UNLOCKING THE GATES TO SUCCESS
Need the Right Key
THE guest struggled desperately to open the lock, and as he went on and on twisting and turning the key, his vexation finally turned to fury. “This lock is defective!” He shouted to anyone who cared to listen. Then he muttered under his breath that his host had been a fool to buy such a lock. The next to have his wrath vented on it was the lock-making industry, which produced worthless goods, not caring whether they worked or not and not caring whether people were put to trouble or not. Their business was only to make money out of unsuspecting consumers!
By this time he was at the end of his tether and decided to hammer it open. Just then, his host arrived and tried the key in the lock himself. “Oh, I am so sorry!” He exclaimed. “I quite forgot I had changed this lock, and gave you the wrong key.” He then produced the right key and the lock opened instantly. The guest’s ire had been quite misdirected and ultimately he achieved nothing by it except reduce himself to a state of utter exhaustion.
This modern age has changed the locks to life's doors,
we cannot unlock new locks with old keys.
Many Muslims find themselves in this sorry predicament today. Faced with one impasse after another, finding areas which they urgently need to enter, difficult to access, nay, impenetrable, because they have the wrong keys. This modern age has changed the locks to life’s doors, but we carry the same old keys, hopefully fitting them here and there, staring in frustration when locks do not snap open for us, and then fritter our energies in senseless rage. We curse the lock-makers and the environment. But to no avail, because you just cannot unlock new locks with old keys.
Our leaders in their frustration, have thought fit to identify certain “enemies of Islam” and to trace all their woes to them—as if they were the sole purveyors of these impregnable locks. But in this world of God, there is no attitude more insensate than this. Here, if we feel deprived and thwarted, it is because we are suffering the punishments for our own negligence and shortcomings. In this world, most of our afflictions are due to our failure to live up to the standard of the times. The day we realise how much we are out of step with modernity, we shall be in a position to remove all obstacles from our path. We must fit the right keys to the locks on life’s gates and all avenues will open before us. o