Stay sharp

Once upon a time a very strong woodcutter got himself a job with a timber merchant.  The pay was really good and so were the working conditions.  The woodcutter was determined to do his best.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the place where he was to work. The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.  

"Congratulations," the boss said. "Go on that way!"  Very motivated by the boss' words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he brought only 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder but got 10. Day after day the number of trees he brought decreased.

"I must be losing my strength", the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying he could not understand what was going on.

"When was the last time you sharpened your axe?" the boss asked. "Sharpened my axe? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees," replied the woodcutter.

Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don't take time to sharpen the "axe."  Without regularly sharpening the axe, we become dull and complacent.  We lose our sense of perception with plenty of limitations crowding our minds.  We get trapped in confusion.

In today's world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever but less happy than ever. Why is that?  Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay sharp?  Most likely, yes.  So, how do we stay sharp?

There's nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But God Almighty does not want us to get so busy with the mundane issues that we neglect the truly important things in life - taking time to pray and to read, understand and follow His Final Message.   We all need time to relax quietly, to think, to reflect, to learn and to grow .. and thus sharpen our wits and be able to recognize the truth and reject what's temporary and phoney.   

Dear folks, take time to read the most Glorious Quran and stay sharp.  It will be the only piece of ever-valuable wealth we will be carrying with ourselves on our final journey.  We will leave everything else behind, even our bodies.

"And a soul and Him Who perfected it
And inspired it (with conscience of) what is wrong for it and (what is) right for it.
He is indeed successful who causeth it to grow,
And he is indeed a failure who stunteth it."  (91:7-10) Surah Ash-Shams

Human conscience, if left to itself either tends to get apathetic or become a prey of misguidance and incorrect concepts.  Thus, it remains stunted without the foundation of the Monotheistic Faith.  To avoid such dreadful failures in life and to succeed, we need to work hard to enable our conscience to grow.  We can only enable it to grow with the help and support of Allah Almighty - reading the Glorious Quran as an inseparable part of our daily schedule with the utmost of concentration so that we grasp the direct and indirect references of every sentence we read and implement it into our lives correctly.