Factors Affecting the Emergence and Development of the Culture of Sacrifice and Martyrdom

To achieve valuable culture of sacrifice and martyrdom and to develop it among all classes of society needs corporation of all involved institutions and applying all cultural means usefully in society. Family as the basic institution, in which man character and culture form, has a key role in the area. The mass media such as television and newspapers in company with family, school, and university can help to develop culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in society. All educational centers, from kindergarten to university, are among the third institutions that can internalize culture created by families among students and make them ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of justice through providing proper educational means and giving a dynamic atmosphere to the educational centers.

News ID: ۲۱۸۶۲۵

دوشنبه - ۱۰ آبان ۲۰۰۹ / 2009 10 August

Abstract
To achieve valuable culture of sacrifice and martyrdom and to develop it among all classes of society needs corporation of all involved institutions and applying all cultural means usefully in society. Family as the basic institution, in which man character and culture form, has a key role in the area. The mass media such as television and newspapers in company with family, school, and university can help to develop culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in society.
All educational centers, from kindergarten to university, are among the third institutions that can internalize culture created by families among students and make them ready to sacrifice their lives for the sake of justice through providing proper educational means and giving a dynamic atmosphere to the educational centers.

Introduction
To form a definite culture, naturally, people initially are familiarized with components which form culture; then they find an interest in that culture through knowing advantages which are embedded in that culture. After that, they will try to achieve what is known to them.
Thus, a given culture will dominate society and will be attractive to people. Accordingly, if any society intends to enjoy constructive works and achievements of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom, it will need to try consciously and deliberately to create and to spread out the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom, as well as to manage all effective factors to achieve its valuable goals.
For that reason, the author intends to introduce, through documentary methods and analyzing theories in cultural domain, the authoritative institutes in the field and their formative functions and give an account of their importance and role. Family, media, and educational centers are among highly effective institutions that can initiate and spread out culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in society. In the paper, status and function of the above mentioned institutions will be discussed separately and likely strategies will be presented.
1. Family and its role on the emergence and development of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom. Family is considered as the first institution of forming human character by psychologists and education experts, so at the beginning of the paper, it will be discussed about how families can affect on fostering the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom among children.
1-1. The formation of sperm and beginning of parent responsibility. Enculturation and purposeful training of children begins immediately after their birth, in particular, after reaching maturity, but in fact, parent responsibility begins before that phase even before the formation of sperm.
“Certainly, part of parent responsibilities will fulfill before their children birth if they have appropriate mental condition during the formation of sperm.
Imam Reza (PBUH) has been quoted as follow; “take your bride hair in your hand face to kebleh and say; O’ God, I received my gift and now she is my legitimate wife so give us an obedient child and protect our child against Satan.”?
1-2. Providing a base for sacrifice culture during embryonic stage. Nowadays, it’s known to everybody that physical and mental evolution, and moral traits of the child form during embryonic stage. Research results of British and American scientists suggest that children whose mother were smoking during pregnancy have more behavioral problems than other children, and such problems appear since early eighteen month till twenty forth month. According to results of such researches, it can be found out that great care during embryonic stage is among the other duties of families to nurture a generation ready to sacrifice for the sake of justice. For the reason, one of the Muslim thinkers based on tradition has said;
“If mother says her prayer, reads Quran, and attends in religious ceremonies, it will has an influencing effect on child’s mental condition.”?
1.3 Enculturation of family during infanthood
Infancy, by a cursory examination, may be considered as a simply physical growth period but religious references and modern scientific theories show a different thing. Psychology has proved that physical and mental growth occurs simultaneously (Rital). Babies began to know about environment and people around them and recognize their mothers from the other, so they depend on their mother very much. As a result, it’s necessary for parents to take into account the following points;
1-3-1. Healthy and Halal nutrition
Of the factors that has a great effect on physical and mental growth of a child and has been focused on in Islamic ceremonies is how to feed the child. For example, the great prophet of Islam has said; “father is required to teach his child reading and writing, swimming, and shooting (Rayshahri).
1-3-2. Observing Islam ethic and behavioral codes
Besides unilateral effect of family on child’s behavior, child receives a type of visual and audio learning from people around itself. One of the theorist who has done a study concerning ethical problems of children has said; “family, according to what psychologists agreed upon, is substructure of child’s behavior and children learn life patterns through seeing and listening that has a key and everlasting effect (Qaemi)
So domination of religious atmosphere on society, glorifying martyrdom, and honoring martyrs by family members provide a ground for children to accept the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom.
Alameh tabatabaei has said concerning the issue; parents should try to institutionalize good morals in children since the early years of their growth and as far as they can they should try to prevent them from bad manners, and parents themselves avoid laying and backbiting. They should do good things before children to growth chastely (Rayshahri).
1-3-3. Internalizing love of Ahlal-bait among children
It’s obvious that children feel tender affection for Ahlal-bait (PBUT) if they take part in religious ceremonies and mourning ceremony of the martyrs’ leader in which Ashora events express.
“Teach your children three characteristics of loving for the prophet and his family, and reading Quran (Tabatabaei).”?
1-3-4. Providing a silent and emotional environment for children growth
It’s clear that providing a silent and emotional environment for children and being kind to them will provide a suitable ground for children to accept parental discipline. Thus, since the child depends upon parent, s/he will accept easily her/his family moral and spiritual teachings (Qaemi). Imam Ali (PBUT) has said concerning a friendly relationship; “do kindness to everybody whom you want to be his/her ruler.”?
1-4. Family Enculturation during adulthood
Given mental and physical changes, maturity is one of the most critical stages of life. In current century, which may be known as boundary between emotion and reason, our children have emotional needs from one hand and tend to seek reasoning from the other hand.
Thus it’s necessary to use reason as well as religious messages more and more to make them accept the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom. For example, from viewpoint of Islam prophet, families should aware their children that God like His zealous servants. Imam Ali (PBUT) has also said that seeds of bravery should be disseminated among people otherwise injustice will be prevailed
1-5. family role on creating and continuity of youths’ sacrifice
Youth period has it’s own characteristics and persons seek independence and reality after passing this period, so if families intend to have children who have religious beliefs and ready to sacrifice and martyr its necessary to consider the following points;
1-5-1. Be considerate toward religious issues. The young usually try to find reality, and they abhor religious hypocrisy so families themselves should practice religious codes in their life and should avoid hypocrisy if they intend to have honest and self-sacrificing children (Nahjo-a-lbalaqeh).
1-5-2. Utilizing reasoning to prove rightness of religion. Adulthood, as it pointed out, is a period that man revises his/her traditional beliefs so the young will hate religion if parents do not answer their religious questions properly.
1-5-3. Extolling martyr and martyrdom and to remind martyrs’ great goals; it’s obvious that martyrdom for the sake of God by itself is not a goal but the main goal is to protect religion and justice that every believer should sacrifice his/her life to achieve that goal. For the reason, parents should not consider it as the main goal, but they should try to prove them that becoming martyr for the sake of justice and human dignity is also mean salvation.
Imam Sajjad (PBUH), when praying for Islam guards, requests God, firstly, victory of Islam army then defeat of Islam enemies and wishes Him to martyr them after wiping out their enemies (Mohadesi).
1-5-4. Internalizing zealousness, bravery, and dignity among the young; man, as it already pointed out, will sacrifice his/her life only if s/he has virtuous behavior and does not fear to fight for the sake of God.
Thus, it’s always necessary for us to promote bravery, dignity, and zealousness among the young and avoid them from being weak and abject by reminding humanistic values to them.
1-5-5. Avoiding disenchant the young; certainly, if family members or educational and cultural administrators continuously make the young pass the scene, disappointment will disseminate in society and passion for jihad will fade out among the young. Given the issue and analyzing social condition of the country and the world, the supreme leader says; “today, both in battlefield and to fight against Islam enemies, if necessary, millions of young and sincere believers are on the scene”? (Qoravian).
2. The mass media and the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom; undoubtedly, state broadcasting, newspapers, journals, and internet websites will has a considerable affect on their many addresses so they will form attitudes and character of the people to a great extent. Therefore, to utilize a carefully devised plan and to apply all scientific potentials and hardware and software pocibilities of the media to promote and develop the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom may help to internalize such a culture among a large scale of families. It seems that mass media will do their duty to a great extent if they fulfill the following points;
2-1. Explaining religious ideals as being heavenly; its obvious that as far as a nation ideals be great and valuable, more sacrifices will be devoted to it. A profound look at Islam religious teachings, reviewing Quran verses, and paying attention to Innocent Imams (PBUH) will guide us to find the truth of the issue.
Quran, as a heavenly book and the book of life rules, has always considered fighting and jihad for the sake of God as a great achievement whose aim is to set free humans and to save them from the Evil. It also considers martyrdom for the sake of justice as very life and enjoying God grace (Hojjati). The great Prophet of Islam consider martyrdom for God Sake as the most great salvation (Qoravian), and Imam Ali (PBUH) consider jihad as a way to achieve salvation that God has created it for His special servants (Nahjoalbalaqe).
Given sacred goals and trying to achieve them, the martyr ayatollah Mottahari has said; “to make an ideology glorified over school goals will make people sacrifice their life easily for the sake of its causes. As far as a school is incapable of glorifying its goals and creating a sense of worship and sacrifice among people toward its goals, it lacks of guaranty (Makarem Shirazi).
2-2. stimulating sense of responsibility and religious commitment among people; of the other roles of the mass media is to evoke sense of commitment toward religion, country, and high Islam humanistic values among different groups of people in society. Quran verses and tradition have such theme as “Prevention of vice and the Promotion of Virtue”? and responsibility of all Muslim before Islamic society even before humankind. State broadcasting is among organizations that can evoke sense of responsibility among people. Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting and other media are able to create a ground for sacrifice among people via clarifying sense of commitment properly.
Imam Khomeini was saying concerning the issue during imposed war; “all of us whether Guards Corps or other army and civilian forces should take care of Islam. We, men or women, are obligated to do our best to protect Islam, our nation, and our Islamic country.”?
2-3. explaining documentary and logical relationship between faith and sacrifice; to explain relation between faith and sacrifice reasonably is among procedures state broadcasting can do and through it the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom will develop more and more in society. Every Muslim knows that Islamic Jihad is meaningless without the phrase “for the sake of God”?, and crusader beliefs should be promoted to make war sacred.
The mass media, in particular, state broadcasting, which has the most addresses, can achieve that goal in tow ways; firstly, they should use their potentials to clarify logical relationship between sacrifice and faith as well as use statements of such great thinkers as the late Imam Khomeini and the supreme leader, and university professors. Secondly, they should explain the importance of faith in battlefields via demonstration of documentaries of holy defense period and restoring honorable events of the past.
2-4. presenting a logical and realist image of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom; honorable history of Islam religion and Shiism is full of examples of sacrifice for the sake of God and humanistic objectives, so introducing them into society will have a considerable affect on promoting the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in Islamic society. State broadcasting and the other media must take into account the following points if they intend to use latent religious talents to create and circulate the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in society.
2-4-1. avoiding distorting facts of Ashora and martyrdom; embellishing martyrdom and sacrifice culture with superstitions not only make it less important in society but also create a context in which the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom will be dishonored. For the reason, the supreme leader says;
“The first thing should be done for propagation of Ashora event properly is to cleanse it from distortions. We must purify the event then decorate it with such different arts as poetry and prose.”?
2-4-2. avoiding distorting Imam Hossein rising goal; distortion is not limited simply to literal one in which facts of an event are distorted, there is another type of distortion in which facts may be said about the event but the event’s causes and objectives will be presented falsely.
2-4-3. combining emotions and reason together to propagate martyrdom; to mix emotions and reason together to present Ashora culture properly are among the other procedures state broadcasting should be consider concerning martyr and martyrdom. If tragic aspect of Karbala be considered simply, as the martyrs Mottahari has said, a culture will form that is simply limited to emotions, so Imam Hossein goals will be neglected.
2-4-4. staying away from making a mountain out of a molehill about paradigms of sacrifice and martyrdom; of the strategies that can generate the culture of martyrdom in society is to introduce those paradigms to people in such a way that make them believe in the following principles, otherwise, as the martyr Mottahari has said, people may consider Imam Hossein epic a heavenly matter that can not be duplicated.
Those persons who accompanied Imam Hossein (PBUH) were among the masses who sacrificed themselves to follow their Imam way.
2-4-5. using interviews and testaments of the martyrs properly; as it was mentioned; one of the media roles to promote the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom is to inspire a sense among people that they can follow the martyrs’ way. So to show timely interviews of the honorable martyrs of Islamic Revolution and of holy defense, war frees and disabled can have a considerable effect on generating the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in society.
3. Centers for teaching the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom.
These days, experiences and educational and scientific knowledge of people is no longer restricted to their families and closest friends but different educational centers from kindergarten to the university are also engaged and play a key role in this respect. For the reason, if a society intends to promote the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom among people, it should organize its educational system in such a way that spent costs help to train the young who know their country culture and history and fight to death to protect it. To achieve that goal requires the following points take into account in every educational level;
3-1. enculturation during pre high school; elementary and guidance school as the second and third institutions, respectively, of forming personality are similar to much extent with respect to emotional condition of students, so, today, the following points are suggested to promote the culture of sacrifice for the sake of sacred ideals;
3-1-1. to be sincere and to do things for the sake of God by trainers; undoubtedly, if trainers do things only for the sake of God, their efforts will be valued. The great Prophet of Islam (PBUH) has said; “every action’s value depends on its doer will.”? Doing things for the sake of God has a great effect on addresses’ moral and character.
3-1-2. harmony of speech and deed; it should not be expected students follow blindly their teachers’ teachings without being affected by their character. In fact, teacher character and behavior has a key role on students’ interactions with other persons in society.
3-1-3. admiring the learners; teacher should be attractive to the learners if he tend to have a true affect on their character. So if teacher does not esteem the learners and offend them they will dislike him.
3-1-4. scientific character of the teacher and his/her role on enculturation; unfortunately, many of educational teachers engaging in culture area either are weak scientifically or deal with unrelated jobs. It’s obvious that teacher, in such a condition, will not be a good trainer to teach sacrifice and martyrdom. “To behave correctly but to be weak scientifically will not make learners accept the teacher.”?
3-1-5. to observe justice and to avoid imposing one own opinions on learners; students abhor injustice and cruel behavior, so propagators of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom should be aware that to generate it for the sake of justice is in contrast with injustice and imposing one own idea on the others.
Teacher should not treat students unfairly as well as discriminate among them. If students feel that teacher discriminate against them, they will not trust him.
Under pressure of accepting a new idea, student may stand against or accept it in spite of his will.
Another point that should be took into account is that textbooks, school atmosphere and behavior of school administrators have an outstanding effect on the emergence and development of the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in society, and all of the above factors must be in harmony with each other to achieve that goal.
3-2. promoting the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in high schools and pre-universities; the more man grows older, more emotional expectations decrease, so its obvious that to foster the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom during high school and pre-university the following points should be took into account by educational administrators;
3-2-1. dominance of reason over involved administrators; high school and pre-university, as it already pointed out, are the period in which one comes to age and emotions replaced by reason; thus. It’s necessary for trainers, who intend to generate culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in schools, to try to not impose their opinions on students, and treat them reasonably.
Those beliefs based on reason should be distinguished from those ones based on emotions. We must have justified reasons for our beliefs. In other words, one’s belief should be based on knowledge. For the reason, the late Imam Khomeini concerning martyrdom has said; “a nation who give martyr, it will not submit to oppression”?, or the supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei says; “no nation can achieve salvation without sacrifice and jihad”?. The martyr ayatollah Mottahari also says; “martyrs are leaders of human and they show people the correct way by sacrificing themselves.”?
3-2-2. to teach to think instead of teaching ideas; it’s obvious that if the young generation accustom themselves to think about different things, not only they will distinguish right from wrong but also they will sacrifice themselves for the sake of it. So if a nation intends to dominate culture of sacrifice and martyrdom over society, its educational system, in particular, from high school period onwards, must try to teach thinking instead of teaching ideas.
3-2-3. creating true commitment towards religious beliefs; unfortunately, of the issues neglecting more or less among believers is intertwined relationship of faith and action. They come together in Quran verses, and Islamist leaders have continuously focused on practicing religious beliefs. Imam Sajjad (PBUH), for example, has said concerning religious leaders; “be aware that the most disfavored people to God are those who accept Imam Tradition but don’t practice it.”?
3-2-4. harmony of textbooks’ content and oral teachings of the teachers; it’s obvious that dichotomy of educational programs, particularly, in area of religious issues, will make learners to be confused. So it’s necessary that textbooks’ content and what teachers teach students to promote the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom must be complementary and inspire a common message.
3-2-5. creating a purposeful common sense; among the factors that can help to promote the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom throughout society is to create a common sense toward religion, country, and exalted religious values that should not be neglected by educational centers. As some experts concerning the issue have said; “of the most important factors make a group successful is to have a purposeful common sense, i.e, to have a united goal that must be achieved by group members.”?
Imam Khomeini has also said about common goal of Karbala martyrs; “the more Imam Hossein become close to martyrdom, the more he stimulated his young fellowmen to compete with each other for the honor of the martyrdom, since they were aware of their cause and of what they were fighting for.
It’s obvious that, in addition to the above points, we can provide deliberately a ground to develop the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom among high schools and pre-universities. Using quotations of the religious leaders and honorable martyrs about martyrdom and sacrifice, showing suitable films of sacrifice and martyrdom, and running cultural festivals continuously are useful to generate the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom in society.
3-3. duties of high education centers concerning sacrifice and martyrdom culture; in addition to what was said about high schools and pre-universities, there are such special programs for high education centers as follow.
3-3-1. directing research projects appropriately; university is a place for research so the following points may be effective to reach the goal: to publish scientific journals in which articles can be printed, to do research projects with jihad and martyrdom theme, and to hold scientific meetings.
3-3-2. holding festivals and memorials; festivals and memorial are useful means to foster the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom among students.
3-3-3. holding meetings; students, as it was mentioned before, seek continuously to answer the issues they have doubts about. So if sacrifice and martyrdom culture is going to grow in such academic environments, it should be provided a ground to answer the doubts students face with.
3-3-4. to use artistic programs; as much as the young like reason, they also like beauty. Thus, to show epic films, to utilize national music, and to hold photo fair with defense and martyrdom theme may inspire moral of sacrifice among students and make them aware of what goes on.
3-3-5. attractive and rich textbooks; different and attractive materials with sacrifice and martyrdom theme such as either textbook or research references will have a key role on directing students toward the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom as well as help to promote it. It’s obvious that to hold fairs and to sell books at a high discount, and abundance of such references in libraries will provide a proper context to achieve that goal.
3-3-6. reminding peoples of the braveries of holy defense veterans; it will dominate a heavenly atmosphere over universities if professors and university administrators remind properly students of honors of Islamic Revolution period and holy defense, and to honor martyrs. It’s obvious that to install plaques with martyr and martyrdom theme in saloons and public places will help us to reach our aim more easily.
Conclusion
Any society that intends to have a generation ready to sacrifice and martyr should provide such a context to achieve that goal as recognizing main factors.
Family as the first institution of forming person character must do its role properly. The mass media should require themselves to foster the culture of sacrifice and martyrdom, and educational centers from kindergarten to university should do their best to reach that goal. It’s necessary for us to form a united front to internalize sacrifice and generosity for the sake of God and the sacred Islamic ideals, and all facilities must be applied properly to reach the goal, otherwise, constructive efforts of one organization may thwart the other one efforts, so it may provide a ground for disunion among people and that is what is expected by our enemies.
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Writer: Abdolhamid Farzaneh
Board Member of Islamic Azad University of Shiraz