Balanced Thinking
Take loss and gain within the framework of a test, not personal interest. This belief saves one from frustration in loss and feeling arrogant when achieving success.
Chapter 57 of the Quran states: “No misfortune can affect the earth or your own selves without its first having been recorded in a book, before We bring it into being. That is easy for God to do; so that you may not grieve for what has escaped you, nor be exultant over what you have gained. God loves neither the conceited nor the boastful.” (57:22-23)
In the present world there are times when a person suffers from deprivation and as a result he is given to despair. But at other times he is successful and, as a result, he becomes swollen up with pride. Both these states are forms of ruination. Neither will lead a person to progress.
When a person gains, what is the reason? Both losing and gaining are related to the system of nature. The fact is that this world has been created for the purpose of putting a person to the test. The whole system here is based on the principle of this exigency. Here failing is a test paper and so also is succeeding.
In such a situation, the right approach or attitude for a person is that he should take both the happenings within the framework of a test, rather than within the framework of his personal interests. A person ought to think that what he has lost he was destined to lose by a rule of nature. Similarly, when he gained something, it was the demand of the system of nature. In both the cases the actual reason for things happening as they do stems from nature, rather than from a person’s own desires or struggle.
If a person understands this reality he will be able to evaluate his experiences in a normal way. This belief saves a person from a sense of deprivation when he suffers the experience of a loss and which is apparently unnecessary. Similarly, this belief saves a person from pride and arrogance when he meets with success, for this attitude causes him to lose both in this world as well as in the Hereafter.
