Success and the desire for success occurs similarly in every human. The definition of success starts with money and ends with fame. Every person in the world wishes to become ‘great’. While some people include the qualities of education, talent, a well-groomed self, and beauty as being the essential ingredients for greatness, others cite culture and tradition as being necessary to any equation involving success.
However, regardless of what people desire, the distribution of success is not equal. The system of success distribution is quite an unfathomable, incomprehensible one. The rules of success allocation are strange and follow a formula that defies logic. Sometimes the faithful are left empty handed while the coffers of the dissenters, the nihilists, and filled to overflowing. The defenseless and the weak attain fame but the kings and rulers are granted infamy and dishonor. A world of diners gets its fill from the place settings of the destitute whereas the wealthy industrialist is often diagnosed with illnesses that keeps him from enjoying the simplest of culinary pleasures.
Sometimes I think that a new or novel path would be one through which man could escape this mirage of success and set forth towards his real and true destination. What are the foundation blocks that could help man soar above the thoughts of only achieving success? What qualities of disposition or temperament could provide him guidance through the valley of shadows? What regulations could prove to be the candle of hope through dark nights of physical desires? What relationship could lift one out of the quicksand of hopelessness?
Perhaps man should never lie, love books, and abstain from eating the non-halal. He should detest falsehood just as much he abhors the pig. However, in our society, literacy and speaking the truth are considered misdemeanors just as immoral as eating pork. Man shouldn’t degrade anyone for any reason; neither with speech, nor through body language, intention or even by doubt. Just in order to ensure that the other person remains comfortable in his presence and not feel discomfiture, distress or nervousness of any sort, one should be amicable and kind and display compassionate mannerisms.
The more I ponder, the more the threads of my thought gather together at one point. No matter where I start, everything culminates at one word; love.
When a man admits to the love of Allah (swt) and starts to work on perfecting this love, he automatically starts to gain all the techniques, building blocks, and rules that guide him towards the new path. On this path, impoverishment is wealth, destitution is gift, and suffering is happiness. Here, there is the proximity of Allah (swt), His consent, His work, and His will…and the worshipper’s neck is bent with the weight of emotion. Such a person starts to copy Allah (swt). Just like it is against the grandeur of Allah (swt) to belittle His creation, so should it be against the rules of the man who professes love for Allah (swt). It is also not in Allah’s (swt) glory to shut doors or to turn away empty handed the one who knocks. How could there ever be a comparison between man and Allah (swt). The very best that a man can do is to try to be the best he can be and continue on wards.
It is only compassion and love that can lift the curtains off the mirages of this world. This would then be a morning, the beauty of which will never fade. Every dawn will bring brilliant new colors, intoxicating new scents, beckoning new paths, and glorious new destinations. This would be the path upon which the destination itself comes to kiss the feet of the traveler.