By Mushtaq Hurra

There was a time when the word adab carried weight in our homes. It meant grace, restraint, and warmth woven together.

A child who bowed before an elder, and a student who lowered his gaze before a teacher were lessons in humility.

Today, I look around and see the scaffolding of that old world collapsing.

The moral castles our elders built with patience and prayer are giving way to noise. Gratitude is rare, modesty feels dated, and affection has turned into performance.

A teacher's words no longer echo in a student's heart. They float away like dust.

What caused this slow unraveling? Where did the thread snap?

Every thoughtful person asks the same questions, but few pause long enough to listen for the answers.

The change did not happen overnight. It crept in silently, in small ways, through the screens we gifted our children, the silence we maintained when they spoke without respect, and the way we began to measure success by income rather than integrity.

A few weeks ago, a video made the rounds: students hugging their teachers in public celebration. To some, it was a harmless act of affection. To others, it was a sign of something deeper: the fading of our sense of haya, of respectful distance.

Such gestures strike differently in Kashmir, where even fathers hesitate to embrace their teenage daughters in public.

I do not wish to shame those young students. Their intention might have been pure. But their act reflects something missing in their moral education.

If they had been taught the meaning of mahram and ghair mahram, of boundaries drawn by respect, they might have understood the weight of that moment.

The real failure lies with parents, teachers, and elders, who taught them how to build a career, but not how to build a conscience.

We have turned education into a ladder for livelihood instead of a lamp for the soul. Our forefathers sent their children to learn wisdom, humility, and truth. We send ours to secure salaries and titles. They dreamt of character. We dream of comfort.

Modern education has multiplied our schools and degrees, but divided our sense of self. We have engineers without empathy, doctors without patience, and teachers who chase applause more than understanding.

MENAFN08112025000215011059ID1110313712