Human life is a blend of happiness and sadness. Sometimes, man is greatly pleased and at times he feels immensely grieved. But it is a fact that neither happiness nor difficulty exists forever. So, why does man often lose his senses when in difficulty? Maybe this is because he continues to think about his problem. He fails to ponder over the fact that many difficulties had arisen in past but none of them exists now. In other words, there is an ending period of every problem but we fail to pay attention to this aspect. Try to understand it with the help of a story:
40 Minutes flight
Two friends were travelling on a flight. Meanwhile, a fat and flabby passenger came and sat on the seat between them. Smell was coming from his mouth. One of the friends moved towards the window, feeling extremely disgusted throughout the journey. But the other friend opened his favourite book and enjoyed reading it. He did not appear to be uneasy at all; though he was sitting on half of the seat because of the fat passenger. After 40 minutes, the journey ended, so the uneasy friend asked the other one, ‘You were enjoying reading the book as if sitting in a library! Did you not feel uneasy due to that passenger?’ He replied, ‘I felt uneasy only in the beginning. Actually, whenever I face any difficulty, I make a calculation of its duration, i.e. I ponder how long it will last. This is my habit and this is what I did here. I realized that the difficulty will continue only for 40 minutes after which all passengers will go on their separate ways. So I engaged myself in reading the book, remaining safe from tension to a great extent.’
O my young Islamic brothers! If we also choose this way, we may also remain safe from tension to a great extent. It should be kept in mind that the duration of difficulties may be different, depending upon their kind and nature. Let’s say, for example, if you cannot find the key of your bike or the tyre of your bike has punctured or the bike has been stolen, so the nature and duration of these three problems will be different from each other. If we develop the mindset that hard time will also pass, so we will not find it very hard to face up to difficulties. On the contrary, if we are obsessed by our problems [i.e. if we keep thinking about them], so this will result in nothing but heightening our tension.
A teacher picked up a glass of water in front of his students and asked, ‘If I hold it for two minutes, so what will happen?’ ‘Nothing’, the reply came. The teacher asked again, ‘If I hold it for two hours, then?’ The students responded, ‘Your arm will ache.’ The teacher asked once again, ‘And if I continue to hold it for two days, then what will happen?’ ‘Your arm will get stiff’, a prompt reply came from the students. The teacher further asked, ‘Now tell me, will the amount of water in the glass increase or decrease during this period?’ The students replied in the negative. Then, giving a very nice piece of advice, the teacher explained, ‘Difficulties are also like this glass. If we let them prey on our mind, this will only heighten our tension, affecting even our body. And the issue will also not be resolved. And if we push them out of our mind, so we will at least stay safe from further difficulty.’
May Allah عَزَّوَجَلَّ protect us from trials and tribulations!
اٰمِيۡن بِجَاهِ النَّبِيِّ الۡاَمِيۡن صَلَّى اللّٰهُ تَعَالٰى عَلَيۡهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم
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