Recognizing Oneself
God has a special purpose for every individual human being. To be born into this world is to make a promise to God that one will spend one’s life fulfilling the purpose that God intends for one. The worth of every human being lies in his faithfulness to this promise.
God has endowed every individual with certain talents. These talents may be inborn, or they may develop at a later stage in life. It is for every human being to recognize where his talents lie, and then make use of them, thereby enacting the role that God has singled out for him. One who recognizes himself in this way has taken up his true place in God’s pattern of creation, while one who fails to do so will find himself at odds—not only with himself—but with the whole of creation.
This can be illustrated by the respective cases of two companions of the Prophet Muhammad. Abu Huraira was one of the companions, and Khalid, the son of Walid, another. No less than 5,374 traditions (sayings of the Prophet) have been related on the authority of Abu Huraira, while less than one hundred can be traced back to Khalid. Extraordinary as this disparity may seem, all it indicates is a difference in the arena in which they worked. It does not mean that one of them did more for Islam than the other.
Abu Huraira and Khalid were both sincere, dedicated Muslims. But as regards talents, they were very different from each other. Each of them awoke to his separate vocation in life and followed it implicitly. In accordance with his own particular abilities, Abu Huraira picked one arena in which to serve the cause of Islam, while Khalid picked another, equally suitable one, for himself.
Before Khalid became a Muslim, he took part in several military campaigns against Islam. He later told of how he used to fight with the feeling that he had “adopted a mistaken stance”—that he was fighting for the wrong cause. His conscience continued to haunt him, until shortly before the conquest of Mecca, when he went to Medina and accepted Islam.
Khalid was by nature exceptionally brave and courageous. He recognized this quality of his and saw how to use it to full effect. By becoming fully aware of himself, he recognized the special part that had been delegated to him on the vast stage of the Islamic arena. He determined to use the courage God had given him to destroy polytheistic religion and establish monotheism in its place.
Khalid, therefore, dedicated the rest of his life to active service in the cause of Islam. Continually he would ask God to make him strong and steadfast in this path, and he also used to ask God’s Prophet to pray for him. So great were his services to Islam that the Prophet called Khalid “one of God’s swords, drawn against the idolators.”
As for Abu Huraira, he did not have the same qualities as Khalid. What he did have, however, was a prodigious memory. Recognizing where his talents lay, he resolved to use them in the service of Islam.
It is related in the Hadith that Abu Huraira once asked the Prophet to pray that God should give him knowledge which he would not forget. The Prophet said “Amen” to that and prayed as Abu Huraira had requested. Abu Huraira’s exceptional memory was both a result of the Prophet’s prayer for him, and also of his own eagerness to serve Islam in the way most suited to his talents and temperament.
Under the protective wing of such prayers, he devoted himself heart and soul to the area to which he was assigned. Spending as much time as he could in the company of the Prophet, he listened attentively to what was said, memorizing it and—when the need arose—writing it down. By recognizing where his own talents lay, and in doing all he could to develop them, he has taken his place in Islamic history as the greatest original relator of the sayings of Prophet Muhammad.
Every person has a responsibility to first recognize himself—to see where his own talents lie and do all he can to channel them in a positive direction. By doing this one is benefiting, not only oneself, but even more the cause to which one is committed.
