By Waliyulah Olayiwola
On Sunday, the last day of September, 2018 the Lifeline Charity Network(LCNetwork) held her second program for the year 2018. The first being a visitations to the sick in Unilorin Teaching Hospital, Ilorin.
The organization, this time around, held a virtual workshop which featured a prominent figure in the field of academics, an erudite, Dr Mahfouz Adedimeji, a Fulbright Scholar and an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language, University of Ilorin.
The virtual workshop which was held on the LCNetwork Official WhatsApp Page was graced by several important personalities who are members of the LCNetwork like Alhaji AbdulRauf AbdulWasiu, the CEO of Bilmuh’mineen Travels and Tours, Barrister Asafa-Olaore (Mrs), a legal practitioner, Mr FadluLlah, the president Union of Campus Journalists (Unilorin) and other prominent members of the organization.
The lecture was moderated by Waliyulah Olayiwola who is also the Convener of the organization. The topic of the workshop, “Kindness: A Lost Virtue” was dealt with extensively in the 40 minutes time that the Fulbright Scholar took the lecture.
The Fulbright Scholar started his lecture by acknowledging the work of the organization when he said,
“Permit me to begin by acknowledging the awesome job being championed by this organisation. As no good deed ever done goes unrewarded, my prayer is that everyone will be rewarded abundantly.”
Thereafter, he went straight into the lecture by first defining what Kindness is.
“Kindness, he wrote, is the quality of being friendly, accommodating, generous, compassionate and sincere especially to others.”
He asserted that kindness is part of some theological virtues. In his words, “kindness is one of the seven virtues identified in theology. The seven virtues are chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility.”_ and he concluded that, _”If a youth embraces these virtues, s/he leads a right and righteous life.”
By and by, he contrasted human behavioral virtues with some vices. He succinctly put it like this:
“Today, we live in a post-modern world where virtues are frowned upon and vices are glorified. The destructive vices are envy, gluttony, greed/avarice, lust, pride, sloth (laziness) and wrath (anger). It takes a lot of discipline to be kind in our world that is obsessed with excessive materialism and corrosive self-centredness.
He pointed to the fact that, contrary to what the topic portrayed, kindness is not totally lost making the members of the LCNetwork as a case study. He said,
“That kindness is a lost virtue may not actually be totally true. In our world, in spite of the dominance of evil and the preponderance of vices, people are still kind and we can encourage more people to be kind, compassionate and generous. A case in point is the membership of this network: students, struggling graduates and individuals who are neither Dangote nor Adenuga in all ramifications. Yet, the desire to give, the motif to share, the passion to contribute and mindset to serve have made members to decide to come together to show kindness to others._
He enjoined people to live a life of purpose. And what is a life of purpose? He answered that when he said;
“Therefore, in our world of vanity and capitalism, it is good for us to pause, take a deep breath and ask: what is the purpose of life?”
The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose. What is a life of purpose? It is a life devoted to serving (God) and preserving (humanity and nature). It is a life committed to giving and forgiving, not just getting and forgetting like the vast majority.
Lastly, he concluded his lecture with quotes from six great men: Prophet Muhammad, Confucius, Sophocles, Aesop, Og Mandino and Robbert Ingersoll:
Two of such quotes are,
“To practise five things under all circumstances constitutes perfect virtue; these five are gravity, generosity of the soul, sincerity, earnestness and kindness”. Confucius
“There’s a reward for kindness to every living thing.” Prophet Muhammad
The session ended by 6:20pm after the programmes on the agenda had been exhausted.
