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 One
day a fisherman was lying on a beautiful beach with his fishing pole
propped up in the sand and his solitary line cast out into the
sparkling blue surf.
He was enjoying the warmth of the afternoon sun and the prospect of catching a fish.
About that time, a businessman came walking down the beach trying to
relieve some of the stress of his workday. He noticed the fisherman
sitting on the beach and decided to find out why this fisherman was
fishing instead of working harder to make a living for himself and his
family.
"You aren't going to catch many fish that way," said the businessman
to the fisherman, "you should be working rather than lying on the
beach!"
The fisherman looked up at the businessman, smiled and replied, "And what will my reward be?"
"Well, you can get bigger nets and catch more fish!" was the businessman's answer.
"And then what will my reward be?" asked the fisherman, still smiling.
The businessman replied, "You will make money and you'll be able to
buy a boat which will then result in larger catches of fish!"
"And then what will my reward be?" asked the fisherman again.
The businessman was beginning to get a little irritated with the fisherman's questions.
"You can buy a bigger boat and hire some people to work for you!" he said.
"And then what will my reward be?" repeated the fisherman.
The businessman was getting angry. "Don't you understand? You can
build up a fleet of fishing boats, sail all over the world, and let all
your employees catch fish for you!"
Once again the fisherman asked, "And then what will my reward be?"
The businessman was red with rage and shouted at the fisherman,
"Don't you understand that you can become so rich that you will never
have to work for your living again! You can spend all the rest of your
days sitting on this beach looking at the sunset. You won't have a care
in the world!"
The fisherman, still smiling, simply looked up, nodded and said:
"And what do you think I am doing now?" He then looked at the sunset,
with his pole in the water, without a care in the world.
However, both the fisherman and the businessman were wrong in their
materialistic outlook. We don't have to work hard so that we become
rich, sit in the beach and have no care in the world. Islam teaches us
to work hard to serve our family and our community and earn the
pleasure of Allah (swt), regardless of whether we are poor or rich. |
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 One
cold, frosty day in the middle of winter a colony of ants was busy
drying out some, grains of corn, which had grown damp during the wet
autumn weather.
A grasshopper half dead with cold and hunger, came up to one of the
ants. "Please give me a grail or two from your store of corn to save my
life," he said faintly.
"We worked day and night to get this corn in. Why should I give it
to you?" asked the ant crossly. "Whatever were you doing all last
summer when you should have been gathering your food?"
Oh I didn't have time for things like that, said the grasshopper. "I was far too busy singing to carry corn about."
The ant laughed I unkindly. "In that case you can sing all winter as
far as I am concerned," he said. And without another word he turned
back to his work.
Islam teaches us that we should help the less fortunate. But it
also teaches us that we must work hard and not rely on the kindness of
others for our daily needs. |
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 There
once lived a rich businessman who had a lazy and fun loving son. The
businessman wanted his son to be hard-working and responsible. He
wanted him to realize the value of labour. One day he summoned his son
and said: "Today, I want you to go out and earn something, failing
which you won't have your meals tonight."
The boy was callous and not used to any kind of work. This demand by
his father scared him and he went crying straight to his mother. Her
heart melted at the sight of tears in her son's eyes. She grew
restless. In a bid to help him she gave him a gold coin. In the evening
when the father asked his son what he had earned, the son promptly
presented him the gold coin. The father then asked him to throw it into
a well. The son did as he was told.
The father was a man of wisdom and experience and guessed that the
source of the gold coin was the boy's mother. The next day he sent his
wife to her parent's town and asked his son to go and earn something
with the threat of being denied the night meals if he failed. This time
he went crying to his sister who sympathized with him and gave him a
rupee coin out of her own savings. When his father asked him what he
had earned the boy tossed the rupee coin at him. The father again asked
him to throw it in a well. The son did it quite readily. Again the
father's wisdom told him that the rupee coin was not earned by his son.
He then sent his daughter to her in-laws' house. He again asked his son
to go out and earn with the threat that he shall not have anything for
dinner that night.
This time since there was no one to help him out; the son was forced
to go to the market in search of work. One of the shopkeepers there
told him that he would pay him two rupees if he carried his trunk to
his house. The rich man's son could not refuse and was drenched in
sweat by the time he finished the job. His feet were trembling and his
neck and back were aching. There were rashes on his back. As he
returned home and produced the two rupee note before his father and was
asked to throw it into the well, the horrified son almost cried out. He
could not imagine throwing his hard-earned money like this. He said
amid sobbing: "Father! My entire body is aching. My back has rashes and
you are asking me to throw the money into the well."
At this the businessman smiled. He told him that one feels the pain
only when the fruits of hard labour are wasted. On earlier two
occasions he was helped by his mother and sister and therefore had no
pain in throwing the coins into the well. The son had now realized the
value of hard work. He vowed never to be lazy and safe keep the
father's wealth. The father handed over the keys of his shop to the son
and promised to guide him through the rest of the life.
Moral of the Story: Some of the life's best lessons come from the hardest situations. |
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 One
morning I wasted nearly an hour watching a tiny ant carry a huge
feather cross my back terrace. Several times it was confronted by
obstacles in its path and after a momentary pause it would make the
necessary detour.
At one point the ant had to negotiate a crack in the concrete about
10mm wide. After brief contemplation the ant laid the feather over the
crack, walked across it and picked up the feather on the other side
then continued on its way.
I was fascinated by the ingenuity of this ant, one of Allah's
smallest creatures. It served to reinforce the miracle of creation.
Here was a minute insect, lacking in size yet equipped with a brain to
reason, explore, discover and overcome. But this ant, like the
two-legged co-residents of this planet, also shares human failings.
After some time the ant finally reached its destination - a flower
bed at the end of the terrace and a small hole that was the entrance to
its underground home. And it was here that the ant finally met its
match. How could that large feather possibly fit down small hole?
Of course it couldn't. So the ant, after all this trouble and
exercising great ingenuity, overcoming problems all along the way, just
abandoned the feather and went home.
The ant had not thought the problem through before it began its epic
journey and in the end the feather was nothing more than a burden.
Isn't our life like that?
We worry about our family; we worry about money or the lack of it,
we worry about work, about where we live, about all sorts of things.
These are all burdens - the things we pick up along life's path and lug
them around the obstacles and over the crevasses that life will bring,
only to find that at the destination they are useless and we can't take
them with US...... |
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 A
saint was praying silently. A wealthy merchant, observing the saint's
devotion and sincerity, was deeply touched by him. The merchant offered
the saint a bag of gold. "I know that you will use the money for
Allah's sake. Please take it."
"Just a moment." The saint replied. "I'm not sure if it is lawful
for me to take your money. Are you a wealthy man? Do you have more
money at home?
"Oh yes. I have at least one thousand gold pieces at home," claimed the merchant proudly.
"Do you want a thousand gold pieces more? Asked the saint.
"Why not, of course yes. Every day I work hard to earn more money."
"And do you wish for yet a thousand gold pieces more beyond that?"
"Certainly. Every day I pray that I may earn more and more money."
The saint pushed the bag of gold back to the merchant. "I am sorry,
but I cannot take your gold," he said. "A wealthy man cannot take money
from a beggar."
"How can you call yourself a wealthy man and me a beggar?" the merchant spluttered.
The saint replied, "I am a wealthy man because I am content with whatever Allah (SWT) sends me.
You are a beggar, because no matter how much you possess, you are
always dissatisfied, and always begging Allah (SWT) for more." |
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