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LOVE AND TIME
Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived: Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all of the others, including Love. One day it was announced to the feelings that the island would sink, so all constructed boats and left. Except for Love.
Love was the only one who stayed. Love wanted to hold out until the last possible moment. When the island had almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help.
Richness was passing by Love in a grand boat. Love said, “Richness, can you take me with you?” Richness answered, “No, I can’t. There is a lot of gold and silver in my boat. There is no place here for you.”
Love decided to ask Vanity who was also passing by in a beautiful vessel. “Vanity, please help me!” “I can’t help you, Love. You are all wet and might damage my boat,” Vanity answered.
Sadness was close by so Love asked, “Sadness, let me go with you.” “Oh . . . Love, I am so sad that I need to be by myself!” Happiness passed by Love, too, but she was so happy that she did not even hear when Love called her.
Suddenly, there was a voice, “Come, Love, I will take you.” It was an elder. So blessed and overjoyed, Love even forgot to ask the elder where they were going. When they arrived at dry land, the elder went his own way. Realizing how much was owed the elder, Love asked Knowledge, another elder, “Who Helped me?”
“It was Time,” Knowledge answered.
“Time?” asked Love. “But why did Time help me?” Knowledge smiled with deep wisdom and answered, “Because only Time is capable of understanding how valuable Love is.”
AN AGED STUDENT
Sikaki was a skilled artist an artisan. With great expertise and interest, he made such a nice and beautiful inkpot that it could be presented to the king. He expected that, appreciating his artistic skill, the king would encourage him as far as possible. So, with countless hopes and thousand of desires, he presented that inkpot to the king. In the beginning the king was very impressed by his artistic skill but afterwards an unpleasant event occurred that caused an extraordinary change in Sikaki’ s life and way of thinking.
When the king was observing the skilled artistry of the beautiful inkpot and Sikaki was lost in the world of thoughts, the people informed that a scholar-literary person or jury is about to enter the court. As soon as the scholar entered, the king got so much absorbed in welcoming and talking to him that he forgot Sikaki and his skilled artistry. This incident caused an adverse and deep effect on the heart of Sikaki.
He realized that now he would not receive the encouragement he had expected and all his desires and hopes are useless now. But Sikaki’s high spirited mind did not allow him to be in peace, so he started thinking as to what should he do. He decided to do what the others have done and go on the same way that the others have gone (uptill now). Therefore, he decided to search for his lost hopes in the world of knowledge, literature and books. Although for a wise man who has passed the days of his young age, it was not easy to study with young children and to start right from the preliminary stage. But he did not have a choice . After all whenever the fish is taken out of water, it is fresh.
Worse than that, in the beginning he did not find any sort of interest in himself regarding reading and writing. Perhaps spending a long time in artistic works and handicraft was the reason for stagnancy in his scientific and literary talent. But neither his advanced age nor lack of capability, none of these could change his decision. With great enthusiasm and zeal for attaining knowledge, he strictly got busy with his studies, until another incident occurred:
The teacher who was teaching him Shafi’e jurisprudence (fiqh Shafi’e), taught him this lesson: “The teacher believes that the skin of a dog becomes clean (tahir) after tanning.” Sikaki repeated this sentence a lot of times so that at the time of examination he should be able to succeed. But when he was asked to answer this question, he said: “The dog believes that the skin of a teacher becomes clean after tanning.”
The audience upon hearing this answer started laughing. It was clear for everybody that this old man is absolutely incapable of reading and writing. After this incident Sikaki not only left the school , but he left the town and went towards the Jungle. By chance, he reached the foot of a mountain, where he saw that the water is falling drop by drop from the top and due to the continuous falling of water, a hole had been formed in that hard stone. He reflected for sometime, a good idea crossed his mind like lightning. And he said: “Maybe my heart is not ready to accept (knowledge) but it is not harder than this stone. It is impossible that continuous studying and hard work would be ineffective.”
Therefore, he came back and with hard work, he got busy in the attainment of knowledge. As a result he was reckoned as one of the popular scholars of his time.
You never be too old to learn something new.
LESSONS ON LIFE
There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away. The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.
When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen. The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise. The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen. The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.
The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree’s life. He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.
If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfillment of your fall. Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest. Don’t judge life by one difficult season. Persevere through the difficult patches and better times are sure to come some time or later.
YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL!
It’s a phrase that my mother uses a lot. I used to wonder, “How in the world can Mother call them beautiful?” I am a logical, statistical man. I call things as I see them. I didn’t see beauty.
My mother would tell people this with an enthusiasm they could feel. She was genuine. She wasn’t telling them they were beautiful to get something from them. Most of the time, they were trying to get something from her. I wondered for years what was wrong with Mother’s perception and vision. Couldn’t she see that all of the people she called beautiful weren’t beautiful?
You were beautiful only if you had a certain figure and face that was classed as beautiful by the laws of the world and glamour. Yet when my mother spoke, people smiled as though Glamour magazine had listed them as one of the beautiful people of the year.
It took me years to finally understand my mother’s vision and the phrase, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” My mother had a spirit that could see the beauty in a person. Most only look on the outside and then compare what they see with the standards the world has given them. That was what I was doing. Today when you leave your house, carefully look at the first person whom you see and notice how beautiful they are.
They may be balding, fat, wrinkled, pimply, or any of the other things the world frowns upon as beauty. Look at them closely and look for the beauty. If you really look, you’ll see it.
I didn’t believe that at first until I tried it. Sure enough, as I stared and opened another set of eyes, I was able to see the beauty in every person. No matter how rough or worn a person looked, each pain etched line held a glimpse of beauty.
You just had to look for the beauty. It’s there. When you leave your home this morning, look hard at each person. You will start to see the beauty of every human who you didn’t know existed. Trust me and try this. If you sincerely look, you will see it. When you get home after seeing the beauty in faces you see, look in the mirror. You are beautiful. Thank you mama for all of the beauty that you have not only seen, but added. She used to tell me: “Be like a honey bee which always sits on beautiful flowers.”
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said: “Indeed Allah is Beautiful and He loves beauty.” In other place he (SAW) says: “A believer is beautiful because Allah has given him beautiful characters.”
Holy Quran emphasizes on remembering the beautiful things Allah (SWT) has created and praise them profusely. “And as for the blessing of your Lord, do announce it.” (93:11)
Allah (SWT) Himself remembers and praises the good creations He has created; among them is His beloved Prophet Muhammad (SAW): “And He exalted your praise (O Muhammad).” (94:4)
“Indeed Allah and His Angels are sending blessings upon the Prophet. O you who believe, send blessings upon him (you as well) and salute him with a (becoming) salutation.” (33:56)
Dear readers, you are beautiful. May Allah’s beautiful blessings be upon you always.
