Sadullah Khan – 22nd Post Witr Talk Ramadaan 1444 2023
AI: Summary ©
The speaker discusses the challenges and trials of life, including the difficulty of facing similar challenges as a young woman or woman in her own family. She describes how coffee beans, a drink of coffee, and a woman with a coffee bean turned into a coffee drink turned into a refreshing drink. She emphasizes the importance of patient and persistence in dealing with challenges and creating positive change.
AI: Summary ©
We
continue our theme.
Moral guidance from everyday experiences.
We are all aware that the current environment
that we find ourselves in,
it can be very challenging.
It can change us.
It can weaken us.
It can harden us.
It can most certainly test us.
And as we know anyway,
life is a test.
But the kind of challenges and trials and
tribulations that we are experiencing now
seems to be at a global level
a test of who we truly are.
An incident that may shed some light
on how to approach the inevitable challenges of
life.
A young woman or young lady
was complaining to her aged grandmother
about how life was so stressful.
She was tired of struggling and striving.
And whenever one matter was solved,
another two issues
seemed
to crop up.
So complaining to the grandmother,
the wise old lady
took her granddaughter into the kitchen
and put 3 pots
of water to boil on the stove.
She brought a carrot
and asked her daughter to feed it,
her granddaughter, and she said it's firm.
The mother took the firm carrot and put
it into the boiling water.
Then she took an egg,
solid on the outside
and of course protective layer
with liquid,
soft flowing liquid on the inside
and she put the egg in another boiling
pot.
And then she brought some coffee beans
and put
that into the 3rd pot of boiling water.
After a while,
the woman took out the carrots
and asked her daughter to feel the carrots.
That hard firm carrot
had now become
flexible,
spongy
and soft.
She took out the boiled egg,
the outside of the egg
which was solid was now cracked.
Easily able to be peeled off which you
couldn't do before.
But more than that, the inside of that
egg which was liquid
became hard and firm.
And when they looked at the coffee,
the coffee beans,
they both saw
that the coffee beans
had transformed
that boiling water
into an
aromatic drink of coffee.
Now the lesson, said the grandmother,
you see these three things, the carrot,
the egg and the coffee bean,
say, faced exactly the same challenge.
They faced exactly the same challenge, boiling water.
But each reacted differently
to the challenge
that they faced.
The carrot went in soft,
strong sorry, strong and hard,
unrelenting so to say, and came out soft
and weak.
The egg went in with a soft liquid
inside,
protected by a firm shell, but boiling water
hardened the softened interior
and cracked
the firm outer shell.
You see Allah makes reference not to this
particular thing but to the same notion of
hardened
hearts.
Sometimes people hearts become so hard
it's like rock or even worse than rock.
They can become hardened. You're not born with
hard hearts
but sometimes
it ends up like that.
But the coffee bean
was the only one that overcame the boiling
water
and transformed
its source of challenge.
It transformed it into
a drink, a delicious drink, a refreshing drink.
This is a simple very basic
kitchen story, a thought provoking story nonetheless
about perspective.
About the reality of adversity which we all
have to face in some way or the
other, and how you view things
that are happening in your life.
Maintaining perspective
on things
helps a person
to overcome adversity
in challenging situations.
But the question that the story poses to
us,
in life,
are you going to let the challenges
change your character and mangle your being
becoming weak like the carrot
or hardened like the inside of the egg?
Or will you be like the coffee bean?
Persevere,
meet the challenges that you face with a
degree of positivity.
Bear
with persistence
the challenge you face
and change your circumstances
to what is better.
Life
is often difficult.
It can be harsh.
It certainly can be stressful.
And the world
may feel sometimes like a pot of boiling
water.
But
faith,
patience,
perseverance,
all of these are essential
specifically for a person of faith to deal
effectively
for the inevitable challenges of life. Allah makes
reference in the Holy Quran.
The last verse of Surah Al Imran.
Oh you who proclaim faith, oh you who
believe,
patiently endure
patiently endure
with a facilitating persistence not only for yourself
but even other people.
Be patient and facilitate patient. Patiently endure with
facilitating
persistence
and with the consciousness of Allah
so that you may be successful.
We can be like the coffee bean
and discover the power inside us to transform
our circumstances,
to have a positive impact on our environment,
overcome our challenges
and create
positive change. May Allah grant us the strength
to be able to deal and overcome our
challenges with iman and was Sabah.