Learning Lessons from Mundane Occurrences

One quality of the godly person described in the Quran is the willingness to learn lessons (15:75). Learning lessons means recognizing some internal qualities from external signs. One who is able to learn lessons from things and experiences, can derive spiritual food therefrom. The ability to learn lessons is extremely necessary for the attainment of maarifah. One who does not have this capacity will certainly never attain to maarifah.

On one page of a 60-page magazine, published in 2010 by Australian Education International, a large- scale world map on the one hand shows India in white and on the other hand, at a distance of one thousand miles, it shows Australia in green. Indian youths are addressed in this Indian map with these words, “You are here.” The caption on the map of Australia reads, “Your future is there.”

On seeing this map, all of a sudden it comes to mind that man today is in a world prior to death, while his eternal future lies in the world after death. The present world is not one where one should be concerned with seeking one’s future. The future lies rather in the world Hereafter which will come later. It is the intellectual acceptance of this fact which leads to the transformation of material events into spiritual experiences.

We can learn lessons from everything in this world. If a man’s mind is awakened, he will receive the nourishment of maarifah through his ability to learn lessons.