We believe that a true and comprehensive
understanding of Islam would not be possible without careful recognition of the
Prophetic Tradition and the Prophet's Household. And Allah is the Source of Strength.
Toddler, The Teacher 4
" We have alot to learn from the kids, as the Prophet (SAW) himself advised. In the original Toddler, The Teacher, we wrote about how to learn happiness from a toddler who finds it in simplicity. They do not desire or appreciate the golds and diamonds over which people kill each other. They are joyous with a simple plastic chew toy.
In the 2nd part, we explored how trust in Allah must be, just like a toddler believes that his mother will always make sure he is protected, he will take the liberty to put his fingers in sockets and fall off the bed, because he knows that he can afford this recklessness as his mother is watching him and will always protect him from harm.
In the 3rd part, we touched base how the parent reacts differently to the same stimuli the child may feel, a pain of an insect bite would worry the parent while the toddler cries, whereas pain from a vaccine injection doesn't bother the parent at all while the toddler still cries. In its naivety the toddler reacts to the pain the same way without realizing that the stimuli causing this pain can be very good for the toddler as well.
In this 4th part, we must also observe from the toddler the behavior of contentment. If you have 2 kids, you will try yourself to be equitable to both of them. My son would want his favorite game of play station and my daughter will want her favorite doll. If I give the son what he wants, he will be super joyous. But this joy will soon fade away. If I give the daughter what she wants, the son still remains happy. But once i give a small coloring pencil additional to the daughter, or the son, the other will react. Not realizing that they got what they wanted (their favorite game or doll), not realizing that their choice was more significant and expensive than a coloring pencil. But as soon as some one will get an extra coloring pencil, their own satisfaction and peace over their fulfilled desire will not exist any more, not because they did not get what they wanted, but because someone else got something more than what they got. It will give birth to another desire in the one who did not get the extra color pencil and it will lead to chaos.
Our contentment is not based on what we wanted, and what we are blessed with. It is based on what others got. We will feel sad if we failed an exam. But we will be content when we find out our friends failed too. It means the sorrow in the first place was not because of our own destiny but destiny of others. If a girl does not get married, she will be patient. But if her friend gets married before her, all hell will break loose.
Remember, Kabeel (Cain) killed Habeel (Abel) not because Kabeel's offering was rejected. Kabeel killed Habeel because Habeel's offering was accepted. The issue was more on acceptance of Habeels' offering rather than rejection of Kabeel's own.
How can then we be happy if we do not accept the will of Allah? If the pen is in the hands of Allah, why then we believe that we deserve something better than what Allah has already written for us? If Allah has given something better to someone else, he surely has the power over ourselves as well. What has then been written must be for a purpose and we must surrender to it.
As Quran Surah 35 Ayah 2 says, Whatever Allah grants to men of (His) mercy, there is none to withhold it, and what He withholds there is none to send it forth after that "
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