BEING SKILLED OUT OF SAFE ZONE
By Doel Mersault
Allah says in The Holy Qur’an:
“Wa ‘asaaa an takrahuu syai-aw wa huwa khoirul lakum.
Wa ‘asaaa an tuhibbuu syai-aw wa huwa syarrul lakum.”
The translation was:
“And you may hate something, and indeed it is very good for you. And you may love something, and indeed it is very bad for you.” (Al-Baqarah, verse 216)
And Allah says in Surah Al-Balad or The City:
“Alam naj’al lahuu ‘ainain?
Wa lisaanaw wa syafatain?
Wa hadainaahun najdain?
Fala-qtahamal ‘aqobah.”
The meaning was:
“(8) Have We not made for him a pair of eyes?
(9) And a tongue, and a pair of lips?
(10) And shown him the two highways (bad and good)?
(11) But he had made no haste (speed) on the path that was steep (vertical)”
From what Allah says, we know then that we should choose the uneasy way to be a good man in front of Allah. Choose to pray in the night, not to sleep on the nice bed. Choose to work hard, not to take a rest all the time. Choose to study, not to read comics. Choose to love, not to be loved. Choose to say ‘salam’, not to wait until someone say ‘salam’ to us.
May be, you think that working hard, studying, praying, and all good activities will make you tired and sick; then you don’t like the activities. As a matter of fact, the activities will give you goodness in the future.
And may be, you think that sleeping, reading comics, playing and resting all the time were enjoyable and will make you better. In fact, all the activities will make you worse, not better in the future. You will become lazy and lazier. Lazier you were, farther you were from success. Or lazier you were, closer you were to failure.
There was a good story for you:
One day there were two men working in the wood. They were cutting off many bars of wood. The wood was used as stock or supply at home. The wood would be used for making fire to cook or something else that needs fire. They cut off the wood along the day.
One of them was working without resting. He cut the wood and never stopped until the day ended. At the end of the day, he collected many bars of wood. Say 200 bars of wood.
And, another man was working for 50 minutes each and then he took a rest for 10 minutes. And at the end of the day, he got 300 bars of wood! His friend wondered and asked, “How can you get more wood than me? I never take a rest, but you do.”
The man said, “When I took a rest, I also sharpened my axe.”
From the story, can you find something unusual? Something that many people don’t do?
Yes, it’s strange if he sharpened his axe when he should take a rest. So, we know why the second man can get more wood than the first man. It can be so because the second man was not really resting, but he sharpened his axe. Therefore, he could cut the wood more quickly. He change the way of thinking. When average people (many people) think that resting is enjoying time by relaxing, he think that resting time can be used for doing something useful although it means that he cannot enjoy himself in the resting time.
There are two different things here. On one hand, there is an ordinary way that is done by ordinary people –then we call this as safe or secure zone. On the other hand, there is a way that is done by extraordinary people, great people, amazing people, and we call this out of safe zone or insecure zone.
Don’t let me pray to be free from danger, but let me get spirit to conquer the danger.
Don’t let me pray to be free from working hard, but let me get spirit to defeat laziness.
Don’t let me pray to be free from examination, but let me have spirit to beat the stupidity.
Don’t let me pray to be free from tests, but give me power to overcome the tests.
