Lesson From An Amusing Story

[ummtaalib]

A man had bought a goat and was on his way home when a few people decided to trick him out of it. As he walked with the goat the first person greeted him and commented, “Nice dog”. The man immediately said angrily, “Cant you see? It’s a goat!”, and so saying carried on. Further on a second man said the same thing. This time he looked back at the goat and with a little less confidence said, “It’s a goat”.

When a third person did the same he became doubtful and his confidence dwindled to a low but he nevertheless answered that it was a goat. However when a fourth person commented, “Nice dog”, he lost all confidence and remained silent. He looked back and rubbed his eyes thinking it looks like a goat but since people are saying it’s a dog, perhaps it’s a dog and with this thought he let the goat go free.

This is exactly our state. Despite knowing we are lower than dogs, when people praise us and ask us to made du’a and address us respectfully, we fall for it and become convinced we are “someone” when in reality we are "no-one"!

May Allah subhaanahu wata'ala grant us the reality of our insignificance. This story has been taken from the teachings of Shaykh Muhammad Saleem Dhorat (hafizahullah)...it made me realise how easily we fall for the deception of Shaytaan who makes us concentrate on the little good which we do (and even that little good is only through the sheer grace of Allah subhaanahu wata'ala)!