The Importance of Playing a Secondary Role

Man has certain limitations. You may work out a plan with good intentions but, due to miscalculation, you fail to achieve your target. This kind of failure can be forgiven; your excuse on this occasion will be quite acceptable. You can say that your assessment had not been realistic, and that that was why you failed to achieve your target.

But this is not the end of the matter. If this happens, you have to say that you were wrong. Accepting the mistake is the best way out of the difficulty, but if you try to find some scapegoat and try to put all the blame on that supposed scapegoat, it will not work.

This kind of explanation is bound to boomerang. If you are facing such a situation, do not try to blame others. Doing so is simply a waste of time, because there is no taker for it. So, as soon as you discover that you have made a mistake, accept it in terms of its consequences; and do so immediately. You have to understand that you may have lost the first chance but that now there is time to avail of a second chance. But success in availing of this second chance depends solely upon your acceptance of your own mistake and not putting the blame on other people.

Let there be no Vain or Sinful Talk

In the chapter Al-Waqi‘ah (The Inevitable Event) the Quran tells us about Paradise. How people will live in Paradise is portrayed as follows:

Paradise of the Hereafter is an ideal society. The present world is like a recruiting ground, in which people are being put to the test. Those who qualify in this test will gain entry to Paradise. The present world is a selecting ground and Paradise is a place where those selected will be settled.

One quality required of the people of Paradise is the ability to refrain from creating a nuisance for others, i.e. the ability to live in society in complete peace and tranquillity. Those who prove that they have the capacity to live according to this norm will be included in the list of those who will be settled in Paradise.

Although the above-mentioned verse is about the society of Paradise, it tells us what kind of social values are acceptable in the present world as well. When we keep in mind that the present world is a selecting ground, then it becomes very clear that in both the places the same ethical norms are required—in the present world as well as in the world hereafter.