Bought “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran from The Harvard Coop and it has been accompanying me on my flight home from the United States.
“Oftentimes have I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world. But I say that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise beyond the highest which is in each one of you, So the wicked and the weak cannot fall lower than the lowest which is in you also. And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree, So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all. Like a procession you walk together towards your god-self. You are the way and the wayfarers. And when one of you falls down he falls for those behind him, a caution against the stumbling stone. Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him, who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone.”
This part of the book on Crime and Punishment really pulled on my heartstrings like a child clings on the edge of his mother’s blouse. Too often, all of us are guilty of forming negative conceptions of others based on their misdeeds.
Misdeeds. Wicked or illegal acts.
What gives us the right to formulate that opinion when, more often than not, misdeeds may just be missteps? Mercy and tenderness have too long been lost in the cutthroat race for success. Nothing is lost when compassion is offered. What I’ve learnt from Mama and Papa is that compassion is never wasted. The inextricably confusing reasons why people behave the way they do or hurt us will somehow, someday be unraveled to reveal a spellbinding message. A message that would have been lost if we had given up hope on people.
Insya’llah, we will be blessed enough to be the shelter that anyone and everyone would need during a gloomy season. For we know not when this season will grace our lives instead of theirs.
