In the modern age, marketing is an essential pre-requisite for the sale of items on a large scale. Most companies reserve a big budget for this purpose. A big chunk of this budget is spent on advertising on the media. However, some companies also opt for a more direct approach of marketing. In this approach, the companies provide their goods directly to the customers for free. As a consequence, the customers get the opportunity of trying the goods and in case they like them, they become regular patrons.
Many of us have encountered this marketing technique. We have often come across sale representatives selling their goods for free while leaving a shopping centre. Usually if people are satisfied that there is no fraud involved, they accept these free products quite gladly.
The reason behind the success of this marketing strategy lies in human psychology; people are glad to accept anything given freely to them. This attitude arises on account of the fact that no one in this world provides anything for free to anyone. Everything has a price, and one is unable to get anything without a price. The more essential and important a commodity is, the higher is its price.
However, one can find an amazing exception to this rule; those things that are the most essential and important for us in this world are available completely free and in abundance. For example, the most valuable thing in this world is life, which has been provided to all of us for free. Then, all the requirements for sustaining life and for making it enjoyable have also been provided to us for free, e.g. air, water, land, weather, day and night, various organs and faculties of the human body, etc. These are just a few of the innumerable blessings that have been provided to us in this world; without these, not only would life be difficult, it would not even be sustainable.
We can understand this by a simple example. It is common for one to get pains in the knees as one gets older. This pain can be quite severe and can cause a lot of disability. However, knee replacement surgery has provided some relief for people suffering from this problem, and it is also becoming more accessible now. One can have the knees replaced by a painful surgical procedure at a cost of about a million rupees. Even though these replacement knees are not like the original ones, they allow one to lead a comparatively normal life.
On the other hand, most of us walk around with knees that have been provided to us for free. If one were to replace some of the major organs in the body, the cost would be in billions. We have received all these organs for free but we do not even realise or appreciate it. The same applies to all the blessings found outside our bodies. Whether it is air or water, or sunlight or soil, all the priceless essentials of life are available to us in abundance, and for free; however, we never appreciate this fact.
We never remember the Deity who keeps on giving these blessings to us. Our eyes never fill with tears in acknowledgment of his blessings. We neither experience feelings of intense love for him nor are our emotions stirred by thoughts of immense gratefulness to him. All we do is complain to him. Someone else got a car, why did I not get one? Someone has a villa, why can’t I have one? That man’s wife is so beautiful, why could not mine have been as beautiful? And so on… We never appreciate that if one had a car but no legs, or many villas but no hands, or a beautiful wife but no eyes, what would have happened?
Despite all this, we still complain… Our Lord! We still have many complaints to make of you.
Translation by Bashir Nazir