Thursday, March 22, 2007

Parents may have an obsession about developing their children (as individuals) to have noble personalities, a teacher have the same obsession about her students, one having a special attention have the same obsession about certain persons/children. Developing a personality is not an easy job, though. It requires psychological situation and suggestion conducive to internalizing moral values. Infrastructures that should be provided in order to developing a man with a noble personality among others are:

Knowledge of moral values
Human behaviors are influenced by cognitive, affective, and psychomotor aspects. If one has a balance proportion of those three aspects, then theoretically he is able to live in harmony with its environment and with himself since he is able to observe and respond various matters correctly and proportionally. Hence, knowledge of moral (akhlaq) values has a very important influence in developing a personality especially of a child who has a good fitrah (innate disposition towards virtue, knowledge, and beauty)

Knowledge of akhlaq values can be submitted (a) by one’s parent at home in one’s early years by means of tales told before sleeping, then by means of routine advices, special advices in relation with important events, for example when he/she will move to another area, is attempting to select a spouse, will marry, or will occupy a position; (b) by teachers at school in form of akhlaq science, although this way generally put more emphasis on cognitive aspect than on affective aspect, school discipline usually has a significant impact on students, at least it enters their subconscious minds. (c) by ulamas or wise men after praying, at meetings for reading Quran, at special meetings (d) by intellectuals at forums of discussion, (e) by means of programmed literatures, and (d) by means of events impressing one to be learned from.

Creating a Promoting Environment
According to a research quoted by Prof. Dr. Zakiah Daradjat, 83% of human behavior is influenced by what he sees, 11% by what he hears, and the rest 6% by combination of various stimuli. Hence, influence of environment on personality development is highly significant, at home and outside.
Metaphor of environment is mentioned in a hadith of Prophet Muhammad stating that socializing with a good-mannered person is like being near a perfume seller. Being near such a seller will make you fragrant since such a seller usually sprays his perfume to others near him (as a kind of promotion). Meanwhile, the same hadith also states that socializing with a bad-mannered person is like being near a smith at work. Sparks will possibly sprinkle you and ashes will probably make dirty your clothes.