THE CLEVER BOY
A man with his donkey carrying two sacks of wheat was on his way to
the market. After a little while he was tired and they rested under a tree. When he woke up from his nap he could not see the donkey and started
searching for the donkey everywhere. On the way he met a boy, he asked the boy, “Have you seen my donkey?” The boy asked, “Is the
donkey’s left eye blind, his right foot lame and is he carrying a load of wheat?” The man was happy and said, “Yes, exactly! Where have you
seen it?” the boy answered “I haven’t seen it.” This made the man very
angry and he took the boy to the village chief for punishment.
The judge asked, “Dear boy, if you had not seen at the donkey, how
could you describe it?” The boy answered, “I saw the tracks of a donkey
and the right and left tracks were different from this I understood that
the donkey that passed there was limping. And the grass on the right
side of the road was eaten but the grass on the left was not. From that I understood that his left eye was blind. There were wheat seeds scattered
on the ground and I understood that he must have been carrying a load of wheat. The judge understood the boy’s cleverness and told the man to forgive the boy.
This story teaches us that we should not be quick to judge the people.
AMERCHANT AND HIS DONKEY
One beautiful spring morning, a merchant loaded his donkey with
bags of salt to go to the market in order to sell them. The merchant
and his donkey were walking along together. They had not walked
far when they reached a river on the road.
Unfortunately, the donkey slipped and fell into the river and noticed
that the bags of salt loaded on his back became lighter.
There was nothing the merchant could do, except return home
where he loaded his donkey with more bags of salt. As they reached
the slippery riverbank, now deliberately, the donkey fell into the
river and wasted all the bags of salt on its back again.
The merchant quickly discovered the donkey’s trick. He then
returned home again but re-loaded his donkey with bags of sponges.
The foolish, tricky donkey again set on its way. On reaching the river he again fell into the water. But instead of the load becoming lighter, it became heavier.
The merchant laughed at him and said: “You foolish donkey, your trick had been discovered, you should know that,
those who are too clever sometimes over reach themselves.”
THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
One cold, frosty day in the middle of winter a colony
of ants was busy drying out some, grains of corn, which
had grown damp during the wet autumn weather.
A grasshopper half dead with cold and hunger, came
up to one of the ants. “Please give me a grail or two
from your store of corn to save my life,” he said faintly.
“We worked day and night to get this corn in.
Why should I give it to you?” asked the ant crossly.
“Whatever were you doing all last summer when you
should have been gathering your food?”
Oh I didn’t have time for things like that, said the
grasshopper. “I was far too busy singing to carry corn about.”
The ant laughed I unkindly. “In that case you can sing all winter as far as I am concerned,” he said. And without another word he turned back to his work.
Islam teaches us that we should help the less fortunate. But it also teaches us that we must work hard and not rely on the kindness of others for our daily needs.