Anyone who has experienced a dust or sand storm
in desert regions will know how traumatic this can
be. There does not appear to be anything good
about the scorching, blinding winds. But Soviet
meteorologists have made investigations, in the
Karakoram desert into the properties of dust storms
and found that they are nature’s way of controlling
extreme climates. The strong winds raise the dust
up to form a screen in the atmosphere, guarding the
earth from the intensity of the sun’s heat. The
surface of the desert, scalded by the summer sun, is
considerably cooled when it erupts in a dust storm.
Sometimes the resultant change of temperature can
be felt, say, in America and the Arctic, far afield as
these areas are from Arabia, and Central Asia.
Such is the order of nature. In this world just as ease
always follows hardship, so fruitful results come
only from arduous, painstaking processes. This is
the way nature works, and from it we can see how
we should live on earth. We should be prepared for
a period of hard struggle before we can expect to
reap the results we desire. This is a law established
by the Maker of the universe, and it is only by
complying with it that we can advance towards our
goal in life. If we wanted to accomplish things an
easier way, we should have to create another world,
one in which cooling clouds—for instance—are not
preceded by scorching winds.
There is no doubting the fact that failure in life
usually results from the quest for immediate
success. The word “short-cut” may be applicable to
the world of roads and footpaths, but there are no
short-cuts in the struggles of life. This fact
frequently evinces itself in untoward ways.
Take the instance of a young man in the town of
Surat, in Gujarat, who entered a jeweller’s shop,
stole a piece of jewellery, then tried to make a quick
exit. His line of retreat to the staircase being cut off
by a suspicious shopkeeper, he made a dash for the
nearest window and crashed his way—as he
thought—to freedom. But this bold attempt ended
disastrously. His leap from the second floor
window resulted in his instant death (The Times of
India, January 21, 1980).
This might appear to be just an isolated incident
involving a foolhardy youth, but one finds people
generally considered to be intelligent committing
the same mistake in their lives. When an individual
tries to accomplish instantly what should be
worked for over a long period—like the youth who
sought to reach ground level by jumping out of a
window instead of walking down the stairs—he is
condemning himself to destruction. When the
leaders of a nation do likewise, their actions spell
doom for all those follow their lead.
Ref - The Moral Vision
- by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
