A Word in Memory of ‘Abd Al-Nasir

Abstract

My opinion about the cure for all this is that it is dependent on a general change taking place in Egypt’s social milieu in all its aspects, political, ethical and religious. Now, neither the school nor the home can do very much to reform what has been corrupted because the corruption has come from a devastating⁸⁷ storm based on distorted principles badly understood which burst suddenly on the country and, as we have seen, turned it upside down in the worst way. Furthermore, the matter is greater and more dangerous than is curable by patch-work cures. What is required is nothing less than another overpowering storm based on sound and true principles, a storm which must arise, put up what has fallen, and repair what has been ruined. The difficulty, however, is how and when the blessed storm will come. In my opinion it will not come without advance preparation unlike the way that first destructive storm came. That storm entered stealthily through a window opened by a long and glorious struggle and a glorious national movement. The role of the home and the school lies in this advance preparation. On them falls the burden of making the young people understand that the situation in which they are cannot last and that they themselves must prepare for whatever reforms are needed. Home and school are responsible for increasingly calling the attention of the youth to lofty high examples and sound ethical principles. Home and school must also point out to the youth its own shortcomings, the shortcomings of the generation, and the sickness of the age. These institutions must satisfy them that they are the ones on whom the country will depend to reform all this corruption one day and to bring about the blessed revolution which will establish the fatherland on a basis of health, strength, and system…⁸⁸