Report: Thinkers' Club Session 37

Date: 5th June, 2015
Session # 37
Report written by: Fatima Salman


This session took place three weeks after the last one, since the sessions had been cancelled for some reason or the other. We were first asked to share any questions we had. One girl asked a question, which was about a Hadith (quote of the Holy Prophet P.B.U.H) she had read somewhere. It was that the Prophet had said, which means, that 'Throw dirt on the person's face who praises you in front of you.' She was confused, because praising a person seems like a good thing, so why is it so discouraged in Islam? We feel good when a person praises us.
This thing was discussed in the whole session.

What's wrong with praise

The hadith does not ask us to literally throw dirt on the person's face who praises us. It just means that we should not appreciate the praise, or do something good in order to be praised.  When we do something good, people praise us because of it. Most of the times, the person who praises us is a person who is likes us and is sincere to us. That's why he/she is praising us. However, it can also be otherwise. The person could perhaps want to make us do something for him or her, so they're praising us, or maybe flattering us to make us ready to do something for them.

When a person gets praised often, he/she starts doing good things because they want to be praised for it. In fact, the reason for doing the work is to get praised. This is a very wrong reason. The good things we do should be solely to please Allah. But when we start doing good things to be praised, we start doing them for other people's pleasure, not God's pleasure. We become People Conscious instead of God Conscious.

People Consciousness and God Consciousness are complete opposites. Being people conscious means that you're doing what you're doing according to what people expect and want you to do. You are constantly thinking about what others are thinking of you. An example of this was shared, which was, you have to go somewhere for three consecutive Sundays. You wear a dress on the first Sunday, which is appreciated by everybody. After you come home, you wash the dress and put it back in your cupboard. Then, on the next Sunday, will you wear the same dress again? Of course not! I mean, that's the way, most of the people think. Even if you wear the same dress on the next Sunday, it's not like people will think that you own only one dress and you wear it all the time. But if you've become very people conscious, that's exactly what you will do. Then we were asked if we will wear that dress on the third Sunday. Everyone still said 'no'. But why? It's a good and clean dress, why don't we wear it again? That's because we are seeking other people's pleasure and our acts are based upon them.

This session was supposed to end at 11:30 am, and after that there would be a session for adults (parents and teachers). This plan was changed, and at 11 am, the adults were allowed to come in the session. They joined in the ongoing discussion. Since the kids were old enough, they were allowed to sit in the session for adults as well.

Praise vs Encouragement

Then someone asked that aren't we supposed to encourage and acknowledge children on their work, at school, for example. The answer was that we are supposed to encourage them, instead of praising them. There is a difference between Praise and Encouragement, which every parent and teacher should know. Praise is general, while encouragement is more specific.

This discussion ended well, with the question asked in the beginning being answered perfectly. Then, at 11:30 am, when many more people had joined, the next session began. It was about Advertisments. 

Advertisements

In the beginning, two questions were shared, which were:

1. What do advertisements do to make you want what you do not need?
2. How do advertisements change the perception of reality?

We have to think on these questions and anyone can write their views about them, which will be posted on the blog.

Advertisements these days are very catchy and attractive. Since they are designed only for selling their products, they place their product in a situation where it is badly needed. Some of the advertisements also stir up our emotions, and the really touchy ones can make a person cry. 

We saw two advertisements in the session. Before seeing the adds, we were asked to recite this dua: "Allahumma arinal Haqqa haqqaun, war zuqnatiba'a. Wa arinal batila batillaun, war zuqnajtinaba" which means: "O Allah! Enable us to see the Truth as Truth and give us the ability to follow it. And show us the falsehood as false and give us the ability to restrain from it." We recited this dua to seek protection from the wrong in it, and so that we wouldn't be carried away by the glamour (if any) in it. The first add was of Shan (a Pakistani company which makes spices used for our traditional food). This add comes on TV, and is extremely touchy, enough to fill any person's eyes with tears.

Shan

In it, there are two brothers who are living abroad. One of them is sitting in the balcony of his apartment looking very sad and teary. His older brother comes and asks what's wrong. He says, that it would be Chand raat (the night before Eid) at home. Everyone would be decorating the house... Ammi (mother) would be cooking delicious food.' And suddenly he bursts out, 'What kind of Eid is this?!' The other brother had no reply to this and then suddenly he gets an idea and hurries out of the house. Then he gets on a bus and goes to the supermarket. While he is going, a song was playing which was Mola sub ki sunta hai, par kisi kisi ko chunta hai, (meaning, God listens to everybody, but chooses only certain people). When he comes to the superstore, he picks up boxes of Shan spices, and onions and other vegetables. Then he gets on a bus back home, where he offers his seat to an elderly passenger. After he gets home, he starts cooking. He talks to his mother on the phone, asking for the recipe while he does what she's saying. Then the scene changes, and I think it's the next morning (which is Eid), when the younger brother enters the room, sobbing. Suddenly, he hears his mother's voice, calling him. He looks around and spots her face on the screen of a laptop, connected on Skype. All around the laptop, were those foods which his brother had made, displayed beautifully. His mother calls him, greets him Eid Mubaruk, and he continues sobbing. Then his older brother comes and from a dish of biryani, picks up a spoonful and gives it to his brother, saying, 'Eat it. Ammi has made it'. And that's the end of the add.

I don't think I could've explained it the way it was presented  in the add, with the music and all. However, that's basically what it was like. It was paused several times to emphasize certain points and notice the small but important details. The first thing discussed after the add was, why are the brothers abroad? To earn, obviously. Why didn't they stay in their homeland and get a job there? Why aren't they at home on Eid? Why does the add show the brothers living abroad? What is the reason for showing the brothers are abroad?

Then, the guy who's crying is crying because he isn't at home to enjoy his mom's delicious food on Eid. He is missing his mom because of the food she cooks, so is he even missing her, or her cooking skills? And, would he even miss his mother if she didn't cook good food? Or is good food the primary cause for their good relationship? Now, from the people watching the add, there must be mothers who aren't really good cooks. What would they be thinking? I think they'd be doubtful of their ability to be a good parent since they can't cook really good food. Think about it. Does being a good mother means being a good cook as well? I don't think so.

Pepsi

The next advertisement we saw was Pepsi's add, which was released specially for Ramazan. In it, a song plays which is something like Noor-e-Khuda, Noor-e-Azal. Noor means light, and Noor-e-khuda means God's light, or something which God really likes. Now they're saying Noor-e-khuda, and what exactly is Noor-e-khuda? Pepsi! How ridiculous! They're associating God's favourite thing with Pepsi. 

There was one thing I noticed in the add, that they were showing empty Pepsi bottles more than bottles filled with the black liquid. Boys playing cricket have made a wicket using stacked up empty Pepsi bottles. A little boy hands his mother an empty Pepsi bottle to which she returns him a huge smile and pats his head affectionately (even though in real life, you will never find a person looking more happy to get an empty bottle of Pepsi). Girls are carrying empty Pepsi bottles tied together through a rope and are carrying the rope on their shoulders. Why was that? The answer is that Noor means light, and light cannot be black, while Pepsi is black. (Oops! Now what will they do?) Those clever people have, therefore, shown mostly empty bottles, some of which carry a small light inside them, and casually slipped in the actual Pepsi in only a couple of places. Clever, isn't it?

We were explained how they have captured the whole of Pakistan in just one small advertisement: Young boys playing cricket: captured the youth of our country. (Even though the cricket part was very small, only about three or four seconds long. Just long enough for the ball to hit the wicket (which was made from empty Pepsi bottles) and the bottles to come tumbling down). They've captured the old women of our country by showing an old woman carrying a lamp. They've captured young girls by showing girls happily drinking Pepsi. And so on. You'd learn a lot if you watch that advertisement to understand their tactics.

This session was really interesting and enjoyable, and we learnt a lot of things about advertisements. In fact, if we analyze each advertisement we watch like what we did in this session, we wouldn't be captured by them at all. Overall, this session was very interesting. It was fun to know facts about the advertisements we hadn't paid much attention to before. I would suggest anyone who was not able to join this session, to come in the next one to attend an amazing session.

Thank you.