Khalaf Sarhan Al-Qurashi 

It caught my attention that one of the most famous companies in manufacturing, producing and marketing mobile phone devices used the word (pen) in its promotional advertisements for its latest releases of those devices. 

The advertisement says: "Plan your success with your pen," and this advertisement involves a paradox that deserves attention and calls for notice. It lies in the fact that the products of this company and its like are the most threatening to the (pen) – that we know – by any threat. Why – and this being the case – does the company use the word (the pen)? 

Perhaps that company wanted to make its advertisement more influential in the souls of the targets through invoking and employing what was attached to the human memory of feelings of love, gratitude, appreciation and loyalty to this great tool, and the unique blessing that d harnessed for man and taught him.

The Almighty said: (Read, and your Lord is the most Generous, Who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know).

d Almighty has sworn by (the pen) and that is in exaltation of its status. The Almighty said: (Nun. By the pen and what they write. You are not, by the grace of your Lord, mad). The pen was associated with the elevation and progress of man in the series of human civilization. Dr. Khalid Al-Najjar says describing the pen: "Simple in its form, great in its status... How much we expressed with it the contents of our souls and the feelings of our chests, and with it we learned and saw the light of science, and with it civilizations were written, and kingdoms and empires were established, and with it the harvest of sciences, knowledge, ideas and poems was collected" (1),

Returning to the beginning for that company's advertisement, we say: It actually refers to something other than the pen we know. It is an electronic pen attached to a mobile phone device whose main purpose is pointing, marking, and clicking on keys, words, and letters on the mobile screen and on its keyboard. It deserves to be called (the indicator) or (the clicker) or something of this sort, because it performs functions other than the usual function of the pen, and I mean by it handwriting, even if it includes it partially through allowing its user the opportunity to write and draw some notes. The pen that most – if not all – human civilizations knew since the dawn of history – and associated with it as the association of the bracelet with the wrist – faces today a terrifying future and a sad situation that threatens it with extinction, ending, and ing to museums of history and antiquities after it used to decorate the pocket of every learner and head every student's bag, and crown the desk of every manager and employee, let alone the writer and author for whom the pen was like a sixth finger for his hand (That is from the news of the unseen that We reveal to you, and you were not with them when they threw their pens as to which of them would take charge of Mary, and you were not with them when they were disputing). 

The pen was the distinguishing mark between the educated person and the illiterate. When we were young, like others, we used to rejoice when we moved academically to the upper primary grades in which teachers allowed us to use the ink pen instead of the pencil which suits children more, because that event involved a meaning that had its connotation in the souls of the boys. 

Modern technology with its different techniques in the field of writing, printing and publishing – especially mobile phone devices – has prevented man from using the pen. it is no longer found in people's pockets, as it was in the past, despite the clinging of some of the people of prestige and wealth to carrying expensive and luxurious types of pens, not for writing as much as they are for bragging and highlighting social status and material rank. The threat that the pen faces today is not the only threat in its history. It was previously threatened by the invention of the typewriter (  Typewriter)    or the printing machine which dates back to 1714 AD. But the pen was able to withstand that threat thanks to its flexibility and ease of carrying, and moving with it from one place to another unlike that machine whose size was an obstacle for its users to make it a terminator of the pen, despite its clear impact on it. There is no better evidence of the reality of the threat facing the pen currently and in the future than that its industry is facing a noticeable decline pointed out by some specialized reports, including those published by the (Euromonitor) Institute, which state that since 2012, pen sales have been decreasing in most Western countries. 

In a British study commissioned by the company (Docmail) specialized in e-mail and printing in June 2014, including 2000 people, one-third of this number reported that they had not used the pen at all during the past six months and that the average rate of participants not using the pen reached 41 days. One Western journalist says describing the situation: "We are currently writing more than we were writing previously, but we write less with the pen and paper" (2). It may be superfluous to point out that the future of the pen – which is now on (the palm of a demon) as it is said – automatically reflects on its outputs of types and forms of handwriting. You rarely find today in most parts of the world someone who pens a personal letter by hand and sends it to a friend or relative through traditional mail. In the Western world, some schools have begun to gradually abandon considering the pen as a main tool for writing, including a private school for teaching the English language in Geneva, where it spent about eight hundred thousand euros over three years to equip all classrooms with digital tablets where each student uses his own keyboard – equipped with specific educational programs – for everything writing requires (3). The feasibility of teaching students in their first school years the skills of handwriting is an issue that has begun to take its field of discussion in educational circles between supporters and opponents. I expect the opponents to win the battle, based on their strong argument from my point of view which says: that teaching handwriting takes time, effort and money without any use, and that it does not suit the labor market which requires mastery of typing skills on keyboards and not writing by hand. The task of signing with a pen on important papers and documents such as financial transfers and (checks) has begun to lose its presence in the age of technology and was replaced by the electronic fingerprint by finger or by eye. Add to that that bank and banking transactions are mostly done electronically, which increases the dates of the pen's presence. The people of the pen and its lovers, especially the elderly, still cling to the hope that it will remain steadfast in front of these challenges, just as it stood in front of the challenge of the typewriter. Their optimism is reinforced by scientific studies that concluded that training students on the skill of handwriting results in a noticeable activation and stimulation of their minds. in an article written by (Maria Konnikova) in the American newspaper (The New York Times) in which she mentioned evidence reached by some psychologists and neurologists pointing to the deep relationship between writing by hand and broad educational development. Children learning to write by their hands first not only teaches them how to read faster, but also makes them more capable of generating ideas and retaining information, which means in other words that the importance is not only limited to how we write (4) 

The psychologist at the (Collège de France) institution in the French capital, Paris, Stanislas Dehaene, said: "When we write, a unique neural circuit is automatically activated," noting the existence of a core distinction for movement in the written word, which is done by mental simulation in the mind. He added: "It seems that this circuit contributes in unique ways of its kind that we did not realize, which makes education easier" (5). Until the battle is settled and the war ends between handwriting and writing through different keyboards, the lovers of the pen and its supporters will remain repeating with the poet Abi Al-Fath Al-Busti the famous word of truth:  

If heroes boast one day of their sword

And consider it what earns glory and generosity

Sufficient is the writers' pen for pride and loftiness 

Throughout time, that d has sworn by the pen