“Life has become very difficult in this tension, brother, there is a lot of tension.” This was the summary of the conversation I had been listening to, for the last half hour. I did not interfere in the conversation because everything was right. Inflation, chaos, political instability and uncertainty, the shadow of threats to the country’s integrity, the falling value of the rupee, the deteriorating stock exchange situation, the lawyers’ movement, US actions, etc. If a person cries, what is the use of denying it.
But now it was my turn. I said that everything is respectable. Your tension is justified, but answer few of my questions. Agreed that inflation is high, but are you starving? There is no denying the unrest, but has there been any harm to your life and organs? The country’s economic situation is fragile, but your business is not closed anyway and why worry about the country’s integrity? A nation that has lost half of its torso and remained proud in the United Nations will never be harmed in the future also. When these are the facts, then how is the tension?
Then think about how much bliss you are living in spite of all these circumstances. The blessing of life and health, the blessing of organs and strength, the blessing of children and home, the blessing of honor and well-being and innumerable blessings like them. If I start describing these blessings, it will turn from morning to evening and from evening to night, but the description of these blessings will not end. And the blessings are such that you will be ready to sacrifice the world for anyone of these.
God forbid, what would you do if your son’s life is in danger? If you are deprived of the light of your eyes, what price will you not pay to get out of this darkness? If there is a stain on your reputation, will you not sacrifice everything to remove it? Then these blessings are not on you alone. The whole nation has been given peace and prosperity. Recently, an earthquake shook China and millions of people died. Typhoons hit Myanmar (Burma) and had devastated settlements. The war in neighboring Afghanistan left the entire country in ruins. Millions died. But you are fine. There were no epidemics, no famines, no floods.
Then pick up the history and read its pages to see what has happened to people in the world. In your own recent history, the treachery of 1857, the famine in Bengal, the partition of India, and the separation of Bangladesh are the inscribed catastrophes in which not millions but tens of millions of people perished. People’s lives, property, children and reputation were all reduced to dust. Nothing like that is happening to you.
If you want to get tension, take it, but first give thanks for the blessings that have been bestowed on you personally and nationally. Thank God, don’t get tense. If you are thankful, you will be kind to people and if you take tension, then you must give tension to others. Then you will become a problem yourself. Then, when someone will count his problems, one of the names, may be the top name, will be yours.
Learn to be thankful. Put gratitude in your eyes. Enlighten your eyes with a reminder of blessings. Scent your psyche with positive thinking. You will be thankful for that. When you give thanks, do you know what the outcome will be? You will become a great blessing of Allah for others. Conversely, when you take tension, you become a torment to others. If nothing else, you start pouring the poison of tension into the ears of others with your words. This torment is no less.
Be thankful and be a blessing. Don’t be a torment by taking tension. Don’t say there is a lot of tension. Say that it is a great grace. You will be more blessed.
Translated by Muzamil Nazeer