By Dr. Ashraf Zainabi

A long time ago, Padma Shri Professor Jalees Ahmad Khan Tareen, who once led Kashmir University, said something unforgettable.

He told his students that even if the great Allama Iqbal Library at the university were to burn down, he wouldn’t worry. “Because,” he said, “the professors can write all the books again.”

That was over two decades ago. Professors of that time had the passion, the spirit, the hunger to create. They carried the weight of wisdom on their shoulders and saw themselves as builders of nations.

But now, something in teaching has died.

It happened the moment teachers stopped seeing themselves as guides and started seeing themselves as salary-earners.

It happened when chalk turned from a wand of magic to a stick of routine. And when classrooms turned into marketplaces, students became customers, and education itself became a business deal.

It was the day teaching stopped being a sacred trust and became just another job.

Across every faith, the teacher has always held the highest place.

In Islam, Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was not just a........

© Kashmir Observer