The Devotion of Life — Page 162
162 prospers in its own soil. As small plants cannot progress under the shade of big trees, similarly new proposals cannot advance in association with an old establishment. That is why it was important that Jami’a should be separated and should be given the opportunity to advance within its own environment. Today, that concept is being realised and we hope that with the Grace of Allah the Almighty, this small foundation will, one day, be counted among the world’s most prominent Colleges. ” Further, drawing the attention of the students towards their responsibilities, he instructed them: “They should realise their responsibilities. They have a magnificent task ahead and a grand future awaits them. They are the first building-blocks of the edifice and much depends on the first building- blocks and on how they are laid. A poet has so well expressed this phenomenon; If the builder lays the first blocks askew, then the whole wall will remain crooked right up to the Pleiades. The higher the wall climbs, the more crooked the wall will become. Although the college entrants are only students and within the organisation their position is that of subordinates, with regards to the results and the success or failure of this Jami’a, they have a vital contribution to make. Therefore, they should lay down such a foundation with their enthusiasm, with their conduct, and with their sacrifices, that whatever is built on those foundations will have its wall straight and there will be no crookedness in it.