afew years after the liberation of kuwait, i made a study about the money and property needed to build a non-profi t, western-style school for slow-learners, and although their number has increased dramatically nothing has been done to meet their needs. we did our best to get a school for this category of children, especially after the late ahmad al-rubei, when he was minister of education, refused to give us one of the ministry’s vacant buildings, even temporarily, for our ‘charity’ project. in the event of my frustration, a relative asked me to come up with the idea of setting up a school for some of the shiite clerics who represent the shiites in kuwait fi nancially, so he might be convinced of the idea of the school and support it from the shiite ‘fi fth’ donations. i rejected his offer immediately, because i knew the fate of my request ‘rejection’. he told me i must try because i would lose nothing. so i agreed on condition i had the right to explain my point of view to that person. as i had expected, the request was rejected. i was very angry and i told him his refusal was the reason for our situation. no one cares or thinks about the human, scientifi c or educational issues, because we are a nation that does not do anything if there is no justifi cation behind it. the establishment of a school for the slow learners, according to some shiites, is certainly not among the religious matters that benefi t those who seek heavenly rewards. for them, it is more important to build houses of worship and spend on students of science in the ‘hawzat’ (hawza is a seminary where shiite muslim clerics are trained) and they are big in numbers. i remembered the story of the past quarter of a century when i read the decision of the supervisors of the mohammad rafi ma’arafi charity to establish three schools in pakistan and to name them after abdul hussain abdulredha, walid al ali and fahd al husseini without regard to the doctrine of any of them or his beliefs. this is a wonderful national and humanitarian initiative. the decision to honor those surpassed what many others have done. we need a place for science more than a place for worship. a human being can worship at home, but he/ she cannot acquire knowledge except in school, especially since the moral, scientifi c and industrial gap that separates us from developed countries is wide and cannot be overcome without science. the story of the charity of mohammad rafi ma’arafi encouraged me dig deep its history and i discovered that the owner is known for his utmost generosity for seventy years and that he was one of the excellent persons who were keen to spend their money on the students, and every needy person. in my view, there is a difference between what is called charity and generosity. a charitable person is the one who spends his money for a religious purpose while a generous person is more comprehensive and the scope of his work is wide and mohammad rafi was one of them but such people are very few in our society. born in 1909, his father owned seven ships which operated between kuwait, basra and india. he traveled to india at the age of 14 for commercial purposes, with only 200 rupees or 150 dinars at that time. he started his business by buying bicycle parts from india and he assembled them and sold them in kuwait. then he traded in kerosene cookers which he brought from abadan, assembled and sold in kuwait. that was his humble beginning which took him to wide horizons. he entered politics and developed his business after gaining experience in politics at home and abroad. he had an amazing position when he came to the house of british commissioner at the time of the events of the 1938 council between the rich and educated classes of the people and the authority and he boldly requested the commissioner to intervene and solve the problem before the situation worsens. in 1931, mohammad rafi was one of the founders of the fi rst kuwaiti football team along with hamad saleh al-humaidhi, ahmad zaid sarhan, mohammad abdul-mohsen alkharafi , ahmed al-razouqi and salem al-sadairawi, and others. in 1961 he was elected a member of the constituent assembly, which was entrusted with the task of drafting kuwait’s constitution. mohammad rafi is known of his love, compassion and tenderness and assisting the needy and the poor. one of his generous deeds is the construction of a hospital in basra, which still stands but has changed its name to the ‘republican’. his charity work continues and this includes the construction of 345 schools all over the world in addition to the health facilities, etc, without restricting aid to gender or followers of a particular doctrine or religion. the biography of this man deserves to be searched and published.

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