MAKE YOURSELF ELIGIBLE

MAKE YOURSELF ELIGIBLE Being Beneficial T HE Quran reveals the secret of a successful life. And the secret is: Be beneficial to others. In this world, only people or communities who prove to be beneficial to others earn their respect. The world rejects those who are not beneficial to others. This principle of life is referred to in the following Quranic verse: He sends down water from the sky that fills riverbeds to overflowing, each according to its measure. The torrent carries along swelling foam, akin to what rises from smelted ore from which man makes ornaments and tools. God thus depicts truth and falsehood. The scum is cast away, but whatever is of use to man remains behind. God thus speaks in parables (13: 17). Using an analogy, this verse expresses an important principle of life. In a flood or when something is subjected to intense heat, useful substances remain, while unwanted substances get separated. The same holds true in the case of human beings. People and groups gain a position of respect if they prove to be useful. In contrast, those who lose their usefulness are dumped into the dustbin of history and the world moves on. The whole of human history supports this Quranic declaration. For instance, around the mid-20th century, various European colonial powers were forced to relinquish their control over most of Asia and Africa. But when the former European colonies in Asia and Africa won political freedom, they discovered that they had no one to man their educational institutions. And so, many of these countries invited ‘experts’ from the very same European countries that they had earlier been colonized by. Things went to such an extreme in some cases that political independence soon turned into technical servitude. Today, Western countries control these states by controlling their economies and through their domination in the field of science, in just the same way as they once controlled these states politically. People and groups gain a position of respect if they prove to be useful. In contrast, those who lose their usefulness are dumped into the dustbin of history and the world moves on.