A Handful of Salt

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The old master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it.  “How does it taste?” the master asked. 

“Awful,” spat the apprentice. 

The master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake.  The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake, the old man said, “Now drink from the lake.” 

As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the master asked, “How does it taste?” 

“Good!” remarked the apprentice. 

“Do you taste the salt?” asked the Master. 

“No,” said the young man. 

The master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said, “The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less.  The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same.  But the amount we taste the ‘pain’ depends on the container we put it into.  So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things.  Stop being a glass.  Become a lake!” 

And the best of means to enlarge a heart is the Remembrance of Allah (s.w.t.).  For what is a lake compared to His Oceans of Tawhid?  And there is no better way of understanding a sense of proportion than the knowing that it is all His Will which is Anchored by His Justice and Covered by His Mercy. 

سُوۡرَةُ یسٓ

فَٱلۡيَوۡمَ لَا تُظۡلَمُ نَفۡسٌ۬ شَيۡـًٔ۬ا وَلَا تُجۡزَوۡنَ إِلَّا مَا ڪُنتُمۡ تَعۡمَلُونَ (٥٤) 

Then, on that Day, not a soul will be wronged in the least, and you shall but be Repaid the meeds of your past deeds. (Surah YaSin:54)