Archives for November 2017

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

A lecturer was giving a lecture to his student on stress management.

He raised a glass of water and asked the audience, “How heavy do you think this glass of water is?”
The students’ answers ranged from 20 to 500 gm. “It does not matter on the absolute weight. It depends on how long you hold it.

If I hold it for a minute, it is OK.

If I hold it for an hour, I will have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you will have to call an ambulance.

It is the exact same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.”

“If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, we will not be able to carry on, the burden becoming increasingly heavier.”

“What you have to do is to put the glass down, rest for a while before holding it up again.”

We have to put down the burden periodically, so that we can be refreshed and are able to carry on.
So, before you return home from work tonight, put the burden of work down. Don’t carry it back home. You can pick it up tomorrow.
Whatever burdens you are having now on your shoulders, let it down for a moment if you can. Pick it up again later when you have
rested……………
Rest and relax.
Life is short, enjoy it!!
Wisdom: In the end what matters most is, how well did you live, love, and learn to let go.

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Internal motivation comes from within, such as pride, a sense of achievement, responsibility and belief.
There was a young boy who used to come for regular practice but always played in the reserves and never made it to the soccer eleven. While he was practicing, his father used to sit at the far end, waiting for him. The matches had started and for four days, he didn’t show up for practice or the quarter or semifinals. All of a sudden he showed up for the finals, went to the coach and said, “Coach, you have always kept me in the reserves and never let me play in the finals. But today, please let me play.” The coach said, “Son, I’m sorry, I can’t let you. There are
better players than you and besides, it is the finals, the reputation of the school is at stake and I cannot take a chance.” The boy pleaded, “Coach, I promise I will not let you down. I beg of you, please let me play.” The coach had never seen the boy plead like this before. He said, “OK, son, go, play. But remember, I am going against my better judgment and the reputation of the school is at stake. Don’t let me down.”

The game started and the boy played like a house on fire. Every time he got the ball, he shot a goal. Needless to say, he was the best player and the star of the game. His team had a spectacular win.

When the game finished, the coach went up to him and said, “Son, how could I have been so wrong in my life. I have never seen you play like this before. What happened? How did you play so well?” The boy replied, “Coach, my father is watching me today.” The coach turned around and looked at the place where the boy’s father used to sit. There was no one there. He said, “Son, your father used to sit there when you came for practice, but I don’t see anyone there today.” The boy replied, “Coach, there is something I never told you. My father was blind. Just four days ago, he died. Today is the first day he is watching me from above.”

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A company wanted to set up a pension plan. In order for the plan to be installed, it needed 100% participation. Everyone signed up except John. The plan made sense and was in the best interest of everyone. John not signing was the only obstacle. John’s supervisor and other co-workers had tried to persuade him without success.

The owner of the company called John into his office and said, “John, here is a pen and these are the papers for you to sign to enroll into the pension plan. If you don’t enroll, you are fired this minute.” John signed right away. The owner asked John why he hadn’t signed earlier. John replied, “No one explained the plan quite as clearly as you did.”

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It is said that when Bayazid Bestami was asked who his master was, he explained:

She was an old woman.
One day, I was possessed by such ecstacy and yearning and sense of unity that not even a hair of anything else could be found in me. In this selfless mood, I went for a stroll in the desert, where I happened to meet an elderly lady burdened with a bag of flour.

She asked me to carry the flour for her, but I was incapable of taking it, so I beckoned to a lion to take the load. The lion came up to me and I laid the sack upon its back. I then asked the old lady what she intended to say to the townspeople since I did not want them to apprehend who I was.

“I’ll tell them,” she replied, “that I met a vain tyrant.”

“What are talking about?” I exclaimed.

The lady explained thus, first asking: “Has the lion been put to trouble or not?”

“No,” I answered. –

“Except for the fact that you burden down those whom God Himself has not burdened!” she objected. “Is that not oppression?”

“So it is”, I admitted.

“And, despite this”, she continued, “still you desire the townspeople to know that you have subjected a lion and are a miracle worker. Is that not vanity?”

“Yes, it is”, I confessed.

So I repented, experiencing abasement from my former exaltation. Indeed that old woman’s words performed the function of a spiritual guide and master for me.

SOURCE: Attar, Tadhkerat al-auliya     

A group of frogs were hopping contentedly through the woods, going about their froggy business, when two of them fell into a deep pit. All of the other frogs gathered around the pit to see what could be done to help their companions. When they saw how deep the pit was, the rest of the dismayed group agreed that it was hopeless and told the two frogs in the pit that they should prepare themselves for their fate, because they were as good as dead.

Unwilling to accept this terrible fate, the two frogs began to jump with all of their might. Some of the frogs shouted into the pit that it was hopeless, and that the two frogs wouldn’t be in that situation if they had been more careful, more obedient to the froggy rules, and more responsible.

The other frogs continued sorrowfully shouting that they should save their energy and give up, since they were already as good as dead. The two frogs continued jumping as hard as they could, and after several hours of desperate effort were quite weary.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to the calls of his fellows. Spent and disheartened, he quietly resolved himself to his fate, lay down at the bottom of the pit, and died as the others looked on in helpless grief. The other frog continued to jump with every ounce of energy he had, although his body was wracked with pain and he was completely exhausted.

His companions began a new, yelling for him to accept his fate, stop the pain and just die. The weary frog jumped harder and harder and – wonder of wonders! Finally leapt so high that he sprang from the pit. Amazed, the other frogs celebrated his miraculous freedom and then gathering around him asked, “Why did you continue jumping when we told you it was impossible?” Reading their lips, the astonished frog explained to them that he was deaf, and that when he saw their gestures and shouting, he thought they were cheering him on. What he had perceived as encouragement inspired him to try harder and to succeed against all odds.

This simple story contains a powerful lesson. Your encouraging words can lift someone up and help him or her make it through the day. Your destructive words can cause deep wounds; they may be the weapons that destroy someone’s desire to continue trying – or even their life. Your destructive, careless word can diminish someone in the eyes of others, destroy their influence and have a lasting impact on the way others respond to them.

Source : http://www.islamcan.com/islamic-stories/the-tale-of-two-frogs.shtml

ultan Murad IV, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1623-1640, would often anonymously go into the midst of the people and see their state. One evening, he felt an uneasiness in himself and the urge to go out. He called for his head of security and out they went. They came to a busy vicinity, and found a man lying on the ground. The Sultan prodded him but he was dead and the people were going about their own business. Nobody seemed to care about the dead man lying on the ground.

The Sultan called upon the people. They didn’t recognise him and asked him what he wanted. He said, “Why is this man lying dead on the ground and why does no one seem to care? Where is his family?”

They replied, “He is so and so, the drunkard and fornicator!”

The Sultan said, “Is he not from the Ummah of Muhammad (saw)? Now help me carry him to his house.”

The people carried the dead man with the Sultan to his house and once they reached, they all left. The Sultan and his assistant remained. When the man’s wife saw his dead body, she began weeping. She said to his dead body, “May Allah have mercy on you! O friend of Allah! I bear witness that you are from the pious ones.”

The Sultan was bewildered. He said, “How is he from the pious ones when the people say such and such about him? So much so that no one even cared he was dead!”

She replied, “I was expecting that. My husband would go to the tavern every night and buy as much wine as he could. He would then bring it home and pour it all down the drain. He would then say, ‘I saved the Muslims a little today.’ He would then go to a prostitute, give her some money and tell her to close her door till the morning. He would then return home for a second time and say, ‘Today, I saved a young woman and the youth of the believers from vice.'”

The people would see him buying wine and they would see him going to the prostitutes and they would consequently talk about him. One day I said to him, “When you die, there will be no one to bathe you, there will be no one to pray over you and there will be no one to bury you!”

He laughed and replied, “Don’t fear, the Sultan of the believers, along with the pious ones shall pray over my body.”

The Sultan began to cry. He said, “By Allah! He has said the truth, for I am Sultan Murad. Tomorrow we shall bathe him, pray over him and bury him.”

And it so happened that the Sultan, the scholars, the pious people and the masses prayed over him.

We judge people by what we see and what we hear from others. Only if we were to see what was concealed in their hearts, a secret between them and their Lord. If Allah knows, why does it matter who knows and who doesn’t know?!

“O you who believe, abstain from many of the suspicions. Some suspicions are sins. And do not be curious (to find out faults of others), and do not backbite one another. Does one of you like that he eats the flesh of his dead brother? You would abhor it. And fear Allah. Surely Allah is Most-Relenting, Very-Merciful.” (49:12)

Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day, he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country. When he was back to his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every road of the entire country with leather.

Definitely, this would need thousands of animals skin, and would cost a huge amount of money. Then one of his wise servants dared himself to tell the king, Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money? Why don’t you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet? The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a shoe for himself.

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A farmer slandered his neighbor. Realizing his mistake, he went to the preacher to ask for forgiveness. The preacher told him to take a bag of feathers and drop them in the center of town. The farmer did as he was told. Then the preacher asked him to go and collect the feathers and put them back in the bag. The farmer tried but couldn’t as the feathers had all blown away. When he returned with the empty bag, the preacher said, “The same thing is true about your words. You dropped them rather easily but you cannot retrieve them, so be very careful in choosing your words.”

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Father was a hardworking man who delivered bread as a living to support his wife and three children. He spent all his evenings after work attending classes, hoping to improve himself so that he could one day find a better paying job. Except for Sundays, Father hardly ate a meal together with his family. He worked and studied very hard because he wanted to provide his family with the best money could buy.

Whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

The day came when the examination results were announced. To his joy, Father passed, and with distinctions too! Soon after, he was offered a good job as a senior supervisor, which paid handsomely. Like a dream come true, Father could now afford to provide his family with life’s little luxuries like nice clothing, fine food and vacation abroad.

However, the family still did not get to see father for most of the week. He continued to work very hard, hoping to be promoted to the position of manager. In fact, to make himself a worthily candidate for the promotion, he enrolled for another course in the Open University. Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

Father’s hard work paid off and he was promoted. Jubilantly, he decided to hire a maid to relieve his wife from her domestic tasks. He also felt that their three-room flat was no longer big enough; it would be nice for his family to be able to enjoy the facilities and comfort of a condominium. Having experienced the rewards of his hard work many times before, Father resolved to further his studies and work at being promoted again. The family still did not get to see much of him. In fact, sometimes father had to work on Sundays entertaining clients.

Again, whenever the family complained that he was not spending enough time with them, he reasoned that he was doing all this for them. But he often yearned to spend more time with his family.

As expected, Father’s hard work paid off again and he bought a beautiful condominium, overlooking the coast of Singapore. On the first Sunday evening at their new home, father declared to his family that he decided not to take any more courses or pursue any more promotions. From then on he was going to devote more time to his
family. Father did not wake up the next day.

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