Loss and Gain
In this world, both losing and gaining are tests. Neither is a loser a failure nor is a gainer victorious. Successful is one who maintains his composure in both situations.
In this world a person is sometimes the loser and sometimes the gainer. Loss and gain are two experiences everyone undergoes at one time or another. No one is exempt.
Now the question arises: what does one make of such experiences? Islam tells us that both kinds of experience are meant as tests. Here gaining in itself does not mean success. Similarly, losing does not mean that one has become a total failure.
The actual importance in the matter of losing and gaining does not lie in loss or gain. What is crucial is the kind of response one gives whilst undergoing these experiences.
In the case of losing, a person should not regard himself as deprived and a failure: he should not lose all hope and fall to lamenting and complaining. On the contrary, he must prove himself capable of rising above the experience by taking everything in his stride. He should bear all forms of adversity patiently and maintain his balance. He should think that just as the giver is God so also is the taker God. This being so, he has to willingly accept His decision, because it is only in doing so that he can again be deserving of God’s mercy and succour.
Conversely, when he is the gainer, he should not become proud and consider himself superior to everyone else. On the contrary, he should ensure that success only adds to his modesty. In relation to God and humanity, whatever responsibilities devolve upon him should be shouldered by him in a far superior way.
In this world, losing and gaining are both tests. Neither is a loser a failure nor is a gainer victorious. The true sign of success or failure is how the individual copes with these experiences.
The successful one is he who, after experiencing loss or gain, maintains his composure. None of these experiences cause him to deviate from the path of moderation. It is people of such staunchness who will be held successful in the eyes of God. Nothing will come in the way of their success.
