The word Naiki نیکی in English means virtue. In this context, it refers to the good and selfless deeds that a person performs.
Over the past few years, I have noticed something- almost every single day when I open my fb newsfeed, I find a heart-wrenching story waiting for me. Sometimes, even two.
A week back, a girl had shared an incident in which she was in an auto-rickshaw on Shahrah-e-Faisal and a few guys on their motorbikes surrounded her vehicle and started harassing her. Calling her (blood-boiling) names and whistling at her were two of the lesser evil of their acts. The girl was brave. She took out her phone and started video recording. It did help to deter them for a few minutes, but only a few minutes. The rickshaw driver was brave too and continued to drive. He did so until he was able to get to a police station and take relief. The girl’s social media post included images extracted from the video clearly showing the faces of the devils involved. People shared her post far and wide and I hope they do face the consequences of their actions.
Posts like these are becoming common and it’s a good thing. In fact it’s a great thing. People are taking action and writing about these openly. Only when the word is able to get out, can the justice be served.
Motivation
In the midst of such posts, we often neglect the other side of the coin- the good people do for us. We might say ‘thankyou’ to the person who stops to help us when our car breaks down during the rain but we don’t post on social media. By not doing so, we don’t allow the story to get viral and others to realize that good people still exists. And so an opportunity for others to get inspired is missed as well.
Sometimes we aren’t even aware of the small things people do for us. Someone might go the extra mile and move the stone away from the center of the road to the side- if he wouldn’t have, it might have caused you to fall off your bike. That person did a ‘Naiki’ to help you and me without us even realizing. Of course, he wouldn’t publicize the act for one of the two reasons. First, he might think it is a very small thing to write about. Second, he might not want to sound boastful and stick to the principle of Islam- Naiki kar darya main daal (do good deeds and forget about them so as to not expect anything in return).
Idea
A platform which promotes logging, sharing and appreciating the ‘Naiki (s)’. All of this in complete anonymity. It would fundamentally allow everyone to:
- Log and share their Naiki (selfless acts) with everyone while remaining anonymous
- Log Naik (selfless) acts of others which benefit us, again while remaining anonymous
- Have access to read, appreciate (upvote), comment and share the Naikis (selfless acts) of others
This would help to accomplish a few different things:
- By having a place to log our naikis, we would be unconsciously developing a habit of doing them more often. This is similar to when we are able to get more accomplished simply if we keep a notebook with a to-do list with us.
- Allow for self-reflection. Even though you would be logging your Naikis anonymously for the world but you will be able to view everything that you have logged in one place. Having a look, once in a while, will be an enriching experience.
- A lot more Naikis would be logged and shared via this platform. Since this would be a dedicated platform, we won’t shy away from logging and sharing even the smallest of acts such as giving water to the thirsty. And of course, big Naikis can be shared too.
- It would inspire people to be better. You will read the Naikis of others and get different ideas. Ideas which you too can easily implement in your life. It would be a form of ‘Sadqa-e-Jariya‘ for us. Sometimes opportunities of doing good deeds are right in front of us but we don’t realize until we get that ‘Aha’ moment. To trigger that moment, gathering ideas can help.
This idea is in line with Islam too. Due to anonymity no one would know who the doer is. It won’t promote arrogance in the doer and it won’t reveal who the beneficiary is. All we would get is a simple-to-read-feed of all the good things that are happening around us. All the small steps that you, me and everyone else is taking to make our community a better place.
I would sincerely request you to write to me and let me know what you think of this idea. Even a single line of your opinion would be highly appreciated. I do intend to go forward with it so if you wish to contribute, do let me know. You can write to me via LinkedIn or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.
Zain