• Story Corner: The man who promised to tell the truth

    // Gradly // blog, Islam, Stories 4 Responses

    Once a man came to the prophet Muhammad (S) and said, “Oh Prophet of Allah, I have many bad habits. Which one of them should I give up first?” The prophet said, “Give up telling lies first and always speak the truth.” The man promised to do so and went home.

    At night the man was about to go out to steal. Before setting out, he thought for a moment about the promise he made with the prophet. “If tomorrow the prophet asks me where have I been, what shall I say? Shall I say that I went out stealing? No, I cannot say that. But nor can I lie. If I tell the truth, everyone will start hating me and call me a thief. I would be punished for stealing.”

    So the man decided not to steal that night, and gave up this bad habit.

    Next day, he felt like drinking wine, when he was about to do so, he said to himself, “What shall I say to the prophet if he asks me what did I do during the day? I cannot tell a lie, and if I speak the truth people will hate me, because a Muslim is not allowed to drink wine.” And so he gave up the idea of drinking wine.

    In this way, whenever the man thought of doing something bad, he remembered his promise to tell the truth at all times. One by one, he gave up all his bad habits and became a good Muslim and a very good person.

    • Some hadeeth on the importance of being truthful.

    ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘You must be truthful, for truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise. A man will keep speaking the truth and striving to speak the truth until he will be recorded with Allaah as a siddeeq (speaker of the truth). Beware of telling lies, for lying leads to immorality and immorality leads to Hellfire. A man will keep telling lies and striving to tell lies until he is recorded with Allaah as a liar.” (Reported by Muslim, 4721)

    Al-Hasan ibn ‘Ali ibn Abi Taalib (may Allaah be pleased with them both) said: “I memorized from the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him): ‘Leave that which makes you doubt for that which does not make you doubt, for truthfulness is certainty and tranquillity, whilst lying is doubt and confusion.” (Reported by al-Tirmidhi, 2520; al-Nisaa’i, 8/327; and Ahmad, 1/200)

  • Story Corner: Difference between appraisal & resignation

    // Gradly // blog, Funny, Humor, Stories 2 Responses

    -A newly joined trainee engineer asks his boss “what is the meaning of appraisal?”
    –Boss: “Do you know the meaning of resignation?”
    –Trainee: “Yes I do”
    –Boss: “So let me make you understand what an appraisal is by comparing it with resignation”

    Comparison study : Appraisal and Resignation

    • In appraisal meeting they will speak only about your weakness, errors and failures.

    • In resignation meeting they will speak only about your strengths, past achievements and success.

    • In appraisal you may need to cry and beg for even 10% hike.

    • In resignation you can easily demand (or get even without asking) more than 50-60% hike.

    • During appraisal, they will deny promotion saying you didn’t meet the expectation, you don’t have leadership qualities, and you had several drawbacks in our objective/goal.

    • During resignation, they will say you are the core member of team; you are the vision of the company how can you go, you have to take the project in shoulder and lead your juniors to success.

    • There is 90% chance for not getting any significant incentives after appraisal.

    • There is 90% chance of getting immediate hike after you put the resignation.

    –Trainee: “Yes boss enough, now I understood my future. For an appraisal I will have to resign … !!!”

  • Story Corner: The Salt !!

    // Gradly // blog, Stories 2 Responses

    Once an unhappy young man came to an old master and told he was very sad and asked for a solution.

    The old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it. “How does it taste?” the Master asked. “Awful,” spat the apprentice. The Master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake, the old man said, “Now drink from the lake.”

    As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the Master asked, “How does it taste?” “Good!” remarked the apprentice. “Do you taste the salt?” asked the Master. “No,” said the young man. The Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said,

    “The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount we taste the ‘pain’ depends on the container we put it into. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things … Stop being a glass. Become a lake

    The moral of this story:
    When you have pain in Life :

    • If you put it in front of GOD then it will be very less.
    • But if you put it in front of any other than him it will be very large!!

  • Story Corner: Will Power

    // Gradly // blog, Humor, Stories 2 Responses

    An old man lived alone in Minnesota. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work.

    His only son, who would have helped him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his situation.

    Dear Son, I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my potato garden this year.

    I hate to miss doing the garden, because your mother always loved planting time. I’m just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot.If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me, if you weren’t in prison.

    Love, Dad

    Shortly, the old man received this telegram:

    “For Heaven’s sake, Dad,don’t dig up the garden!! That’s where I buried the GUNS!” At 4a.m.

    the next morning,

    A dozen FBI agents and local police officers showed up and dug up the entire garden without finding any guns.

    Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what happened, and a sked him what to do next.

    His son’s reply was: “Go ahead and plant your potatoes, Dad. It’s the best I could do for you from here.”

    The moral of this story:

    • No matter where you are in the world,
    • if you have decided to do something deep from your heart, you can do it.
    • it is the thought that matters not where you are or where the person is.