within the first week of the New Year we have already recorded a senseless cold taking of a young life. How very, very sad.

My condolences go out to the Burgess family on the tragic loss of their dearly beloved Stefan. 

As Bermudians we are pondering what went so drastically wrong that we have reaped the ugliness of what is happening too frequently in our community today.

Harvest

Of course there are a number of things that have reaped this monster situation.

For every cause there is an effect. Bermuda has indeed sown some unsavoury seeds and the harvest is now in.

My friend Louise at The Bargain Box asked: “How can we stop this behaviour?”. And indeed, the behaviour must be stopped. 

But where do we begin?  Some say it is too late for the current generation, as the seeds have grown, the harvest reaped. 

Well, if that is the case... We are in big trouble. We have to work together on the problem; I myself believe in prayer.

One thing that I know for certain is that prayer changes things. I can give you numerous examples of times throughout my life, where things looked very hopeless; and I prayed (I had a sincere conversation with God where I discussed stress, concerns and needs), and things happened.

Supanallah, I bear witness that prayer works!

However, for prayer to work one must have faith and be 100 per cent humble; you must have an unshakable belief that there is a God who is in control of your life and the universe.

You must be willing to submit yourself to God and His commands, recognizing and acknowledging His power. 

Arrogance must be tossed away. Faith and arrogance do not go together.

Bermuda we must pray about a change for us; there is a hadith where the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) passed by a people who were suffering from some affliction.

“Why don’t they make duaa (prayer) to Allah for relief and protection” he said. 

Prophet Muhammad knew too well the power of prayer.

The African proverb holds so profoundly true, that “the ruin of a nation begin in the homes of its people”.

What does this mean? The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people means if we are not loving, not disciplining, not guiding our children in the right ways to go, not implementing good values, these children will be the ones leading our nation in the future which will be corrupt and violent.

Hence in order to reap a better harvest, we must sow a better seed.

A value system instigated and nurtured by the family as a unit will undoubtedly integrate the children into society.

The family is the micro-nucleus of outer society. It all starts at home.

The value system that Arthur Wade and I talked about the other day, when he so fondly and lovingly spoke of his beloved Mother whom recently passed on, he spoke of the value system that she instilled in their family and how up to this day, he cannot go against those values.

In honour of his mother, Arthur is dedicated to passing this value system on.

We spoke of how naturally values were taught to us by our parents, grandparents and elders in the neighbourhood.

The values were taught and given to us so naturally, that we took them for granted and did not pass them on as stringently as we should have.

Our generation did not realize that it was our duty to teach and pass on the value system, the code of ethics that we thought was so natural.

Because we received the teachings of value we did not understand that it was our duty to continue to nurture and disseminate this value system to the children, whom one day would be the future of Bermuda.

Teaching

Now I know why, as the old adage says, “with all thy getting, get understanding”.

Bermuda, we must get back to the value system that shaped and formed our Bermuda of the past.

We the elders must begin today and never stop teaching and passing on, by any means necessary — by word, by example — the value system that sustained us so well.

We owe it to the Bermuda of the past and we owe it to the Bermuda of the future.

Allah in the noble Quran says, Qur’an 3:104:

And let there be (arising) from you a nation inviting to (all that is) good, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, and those will be the successful.