Mohd. Siddiqur Rahman :
It is a great pleasure addressing my loving student community, the future of the country, with a write up, in order to motivating them into exercising the habit of reading in library in their whole life. Knowledge is light , knowledge is power, it is only the perfect knowledge that could bring evolvement and emancipation to the human’s souls . Allah (SWT) Himself admonished us same in the holy Qur’an. In 610 AD while Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was meditating in the cave of Hira, outside city of Mecca, Angel Gabriel visited Muhammad(PBUH) commanding him “To Read !(or proclaim)in the name of your Lord and Cherisher who created you ” This was the first verse revealed to Muhammad (PBUH) from God ( Glorified is He )the most gracious, most merciful. It has also been said in Qur’an that the knowing person and the ignorant person can never be equal.
Humans do feel two types of appetite: physical and mental. Physical appetite could easily be met while the mental appetite to meet needs hard labor , patience and perseverance. The realm of knowledge is infinite and the library is the most suitable resort to satisfying the thirst for knowledge. During medieval age it is the Muslim built up several libraries, phenomenal and unique, for spreading light of knowledge all over the world ,to the surprise of all other nations and races . Europe, in particular, was looking at the pivotal places of the Muslim’s civilizations such as Cordova, Granada, Baghdad and Egypt . They traversed all the centers exploring kingdoms of knowledge for years together. Medieval history is the history of The Muslim Prosperity and Greatness, Cordova’s history represents the Muslim’s excellence in culture and training . In 819 A.D. Caliph Al Mamun established a vast library named Baitul Hikmah . Besides, the library established in Cordova, preserved 6 (six) lac books at that time which required 44 (forty four) huge volumes to maintain the list of books in there. As per world history, the then state of Cordova turned into a city of books but Later on , unexpectedly luxurious, lustful and leisurely life style of both the kings and the subjects paved the ways of destruction to the Muslim world.
To day , there is no other alternative but to establish library to develop and enlighten the members of the family. And that will definitely be leaving a very good impact on the member’s ways of life. We are usually spending a lot of money on various materials to get our house decorated while there seems to be very few of us interested in having the house equipped with good b ooks that are essential to mental development of our children . Standard books and books of good values could be the best friends of the children during the leisure time . If books are made easily available at home ,surely they will be reading them as and when they feel like having more natural inquisitiveness for knowledge than the adult ones .
Regrettably, practice of studies has been falling off greatly in our society resulting in involvement of our children in the crime-world. Had there been growth of small libraries in every family, then we could have saved them from going to such a stray . The number of drug addicts is becoming increasingly large because the youth are deprived of the light of proper education. They are wandering aimlessly not knowing the means how to satisfy mental appetite and find out happiness for them . What is observed today in the society : clanking of weapons, snatching of wealth, grabbing of other’s property and hoaxing each other and all these influence in developing their mental faculties. We need to bring about revolution in the society by setting up libraries in each and every family and promote them providing good number of books in the libraries specifically on moral education .
Books are the most faithful friends and it is learning that help us save from being perverted in life . Reading is considered to be the best pastime providing food to satisfy our mental appetite. It is getting our jealous and hatred dispelled from the mind and encouraging us to establish a peaceful family, society and a country at large. Books are as good as light without which we are unable to move forth and build us as a man in truest sense of the term . Unfortunately, our Book-Case or Show-Case Is presumed to be seen almost empty of books or filled up with household chores in place of books.
A nation, bereft of education , can never achieve development and civility and enjoy the fruits of it’s freedom .The rate of literacy has been increasing encouragingly in Bangladesh ,standard of living is not disappointing ,and the country is marching forward despite various turmoil. Hundreds and thousands of schools, colleges and universities are witness to spreading of education across the country and this is because the concerned administration focused on the sector on priority basis.
In this age of satellite TV with multiple channels, reigning supreme in media organs, while one can become easily pleased with watching the quick and charming entertainment, for obvious reason ,he or she does not have the patience to go through the books after having it collected from the market . So the libraries that are knowledge searching are not increasing at the rate it should have been .
It is the Muslim scholar and ruler, Saeb bin Abbas who firstly introduced the circulating library in Arab World in 4th century . In USA in 1912 , there were hose-cart libraries used to move in the localities of different regions. France followed the suit in the year 1920. In the present world, operating mobile libraries in transportable motor vehicle has turned out as common usage in many countries. With regards and gratitude , here I remember the name of the illustrious person , Prof. Abdullah Abu Sayeed of Bissha Sahitta Kendra who has introduced mobile library in Bangladesh to enlighten the generations.
At present , The Solaimania Library in Turkey is at the best position in terms of its tradition, vastness and variety of collections .Then The Darul Kutub in Egypt has played the extensive role in cultivating knowledge and science, and old traditions of the Muslim. The famous library in Iraq which was founded by Abdullah Marashi Najafi claims to be 3rd biggest one in Islamic World . This library is holding rare collections of Islamic cultures of 5th and 6th century .
The old hand written scripture, “the Holy Qur’an is also preserved here . This is the best Archive of collections having more than one lac of old manuscripts .The scriptures preserved here : Alkanun on geography, Tahrir Eklidesh on medical science , Najhatul Mustak on medical science and other famous books written by the scientist Mr . Ibne Rushd, Mr. Khawaja Nasiruddin Tushi and Mr Sharif Idrish respectively . The holy city of Medina has founded a big library named ” Maktab Al Abdul Aziz ” in order to collect books and facilitate knowledge cultivation . It also looks like a museum of golden age of Islamic Civilization and great learning . World’s rare Islamic publications, numerous hadiths and scriptures , and 1878 (one thousand eight hundred and seventy eight ) manuscripts of holy book , The Qur’an including it’s 84 (eighty four) hand written integral portions , have been made available in here .This library is widely known for it’s volumes of f knowledge, manuscripts, research papers and most modern facilities.
Study teaches us how to expand our outlook and learn the techniques of acquiring different good qualities. An honest man becomes more honest, a responsible man becomes more responsible, and a conscience man becomes more conscious bringing tremendous benefits to the society and the country as a whole .Habit of reading and its expansion calls for strong will power and academic friendly atmosphere. The library scientists unanimously opined that the goal of creating and expanding reading habit could be achieved through establishing more and more libraries across the country .
Human history-both written and unwritten has been dormant in the small shelves of the libraries acting as medium of link between the dead and the alive . It is the place that could likely bring about a total change in one’s life.
The great scholars and intellectuals of the world had been in touch with libraries some way or other, from their very childhood .Therefore, a library of even simple standard, in a city or village , might be the source of all types of knowledge such as literature, arts and culture, history, politics, science, moral education, medical science and technologies .
Lastly , with due respect and regards, I would like to urge all service oriented clubs and societies including concerned administration to focus on the sector to bring about a knowledge revolution through establishing libraries all over the country.
(Mohd Siddiqur Rahman, Ex Country Manager of Biman, Bangladesh Airlines, Frankfurt, Germany is now based in New York. siddiqur.rahman45 @yahoo.com. )
