Day: 26 September 2020

A well-known speaker started off his seminar by holding up a $20 bill. In the room of

200, he asked, “Who would like this $20 bill?” Hands started going up. He said,

“I am going to give this $20 to one of you but first, let me do this.” He proceeded to

crumple up the $20 bill. He asked, “Who still wants it?” Still hands were up in the air.

“Well, what if I do this?” He dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the

floor with his shoe. He picked it up, now crumpled and dirty and asked, “Who still

wants it?” Still hands went up into the air.

My friends, we have all learned a very valuable lesson. No matter what was done to

the money, it was still wanted because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth

$20. Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled and ground into the dirt by the decisions

we make and the circumstances that come our way. We may feel as though we are worthless.

But no matter what has happened or will happen, you will never lose your value: dirty or clean,

crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless to those who love you.

Once upon a time, there was a selfish man. He liked everything to be

his own. He could not share his belongings with anyone, not even his

friends or the poor.

One day, the man lost thirty gold coins. He went to his friend’s house

and told him how he lost his gold coins. His friend was a kind man.

As his friend’s daughter was coming from an errand she found thirty gold coins, when she arrived

home, she told her father what she had found. The girl’s father told her that the gold coins belong

to his friend and he sent for him. When the selfish man arrived, he told him how his daughter had

found his thirty gold coins and handed then to him. After counting the gold coins the man said that

ten of them was missing and had been taken by the girl as he had forty gold coins. He further

commented that he will recover the remaining amount from him. But the girl’s father refused.

The man left the gold coins and went to the court and informed the judge there about what had

taken place between him and the girl’s father.

The judge sent for the girl and her father, and when they arrived asked the girl how many gold

coins did she find. She replied thirty gold coins. The Judge that asked the selfish man how many

gold coins did he lose and he answered forty gold coins.

The judge then told the man that the gold coins did not belong to him because the girl found thirty

and not forty as he claimed to have lost and then told the girl to take the gold coins and that if any-

body is looking for them he will send for the girl.

The judge told the man that if anybody reports that they have found forty gold coins he will send

for him. It was then that the man confessed that he lied and that he lost thirty gold coins but the

judge did not listen to him.

This story teaches us to be always honest as dishonest never pays.

One beautiful spring day a red rose blossomed in a forest. Many

kinds of trees and plants grew there. As the rose looked around,

a pine tree nearby said, “What a beautiful flower. I wish I was that

lovely.” Another tree said, “Dear pine, do not be sad, we can not

have everything.”

The rose turned its head and remarked, “It seems that I am the

most beautiful plant in this forest.” A sunflower raised its yellow

head and asked, “Why do you say that? In this forest there are

many beautiful plants. You are just one of them.” The red rose

replied, “I see everyone looking at me and admiring me.” Then

the rose looked at a cactus and said, “Look at that ugly plant full

of thorns!” The pine tree said, “Red rose, what kind of talk is this?

Who can say what beauty is? You have thorns too.”

The proud red rose looked angrily at the pine and said, “I thought

you had good taste! You do not know what beauty is at all. You can

not compare my thorns to that of the cactus.”

“What a proud flower”, thought the trees.

The rose tried to move its roots away from the cactus, but it could not move. As the days passed,

the red rose would look at the cactus and say insulting things, like: This plant is useless?

How sorry I am to be his neighbor.

The cactus never got upset and he even tried to advise the rose, saying,

“God did not create any form of life without a purpose.”

Spring passed, and the weather became very warm. Life became difficult in the forest, as the plants

and animals needed water and no rain fell. The red rose began to wilt. One day the rose saw

sparrows stick their beaks into the cactus and then fly away, refreshed. This was puzzling, and the

red rose asked the pine tree what the birds were doing. The pine tree explained that the birds got

water from the cactus. “Does it not hurt when they make holes?” asked the rose.

“Yes, but the cactus does not like to see any birds suffer,” replied the pine.

The rose opened its eyes in wonder and said, “The cactus has water?”

“Yes you can also drink from it. The sparrow can bring

water to you if you ask the cactus for help.”

The red rose felt too ashamed of its past words and

behavior to ask for water from the cactus, but then it

finally did ask the cactus for help. The cactus kindly

agreed and the birds filled their beaks with water and

watered the rose’s roots. Thus the rose learned a lesson

and never judged anyone by their appearance again.

Once upon a time in Africa, roosters ruled cats. The cats worked

hard all day and at night they had to bring all they had gathered for

the roosters. The king of the roosters would take all the food for

himself and for the other roosters.

The roosters loved to eat ants. Thus, every cat had a purse hung

round its neck, which it filled with ants for the king of the roosters.

The cats did not like the situation. They wanted to rid themselves of

the king so that the food they gathered through hard work and great

difficulty would be their own. But they were afraid of the roosters.

The roosters had told the cats that rooster’s combs were made out of fire and that the fire of their

combs would burn anyone who disobeyed them! The cats believed them and therefore worked from

early morning until night for the roosters.

One night, the fire on the house of Mrs. Cat went out. She told her kitten, Fluffy, to bring some fire

from Mr. Rooster’s house. When Fluffy went into the house of the rooster, she saw that Mr. Rooster

was fast asleep, his stomach swollen with the ants he had eaten. The kitten was afraid to wake the

rooster, so she returned home empty handed and told her mother what had happened.

Mrs. Cat said, “Now that the rooster is asleep, gather some dry twigs and place them near his comb.

As soon as the twigs catch fire, bring them home.”

Fluffy gathered some dry twigs and took them to the rooster’s house. He was still asleep. Fluffy

fearfully put the dry twigs near the rooster’s comb but it was no use, the twigs did not catch fire.

Fluffy rubbed the twigs against the rooster’s comb again but it was no use they would not catch fire.

Fluffy returned home without any fire and told her mother, “The roost’s comb does not set twigs on

fire.” Mrs. Cat answered “Why can’t you do anything right! Come with me I’ll show you how to

make fire with the rooster’s comb.” So together they went to the house of Mr. Rooster.

He was still asleep. Mrs. Cat put the twigs as near to the rooster’s comb as she could. But the twigs

did not catch fire. Then, shaking with fear, she put her paw near the rooster’s comb and gently

touched it. To her surprise, the comb was not hot, it was very cold, and it was just red colored.

As soon as Mrs. Cat realized that the roosters had lied to the cats about their combs, she joyfully

went out and told the other cats about the rooster’s tricks. From that day on, the cats no longer

worked for the roosters.

At first, the king of the roosters became very angry and said to the cats; “I will burn all of your

houses if you do not work for me!”

But the cats said, “Your comb is not made of fire. It is just the color of fire.

We touched it when you were sleep. You lied to us.”

When the king of the roosters found out that the cats knew that he had

lied to them, he ran away. Now, whenever roosters see a cat, they scurry

away, because to this very day they are afraid of cats.

Once upon a time, there was a hungry fox that was looking for something to ear. He was very

hungry. No matter how hard he tried, the fox could not find food. Finally he went to the edge of the

forest and searched there for food. Suddenly he caught sight of a big tree with a hole in it.

Inside the hole was a package. The hungry fox immediately thought that there might be food in it,

and he became very happy. He jumped into the hole and when he

opened the package, he saw there were a lot of food, bread, meat

and fruit in it!

An old woodcutter had placed the food in the tree trunk while he

cut down trees in the forest. He was going to eat it for his lunch.

The fox happily began to eat. After the fox had finished eating, he

felt thirsty and decided to leave the trunk and drink some water

from a nearby spring. However, no matter how hard he tried, he

could not get out of the hole. Do you know why? Yes, the fox had

eaten so much food that he became too big to fit through the hole.

The fox was very sad and upset. He told himself, “I wish that I had

thought a little before jumping into the hole.”

Yes children, this is the result of doing something

without thinking about it first.

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.

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.”

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.