Spirit of Islam, Nov-Dec 2025

I t was May 7, 2012. After a foreign tour, I landed at Delhi airport and used a wheelchair. At the exit, my companion offered some money to the young attendant manoeuvring the chair. He refused with a shy firmness: “Don’t give me money—give me your Ashirwad. I’m appearing for an examination; please pray that I pass.” I placed my hand on his head and prayed for him. What that airport boy said was anything but simple. It revealed a creative, self-respecting mindset: to choose effort over easy money; to prefer the path of becoming a self-made person rather than relying on a favour. In that moment, he chose growth over gratuity. When you decide to stand on your own feet, you begin tapping your own potential. Every human being is born with tremendous capacity, but potential unfolds only through sustained hard work. The soundest policy for anyone seeking success is to strive to discover and develop what lies within, rather than to depend on advantages from elsewhere. People often remark, with a hint of envy, that someone was “born with a silver spoon in his mouth.” This is a mistaken ideal. Fortunate is the one born with an incentive spoon—the spur of necessity. If you grow up with hardship, it activates you; it lights the will to work. If you grow up in excess comfort, it dulls motivation. Self-motivation invariably outstrips external support. Every favour is limited by nature; none has an unlimited scope. But when you commit to unfolding your own potential, you set out on a journey without a ceiling. A favour might offer temporary relief; only hard work leads to durable achievement. All super-achievement in history has sprung from effort, not favour. THE UPPER HAND OF EFFORT Hard Work Builds Dignity Living on favours makes one a taker in society; living by hard work makes one a giver. And the giver is invariably better than the taker. What you earn by dint of effort brings with it something priceless— confidence.