Page 216 - Quranic Wisdom - New.indd

A World of Competition

awaken people’s minds and enable them to turn their potential
into reality. This is the natural way of progress and development.
In this world of competition, any success story is a story of
struggle. Everywhere there are examples of individuals born into
poor families who took their poverty as a great incentive, and
jumping into the world of struggle and hard labour produced
miraculous results. There are many instances of people who were
born in poverty, who inherited nothing themselves, but who
made their respective fortunes and left great wealth for their
progeny and relatives.

It is a matter of dignity that man has freedom of
choice and by exercising his freedom, he can achieve
all kinds of success.

Our world is a world of activity. The whole universe is active
day and night, and such activity is likewise required of man.
Other entities of the universe are compelled by the law of nature
to be active, but man has been given the freedom to be active or
to remain idle as he pleases. So whenever man is active, it is as
a result of his own volition; man is free and able to plan his life
on his own.
It is a matter of dignity that man has freedom of choice and by
exercising his freedom, he can achieve all kinds of success. This
is a great honour conferred upon man by God and is referred to
thus in the Quran: “We have honoured the children of Adam.”
(17:70) What people generally call suffering in human life is not
so much suffering as being beset by some kind of problem; but
the majority of problems in human life are temporary, because
man has the capacity to overcome them; he can turn his minus
points into plus points; extract success from failure; and start a
new beginning from what appears to be an end.

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