The Real Achiever

The Real Achiever According to the Quranic account, Qarun was punished by God on account of his arrogance. This story enshrines one of the divine laws: if someone receives wealth, he should be grateful to God, otherwise he will be disgraced by God Almighty. Any achievement in this world is due to two factors: (1) one’s own efforts, and (2) the support of the infrastructure established by God in this world. The ratio is very unequal. One’s own share is less than one per cent, while the share of the divine infrastructure is more than ninety-nine percent. This being so, it is quite unrealistic for a man or a woman to become arrogant. The only realistic behaviour for an achiever is for him or her to show complete modesty. Arrogance means denying the bounty of God and modesty means acknowledgement of God’s contribution. According to the Quran, the arrogant should be punished for their ungratefulness and the modest should be blessed with greater bounty. This, moreover, is directly related to personality development. Arrogance vitiates one’s personality with negativity, while modesty creates positive thinking. There is a great difference between the two: negative thinking is the source of all kinds of evils, while positive thinking is the source of all kinds of goodness. Wise men are always modest in their behaviour.