Africa Speaks — Page 20
culturally rich past. But I foresee for you-as indeed many people do now-an even richer future. A strange wind blows today, promising change and hope, inducing a new awareness, new enterprises, and, if I may add, pointing to new evidences of divine involvement in your destiny. How much, therefore, should all this mean to me and to you, and how very welcome should this occasion be--of a meeting with you-to me: Your richer future which I can foresee is in the hands of youth, and as I have worked with young people through the greater part of my life, you need not be surprised-as indeed I am not surprised-at my own special urge to say something that will move young hearts. And what could I wish to say but what is uppermost in my own mind and heart? It is to explain to you, if I may, how important it is to pursue knowledge and what is the Islamic way of pursuing it. I Everybody today is talking of science and technology and I am not indifferent to this. How can I be when I know that Allah-Almighty Allah-has created the heavens and the earth for subjugation by man and how can they be subjugated except by knowledge patiently gathered and wisely applied to the betterment of human life and the fulfilment of purposes prescribed by Allah? So I must, first of all, wish you well in the pursuit of your studies. It may be natural science that you study. It may be social science. It may be history or literature. It may be some branch of applied or professional SCience, or it may be, as I hope, theological science. The pursuit of know ledge is the special prerogative and privilege of the youth of the world. But what I wish to tell you is that Truth is knowledge and that there is an Islamic way of pursuing it. I would suggest that you experiment with it to make sure if this is not the best way of the pursuit of knowledge. The Islamic way is the way of prayer. I will tell you presently what exactly I mean by prayer and why I commend this to you while you are engaged in your enterprise of study and research. My view is that all the crucial accessions to knowledge have come through prayer. Great discoverers and inventors and great men of science tell us this. But you will point to scientists who are indifferent to 19