A new blog from one the reader's here seems to be off on a good foot, masha'Allah. Brother Liam posted the following parable from Shaykh Nuh Keller -- I have also heard him tell it in so many words...enjoy:
The Sun and the Wind
The following was a story told by Sheikh Nuh during one of his darses in America. I'm not sure where it originated and I'm using my own words in telling it. So please bear with me if my wording isn't all that great:
Long ago, the wind and the sun decided to have a challenge to see who was more powerful. So they looked to the earth and saw a man wrapped in a cloak walking along a path and felt that this man would make a good example as to who was the more powerful of the two. They decided to see who could get the man to remove his cloak first.
The wind decided to go first and tried to blow the man's cloak off of him. When it wouldn't come off, he blew harder and harder with all his might and could not get the cloak off the man. In fact, the man only drew the cloak tighter and tighter to his body. When the wind exhausted all of his might, there the man sat with his claok wrapped tightly around him still.
So the sun took it's turn and just shined on the man with no effort...just a nice warm glow. After time, the man began to loosen his grip on the cloak. Then after a while longer, he began to sweat. And finally after some waiting and some patience from the sun, the man finally removed his cloak thus declaring the sun the winner.
The moral here is that when dealing with people (in dawah or otherwise), approaching them with harshness will only cause them to draw furthur away from you and make them more tight-lipped. The key is to have sabr and give the charity that all can give whether rich or poor...a smile. Then people will be more open with you and share what is in their hearts, thus causing you to be able to know the real; the only thing worth truly knowing in any of us.
May Allah guide us all.
salaams...nice blog you have, havent got the chance to read it but i hope u dun mind if i keep coming back :) i am titut from indonesia, nice to meet you :)
ReplyDeletemay Allah be pleased with what you do, take care
MAY PEACE BE UPON YOUR SOUL, HEART, MIND, AND BODY...AMEN.
ReplyDeleteWa'alaykum Assalam wa Rahmatullah,
ReplyDeleteTitut: Shukran for your kind words. Please do come back and stay in touch. I tried looking at your blog, but I think it's in Malay!
Sara: May Allah grant you the same, and I wish you all the best with your blog, too.
Thank you both for dropping by.
Wassalam,
Salikah
As-Salaamu 'alaikum,
ReplyDeleteThis parable is ancient; I read it in a book of school assembly ideas way back when my mum was at teacher training college. Shaikh Nuh did not invent it and I can't imagine he would have claimed to have done.
Wa'alaykum Assalam wa Rahmatullah Sidi,
ReplyDeleteNice to hear from you. Ahh yes, brother Liam did point out that he was unsure of its origins and that's prefaced near the top of my post -- both of us just heard it from Shaykh Nuh and mentioned that, but by no means implied it was his alone. Jazak Allah khayr for confirming that it is indeed an ancient parable.
Keep up the good work, and drop a line whenever you're up to it.
Wassalam,
Salikah