Ali Ataie – Your Kingdom on Earth is Not Worth More Than a Cup of Water
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AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
There was a certain king who had it
all except
gratitude, so he was discontent.
1 of my teachers told this this parable.
He said this certain king, he had it
all, but he didn't have gratitude. And he
would go on walks outside of his,
outside of his castle, in the woods outside
of his castle, and he noticed a pauper,
a very poor man
next to a tree. And this poor man,
he had a glass of water. He had
some a little crust of bread,
barely any clothes to cover his, but this
pauper, this poor man, he was singing the
praises of Allah
So the king approached him and said, why
are you so happy? You have nothing.
And the man said, why shouldn't I be?
I have it all. I have water. I
have some food. I have clothes that cover
my aura. I have blue skies. The birds
are chirping. I have my health.
I have the zikr of Allah
spinning in my heart and in my tongue.
Why shouldn't I be happy?
And this man was an ariz billah,
this pauper, and he recognized the king. Is
why are you so unhappy? You're the king.
And the king said, I don't know. I
have it all, but I'm unhappy. So the
pauper said to the king, if you were
stranded in the desert
and you were going to die of thirst,
how much of your kingdom would you give
for a half a glass of water?
How much of your kingdom would you give
for half a glass of water? And the
king said, half of my kingdom,
I would give. And the man said to
him, if you drank that water and you
could not excrete it out of your body
and it was going to cause an infection
and kill you, how much of your kingdom
would you give to get rid of that
glass of water from your body. He said
the other half of my kingdom. So the
pauper said your entire kingdom is worth a
glass of water. I have that here. I
also have some bread. I have blue skies.
I have clothes that cover my aura. I
have the birds chirping. I have my health,
and I have the dhikr of Allah
in my heart and spinning on my tongue.
What more can I want?
This parable is obviously meant to be hyperbolic,
but you get the point.
Just be grateful.
Be content. Be in a state of taslim
to the Qadr of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala.
Because continuous
ingratitude
and an obsession
for earthly justice
is upstream
to discontentment
with Allah's qadr, and that is dangerous.