Try closing your room, going away, and returning
after a few weeks. What do you find on your
return?
A thick layer of dust all over the room. This is so
unpleasant that you don’t feel like sitting in the
room until it has been dusted. Equally upleasant is
the dust blown in your face by a high wind, you
find yourself longing for the wind to drop, so that
there should be no more irritating dust.
But what is this dust that we find so annoying? It is
in fact a loose surface layer of fertile soil, the very
substance which enables the growth of all forms of
vegetables, fruits and cereals. If this soil did not lie
on the face of the earth, it would be impossible for
us to live on the earth at all.
It is this same dust that makes the earth’s
atmosphere dense enough for water to vaporize,
forming clouds which produce torrents of water to
revive and replenish the earth. Without rain, there
would be no life on earth, and rain is only possible
because of the dust in the earth’s atmosphere.
The redness of the sky which we see at sunrise and
sunset is also due to the presence of dust in the
atmosphere. In this way dust, besides possessing
multiple practical benefits, also contributes to the
beauty of the world.
From this straightforward example we can see how
God has placed unpleasant things alongside the
pleasant things of life. Just as the rose bush, along
with its exquisite flowers, also possesses piercing
thorns, so also does life contain an amalgam of both
pleasing and displeasing objects. This is the way
God has created the world. There is nothing for us
to do but to fit in with this order of nature that He
has laid down. Much as we may try, it is impossible
for us to have things any other way.
To complain about things, then, is a fruitless
exercise. If one wants to complain, one is sure to
find plenty to complain about in life. The intelligent
thing to do is to forget the unpleasant things which
are a part and parcel of life, bury grudges, and carry
on seeking to fulfill one’s true purpose in life.
--Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
( Ref - The Moral Vision)
