Coming to Maturity A Re-birth

Coming to Maturity A Re-birth

1988 5 May 18-19 Coming to Maturity A Re-birth (449) “When I put My servant to the test, and he remains patient, uttering never a word of complaint to anyone he meets, I free him from My grip, and put new flesh and blood in him. He then sets about his work with renewed vigour.”

– Hadith Qudsi

The Prophet Muhammad has set down, in a Hadith Qudsi, the words of Almighty God: “When I put My servant to the test, and he remains patient, uttering never a word of complaint to anyone he meets, I free him from My grip, and put new flesh and blood in him. He then sets about his work with renewed vigour.”

A man’s first birth is that which brings him into this world, when he is born of his mother. But there is a ‘re-birth’, a second birth in a man’s life, which is brought about by the man himself. Anyone who has not experienced their new birth is just an ordinary human being, subject to all the everyday influences of family and environment, as he goes about his work. On the other hand one who has been born anew, is an ever-progressing, ever-developing human being. The revolution which has taken place within him has made a new man of him.

How is it that a new man of this nature comes into existence? It is in response to the situations which confront a man in life that such an event takes place. In the normal course of existence, one perforce comes face to face with all sorts of adverse circumstances. There are two ways of reacting to them. Either one may fall to complaining and become embittered, or one may display courage and patience at all times, retaining one’s mental and emotional poise. In the first case, the habitual complainer becomes such a prey to his own negative sentiments, that he can never proceed beyond this point on the journey of life. He is like the gramophone needle, struck at one place on the record, doomed forever to remain in the same repetitive groove. However, the man who remains patient, and uncomplaining in the face of adversity, does not allow himself to become a prey to hatred or jealousy, and does not, therefore, lose his peace of mind. He may be besieged on all sides by cruelty and oppression, but this does not make him show anger, or even exasperation. For such an individual, un-favourable circumstances are what cast him in a new mould, from which he emerges as a being of a finer temper and of a higher moral calibre. It is by virtue of his patience in the face of adversity that he develops into a fully mature human being.