The owner of a transport business once found
himself in weak and vulnerable position because,
for technical reasons, he had once had one of his
vehicles registered in the name of another person
several years before, and that person still held its
license. The license holder decided one fine day that
he would take possession of the vehicle himself,
and that its real owner would have to make do with
a paltry sum of money in exchange. The owner
naturally felt that the most dreadful injustice was
being done to him and, greatly incensed, he was
determined to have his revenge. Night and day he
lived in a frenzy, thinking of ways and means to
eliminate his enemy. Truly he wished to crush him
like an insect. For six long months he lived in this
state of morbid preoccupation, losing all interest in
his home and his business, and becoming, finally,
like the ghost of his former self. Then, one day, he
had an experience which changed the course of his
life. As he was pacing up and down one of the
streets of the town where he lived, lost in black,
vengeful fantasies, he heard the unmistakable
sounds of someone making a speech before a large
gathering. Curious, and for once drawn out of
himself, he approached the gathering of people and
began to listen to the speaker. He was suddenly
struck by what he was saying: “Think well before
taking revenge, for you too shall suffer the
vengeance of others.” It was as if a shaft of bright
light had suddenly penetrated his mind and with
each example that the speaker gave to drive home
his point, he felt himself turn into a new person. He
decided there and then to give up his negative way
of thinking, in fact, to forget the whole sorry
episode, and to devote his time and energy to his
family and his business. The full realization had
come to him that it was on himself that he had
inflicted suffering and not on his enemy, and that it
was best to leave such matters to God. In beginning
to think in this way, he found that; bit-by-bit, he
was once again able to make a constructive
approach to things and it was not long before he
became more successful than he had ever been. In
pursuing positive ends he had also attained peace
of mind, and that, for him, had been the most
important thing of all.
--Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
( Ref - The Moral Vision)
