Monday, April 22, 2013

Another’s opinion


In the name of Allah,  Most Gracious, Most Merciful

 

I asked you what the answer to “one plus one” was and you said “three”.  I know not how you saw it that way but you were adamant without ever considering you may have miscalculated. I tried to explain to you how to calculate and perhaps in that way you will get to the correct answer. But you acted stubbornly. You said I waffled but you were never listening to even. You grinned as if I was talking absolutely nonsense and refused to listen to a word I said. Perhaps, my explanation was wrong but it was not my explanation you challenged. You merely listened to your own view - a view that you could not explain.

And in all of this, the answer was not really the issue. But the issue was that you refused to engage but stubbornly clung to your point of view or was it a point of view – anything another said had no merit to you. It was your way or no way and you made the other person look like a fool. Yet, you will claim to be the victim. But the only victim is you; you are a victim of stubbornness. The next person’s view does not matter because you refuse to learn and engage. You are as stubborn as a spoilt child, yet your mother never raised you like that.

You who wish to learn, need first to learn to engage. You who wish to give your opinion, must at least try and understand something of another’s opinion and if you still cannot, be adult enough to admit it.

At the end we may differ, but not until you have at least tried to understand something of what I had to say because I have tried to understand you. That is respect or is it that only you want to be treated with respect?

 

 

Saturday, April 6, 2013

Learning

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious Most Merciful


I look at history and find many a situation and people who made an impact
Today much of what we see and do does only from the true path distract
Does not one’s immediate family at least offer one some hope of growth
Or am i the person that even my dear ones think that they do loathe
 

I kneel before my Lord and shed a tear while deep in prayer
For what have I offered my family and friends to show I care?
To know that life is not that we should stagnate and grow no more
Rather, is it not a journey from this life to paradise that we live for


Perhaps not in one living person we find the complete example to follow
But from a few there is a lesson and some advice we can borrow
Then we learn it and practise it so that within our souls may grow
and with this improvement those around you will want also to know
 
That young or old, male or female each have a role to play
We can learn even from the young some of us may be grey
So acquire knowledge far and wide and the means to apply it
Then with that newfound wisdom the learning pattern is complete
 

That is who we ought to be when we impact others and learn from some
That we do not go through life as if our minds and souls are numb

But the sun needs to shine from our very souls and an active mind
Let not it be that on that great day we are raised deaf, dumb and blind