Issues of Ijtihad

THE ART OFCLEAR THINKING one mistake of his had given an opportunity to his former friend to cheat him. The right thing now for him to do was to accept this mistake and to reform himself for the future. To take revenge is to turn one’s ‘first mistake,’ as it were, into a chain of continuous destruction. On the other hand, to not take revenge is to nip one’s mistake in the bud. A foolish person knows only his actions, while a wise man knows not only his actions but also their possible consequences. Second Chance A certain man was a manager in a company. He had a dispute with the company’s owner. The dispute kept mounting. It caused the manager grave mental stress and tension, so much so that he began contemplating suicide. Instead of trying to end the problem, he decided to end his own life, in the hope of thereby saving himself from the problem. This man happened to meet me. I asked him why he wanted to commit suicide. The doors of life were open to him, so, what was the need to choose the door of death? I said that he had ostensibly lost only his ‘first chance.’ A ‘second chance’ was still available for him. I then suggested that he shift to some other city. On the basis of his abilities, he could get good opportunities elsewhere. After advising him thus, I penned these words in his diary: ‘Sometimes, a gardener plucks a plant in his garden from its place only so that he can plant it in some other, better place.’