A boy, an old man & a camel

*Once upon a time, there were a boy and his elderly father walking on the dessert carrying their goods on their shoulder. While walking, they found a camel with no master. They decided to take the camel and make used of the animal to carry those goods. Not long after that, they bumped into a stranger that gave a remark to them “why do you only put the goods on top of the camel, and allow the poor child to walk on his own? Thus they decided to have the goods and the boy to be on top of the camel. They continued their journey. Along the way the met a different stranger, this man saw them and started to say “why is the camel carrying the goods & the boy, when you as an old man deserved to be carried instead?” Listening to this man’s suggestion, the father replaced his son riding on the camel along with their goods.” Half way through, a different stranger saw and said to them “shouldn’t you allow the poor little boy to ride the camel?” Agreeing to this, the father came down from the camel and let the boy to ride on it instead. (Kesian..penat unta tuuu….) but not long after that, another stranger commented to them “The young boy should give way to the elderly, why don’t you ride the camel and not the boy?” Upon hearing this, again they swap places; having the father to ride the camel with the goods & the boy walking behind them.
After a while, they decided themselves to both ride the camel with the goods instead. While riding, they met a different guy who greeted them; he said “That poor camel, with you both & the goods on top of it.” The father & the son were puzzled, nothing seemed to be right in whatever decision they made, different people would give different feedback to them. So what should be the right way then???
Moral of the story: you can’t always follow what people say, you would end up exhausting yourself & swarm with confusions; plus you are killing that poor camel, nobody wants to carry the camel!!

Something to ponder about:
1. When should you then ask for opinions & suggestions for your problems/conditions?
2. Should you listen & follow suggestions given?
3. How do you evaluate all different opinions given?
4. Should you just ignore what people says about you and do whatever that you feel best & right for you? But what if what you feel is not justifiable to be the best decision? Then shouldn’t you get other people’s suggestion or opinion to benchmark? –go back to point 1.

maizikeem’s note: It’s true that you can’t always follow blindly on what people tell you to do because they are not in your shoes. They are just a bystander who has an opinion over a surface observation. BUT you don’t live alone, you can’t avoid feedback or comments. Personally, I would say you need a little bit of both; be selective in sharing and to whom you are sharing it with. But how about unavoidable comments that was given to you without being asked? “If I were you, I would…” or “you should do this way instead…” or “I strongly feel that you have made a mistake…” How do you manage that? Well there’s always this saying “take it with a pinch of salt”. At the end of the day, formulate all the inputs, digest if you may, absorb it if YOU feel it’s worth it, spit it out if it’s irrelevant & un-applicable.
It’s all about you.

story was told by my daughter Maira one day. It was shared by her ustazah during her mangaji lesson last week..