There is a far flung town in north of Afghanistan called Marchaq. Like many other such towns, the town still lacks electricity, clean potable water and other civic facilities. After the democratic government was established in the country, some development works started. For instance, a school and basic health clinic was established and to some extent, the road was paved which greatly reduced the difficulties of people.

The area is home to people belonging to Pashtun and Turkmen tribes, who have lived together peacefully since long. People don't know any difference between each other and thus they live with all the peace and serenity. Area is also famous in its surroundings for its fruit gardens and the generous hospitality of the people.

There is not present any hotel or guest house in the area and when a stranger comes from outside, he is taken by the people to their houses where he is very well taken care of. At times, more than two or three persons insist to take the guest and there starts a kind of competition. When the guest is taken to the house, he is very well taken care of and regarded as a blessing from Allah. This centuries old tradition of respecting and serving the guest has not been affected by time and modernization. The guest is provided the best food available and he is served in a way that he should feel comfortable like his own house.

Another good habit that they had was of their generous behavior regarding their fruits. In the area, melon, watermelon and other similar fruits are abundantly produced. When a person is going somewhere and he passes by a field of melons and he feels thirsty or hungry, he goes into the field, takes a melon and starts eating it.

If the landowner or the farmer notices him, he himself goes into the field and brings for him ripe and tasty melons. If he is hungry as well, the farmer sends someone to fetch some bread. It is due to these sincere and heavenly habits that people in area are very prosperous and they have not faced so many calamities of war and destruction.

It is said that in old times, there used to be doctors called 'Tabeeb' who treated people with herbs and other natural plants or sometime, merely the earth and stone. These 'tabeebs' used do any other work for their livelihood and they never took any fee from the patients they treated. They thought that they were given the gift of understanding diseases of people and then identifying the exact plant or herb as medicine and thus they had the responsibility of treating others without any charge; a sign of gratitude for the gifts of skill bestowed upon them by the nature.

Similarly, there were people who used to teach others but again there was not present any concept of fee or other things. They used to deliver their lectures in an open gathering in which anyone could come, sit and listen to the lecture.

These 'tabeebs' usually inherited this art from their ancestors and the art was transferred from a generation to another. In the same way, number of educated people was less and thus those who were lucky enough to get the blessings of education took it as a responsibility to forward this to others, without any discrimination or material demand and expectation.

As we saw, in both the cases, there was present absolute sincerity and honesty and it was the reason that they were very good at their jobs. There are present some stories in the history books that a 'tabeeb' or an ancient doctor gave someone an apple, a banana or even a small piece of clay or earth to be eaten as medicine and soon the patient was up on his feet.

Similarly, in the time of rise of Islamic civilization and knowledge, that lasted for almost 1000 years, there were teachers who were able to bring up students who were able to write books on medicine, astronomy, mathematic, social sciences, poetry and many more and there are many examples of authors who left behind more than 100 books on different sciences and knowledge.

There were also present so many other unique qualities that seem to be imaginary and unrealistic in the present world. For example, they used to sleep for 2 to 3 hours in a day, could survive without eating for many days and many more. In short, they had killed all the desires of self and carnal desires and thus elevated to the peaks of their minds, intellect and thinking approaches.

But this thing did not continue like this forever. Then came those who took these gifted skills as a source to earn money, respect and other material gains and in fact, they awakened their dormant carnal desires. After that, they were never able to show those miracles that once used to appear as something of routine. And the decline that once started still continues and now there is no 'Finishing Point' for this downfall.

The industrial revolution of West industrialized almost everything in the world. Treatment of illnesses and imparting education no more remained the fields that once used to be free of any kind of commercialization. Now there are big hospitals, better facilities with better treatments and medication but this also has a big price tag. There are big schools with quality education with more fees.

Now parents put their children in the schools with an aim that the money being spent or invested on them would be collected back after they become a doctor or an engineer in future. Similarly, parents bear the heavy fees of medical colleges with an intention that they would be able to collect their spent amount after their child becomes a doctor and starts treating the patients with handsome fee.

There we come to an interesting finding. We see that there are two extremes or peaks of both sincerity and greed. In old times, when people were on the peak of sincerity and treated people without any fee or imparted education without any charge, blessings could have been noticed in form of recovery of patients and very able and talented students. In the modern time, when the greed is exceeding with every passing day, we come along to another extreme which can be termed as the 'extreme of greed'.

A report revealed that war in Iraq and Afghanistan was started to bring more activity in the American economy. There is something very mysterious when we find out that tenders of billions of dollars were awarded to the companies that were either owned or shared by US President George W. Bush, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and many other top US officials of that time.

Moreover, there were hundred thousands of jobs created and economy was boosted up by increased activities and productivity in a number of industries like arms and ammunitions, aviations, food supply (for soldiers), engineering and many more.

Similarly, some of the business giants of world situated in New York (like Citibank, Goldman Sachs and others) framed a fake economic bubble for the sake of millions of dollars of commissions and rewards for their CEOs and top officials. When this fake bubble collapsed in form of economic crisis of 2007-12, millions of people suffered around the world. This was another extreme of greed and carnal desires.

One pole of selflessness brought ease and comfort for a large number of people while another pole of greed and selfishness shed the blood of thousands and brought distress to millions. These are the points need to be thoroughly thought about!