Carving The Character

Posted under Dawah, Nasiha, Seeds, Teaching, think by Radiant Light

 “The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.”

“A man’s errors are his portals of discovery.”

Assalamualaykum

At times I feel as though teaching has been given the wrong name, ever since I’ve started teaching I feel as though I’m the one learning more and more everyday. Understandably I do teach, hence the occupation, but the lessons learnt aren’t lessons of paper but great lessons of life.

I’ve always lived by the simple rule of “don’t do to others what you wouldn’t like done to yourself”, as the hadith goes “Wish for your brother what you wish for yourself”.

Same when teaching, you often might shout at a student, or punish them for misbehaving, and believe me kids really know how to make some-one feel guilty, the looks they can give! I often just have to harden my heart and keep strict.
I’m not a great fan of being the “mean teacher” but at times you just gotta bite the bullet, and be super strict even if it kills you inside.

In the same way in life people often might seem to just hurt you for no reason, but comes the making excuses for  a person, maybe they had a good intention for doing it, and you misread it, but the essence is as Allah (swt) mentions in the Quran that no hurt can come to you except that Allah wills.

Another of my strongest beliefs is that, experience carves a persons character, either for the better or for the worse. With each experience good or bad is the opportunity to use it to make you a better person or the opportunity to become the opposite. There is no better teacher than experience.

True carving of one’s emaan and character is taking some-thing from everything, no person is perfect, you can sit back and cry over the past or get up and use it to improve yourself and the future.
Live by the constant reminder that we’re nothing in this world … Even if some-one does hurt us, are we some major artifact of perfection ourselves? This world is nothing but a Prison for the true believer, what more do you expect from a prison if not hurt and trials? Take a step back and look have I broken a rule some-where along the line?

Its easy to blame others, the hardest step is to take a step back and look at ourselves, the evaluation of our own actions. We ourselves aren’t capable of reaching perfection, so how can we expect it of others?

“And if Allah touches you with hurt, there is none who can remove it but He; and if He intends any good for you, there is none who can keep back His favour; He brings it to whom He pleases of His servants; And He is the Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
- Qur’an, surah Yunus; 10:107

WaAlaykumAssalam