Thank God For Your Eyesight

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?"

The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."

What he had written was: "Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it."

Do you think the first sign and the second sign were saying the same thing?

Of course both signs told people the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

"It is He, Who has created for you (the sense of) hearing (ears), sight (eyes), and hearts (understanding). Little thanks you give." [Al-Mu'minun; 78]

The Emperor and The Seed

An emperor in the Far East was growing old and knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided something different. 


He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you."

The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today. One very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor!"

One boy named Rei was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the story. 

She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it carefully. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.


Rei kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks went by. Still nothing. 


By now, others were talking about their plants but Rei didn't have a plant, and he felt like a failure. Six months went by-still nothing in Rei's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed.

Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Rei didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Rei told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But his mother told him to be honest about what happened, Rei felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. 


He took his empty pot to the palace. When Rei arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful-in all shapes and sizes. Rei put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other kinds laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey nice try."

When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. 


Rei just tried to hide in the back. "My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown," said the emperor. "Today, one of you will be appointed the next emperor!" 


All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Rei at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Rei was terrified. "The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!"

When Rei got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. "My name is Reiichi," he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. 


He looked at Rei, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His name is Reiichi!" Rei couldn't believe it. Rei couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor? 


Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds which would not grow.


All of you, except Rei, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Rei was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!"

The Prophet taught, "Truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to Paradise. And a man keeps on telling the truth until he becomes a truthful person. Falsehood leads to Al-Fajur (i.e. wickedness, evil-doing), and Al-Fajur (wickedness) leads to the (Hell) Fire, and a man may keep on telling lies till he is written before Allah, a liar." [Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 8:116]

The Power of Words

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. 

When the other frogs saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead.

The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all their might. 

The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. 

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and gave up. He fell down and died.

The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. 

Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. 

When he got out, the other frogs said, “Did you not hear us?” 

The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

There is power in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day. 

On the contrary, a destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them. 

Be careful of what you say — especially to yourself.

The Sweetest Strawberry

A man traveling across a field encountered a tiger. He fled, the tiger after him.

Coming to a precipice, he caught hold of the root of a wild vine and swung himself down over the edge. The tiger sniffed at him from above. Trembling, the man looked down to where, far below, another tiger was waiting to eat him. Only the vine sustained him. Two mice, one white and one black, little by little started to gnaw away at the vine.

The man saw a luscious strawberry near him. Grasping the vine with one hand, he plucked the strawberry with the other, and then eat it. It tasted so sweet.

Always seize the moment, no matter how bad the circumstance is.

Wishes of Two Trees

Take some time to cherish this story.... Like a lot of things in life, it's much easier said than done but this is where faith and perseverance comes in.

Once there were two trees on a hill in a woods. They were discussing their hopes and dreams when the first tree said "Someday I hope to be a treasure chest. I could be filled with gold, silver and precious gems. I could be decorated with intricate carving and everyone would see the beauty."

Then the second tree said "Someday I will be a mighty ship. I will take kings and queens across the waters and sail to the corners of the world. Everyone will feel safe in me because of the strength of my hull."

After a few years of praying that their dreams would come true, a group of woodsmen came upon the trees.

When one came to the first tree he said, "This looks like a strong tree, I think I should be able to sell the wood to a carpenter." and he began cutting it down.

The tree was happy, because he knew that the carpenter would make him into a treasure chest.

At the second tree a woodsman said, "This looks like a strong tree, I should be able to sell it to the shipyard." The second tree was happy because he knew he was on his way to becoming a mighty ship.

When the first tree arrived at the carpenters, he was made into a feed box for animals. He was then placed in a barn and filled with hay. This was not at all what he had prayed for.

The second tree was cut and made into a small fishing boat. His dreams of being a mighty ship and carrying kings had come to an end.

The years went by, and the trees forgot about their dreams. Then one day, a man and women came to the barn. She gave birth and they placed the baby in the hay in the feed box that was made from the first tree.

The man wished that he could have made a crib for the baby, but this manger would have to do. The tree could feel the importance of this event and knew that it had held the greatest treasure of all time.

Years later, a group of men got in the fishing boat made from the second tree. One of them was tired and went to sleep. While they were out on the water, a great storm arose and the tree didn't think it was strong enough to keep the men safe.

The men woke the sleeping man, and he stood and said "peace" and the storm stopped. At this time, the tree knew that it had carried the king of kings in it's boat.

The moral of this story is that when things don't seem to be going your way, always know that God has a plan for you. If you place your trust in Him, He will give you great gifts. Both of the trees got what they wanted, just not in the way they had imagined.