By Mohamed Tewfik
Adam and Eve, the first two human creatures on earth were assigned the arduous job of making the earth they descended to liveable and reclaimed. They, after their earlier failure to abide by their Lord’s advice and test in the splendid paradise emerged successful, this time in their hard labour on this earth. This success taking shape of raising the grandfathers of our humanity race had been unattainable without guidance from Allah, our Creator. This is being fully explained in the crow’s story (5:31) and (2:37). With the revelation of the Holy Qur’an to the Prophet(mpbuh), this guidance to our race has been reinforced by verses 5,6 and 7 of the opener chapter, Al-Fatihah.
Having the guidance of our creator becomes a necessity to all of us and an early signal to a forthcoming success. However, we will still need to exert a personal effort to fulfil this sublime guidance. Such effort will be reciprocated then by Allah’s help and victory (7:47)
Equipped with a spiritual power which is being translated into a concrete progress towards his goal, man has to ensure that reaching this goal would not be to the expense of others. In other words, his success could be a one for all. Certain characteristics should prevail. One of these is altruism. The following story illustrates this concept:
A farmer was used to winning on a yearly basis a prize for his farm’s product of maze which excelled all other similar products. Asked how he achieved this fame his answer, to the surprise of his interlocutor, was as follows:
“I have had the habit of travelling far away to get new clean seeds and distributing them among my fellow neighbouring farmers for cultivation!” His interlocutor asked: “But why when these neighbours are in competition with you?”
He replied smilingly:” We are all in the same boat! Pollen seeds carried by wind should affect all of us should my neighbour’s seeds were contaminated or not good for cultivation. With me working also for their welfare, I pursue my routine efforts vis a vis my own crop using water and fertilizers. No wonder! My crop always comes first!”