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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| The Horse and the Well - Words of Wisdom - |
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| Halima |
| 03/02/05 at 01:08:23 |
| Words of Wisdom - The Horse and the Well Date: 05-Jan-2005 There is an Eastern fable about a farmer who lived once upon a time in a faraway land. This farmer had a strong horse which would plough the fields for him and pull his loads. In the midst of his farmland, there was an unused well. A deep, dark, dry, unused well. Since there was no benefit from the well, the farmer refused to maintain it and repair its boundary walls. One day, the horse fell into the well. Since it was a strong horse, it survived the fall without breaking any bones: it only had a few scratches and bruises. Soon thereafter, the horse tried to get out of the well: it jumped, turned around in circles and tried to climb up the sides but it was no use. Then it started to neigh and whine loudly from the bottom of the deep, dark hole. Eventually, the farmer arrived at the well and became distraught when he saw what had happened. Unsure as to how he could pull out this huge, heavy horse, he called his neighbours for assistance. The neighbours gathered at the well but they could not devise a plan to rescue the horse. Therefore, the farmer had a simple idea. He said, “Let us bury the horse in the well by filling it up. If it fell into the well, it is a stupid horse and no good to me anyway. This way I will solve two problems at once: the problem of the horse and the problem of the unused well. Furthermore, if we bury it quickly it will die swiftly and not feel as much pain.” It seemed a workable plan, so they began to shovel dirt into the well. When the first mounds of dirt landed on the horse, it began to neigh, trying to get the crowd to stop burying it. Upon hearing its screams, they started to shovel even faster, thinking that the horse was in pain so they could silence it quicker. When the horse realised that its cries were in vain and falling on deaf ears, it had an idea. It stopped neighing, leading the shovellers to believe that it was dead. The shovelling slowed down and mounds of dirt were thrown into the well. However, instead of remaining still and allowing itself to be buried alive by the dirt, the horse shrugged off the dirt from itself and then trampled it underneath its hooves. It continued to do this with each successive mound of dirt that was thrown onto it and slowly began to rise higher and higher up the well until it eventually jumped out of the well, much to the astonishment of the onlookers. O prisoner, do you find yourself at the bottom of a deep, dark hole? Do you find that there seems to be no way out and that your cries for help fall upon deaf ears? As if that is not enough, do you find that more and more dirt is being thrown upon you? Financial problems? Lies and allegations? ‘Friends’ and family abandoning or disowning? Miserable food and conditions? Sickness? Loneliness? Boredom? What are you going to do about it? Are you just going to sit there and let each successive pile of dirt overcome you until it buries you alive and destroys you? Or are you going to do as the horse did: be positive, realise that you are on your own and shrug off any dirt that is thrown onto you then trample it beneath your feet until that very dirt becomes a means for your salvation? But never be confused as to what the hole is and what the dirt is. Prison is not the hole, but the dirt. The hole is your sins and estrangement from Allah (SWT). Prison is the dirt that will either enable you to cleanse your sins and return to Allah, thereby saving you. Or it is the dirt that will eventually bury you alive and destroy you. What you do with the dirt is your choice. The horse made the right choice. The question is, will you? By British Political Prisoner Babar Ahmad |
Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board |