Educated?

When you hear the word "educated" what do you think of? Does the image of a person wearing a cap and gown come to mind or do you think of lawyers, doctors, engineers, and other advanced degree holders? For many years I thought this way. I even embarked of the "road of academia." However, after becoming "educated," I realize that true education comes in many forms.

Being educated is subjective! The lawyer in the middle of the Amazon rain forest is severely uneducated in that environment. The religious scholar may seem like a relic from the past, when asked about contemporary issues.

Today, I'd like to speak about some extremely educated people, that many perceive to be "hicks, backwards, or those who couldn't make it in the real world"...these people are called farmers!

Firstly, let's define who we are talking about via Wikipedia. A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer might own the farmed land or might work as a laborer on land owned by others, but in advanced economies, a farmer is usually a farm owner, while employees of the farm are known as farm workers, or farmhands.

144 years ago, 75% of the US population was employed in agriculture...today it's less than 2%. Think about it, most people used to be able to provide for their dietary needs or at least part of their needs. Why are food prices so high today? Why are there numerous cases of food illnesses even though we have the USDA? All because we have turned over control to the "so-called educated." 

When we look at human physical needs, they appear in the order of water, food, and shelter. The second most important need... needs an educated person to get the job done. 

A farmer has to be a mathematician, veterinarian, meteorologist, geologist, processor, retailer, engineer, intrinsically motivated, physically strong, and able to take the good with the bad! I implore you to think of the following the next time you think of a farmer as uneducated.

Allah has promised to the believing men and the believing women gardens, beneath which rivers flow, to abide in them, and goodly dwellings in gardens of perpetual abode; and best of all is Allah's goodly pleasure; that is the grand achievement (Qur'an 9:72)

Bukhari, Book 8, volume 73-Hadith 41
Narrated Anas bin Malik رضي الله عنه  The Prophet ﷺ‎ said, "If any Muslim plants any plant and a human being or animal eats of it, he will be rewarded as if he had given that much in charity."

Agriculture, be it heavenly or earthly is described with beauty and great reward, for those who reflect.