Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | Speaking Tree Blog | October 18, 2021
There is a saying that there is always light at the end of the tunnel. If you enter a tunnel, you will feel first of all that there is darkness everywhere. However, if you go on walking, after some time you will begin to notice a small circle of light ahead of you. And when you come to the end of the tunnel, you will find yourself in broad daylight and open air.
The tunnel is an example from the physical world. The same example is also applicable to the human world in which life is a journey for which there is seldom a smooth path. Everywhere on this path there are problems, unwanted situations and sometimes darkness. But, if you do not lose courage and hope, the moment will certainly come when you have reached the light at the end of the tunnel.
Why are there difficulties along the road to any given destination? Consider that difficulties give you experience, make you earnest with regard to your goal and enhance your creativity. Difficulties, thus, reinforce your powers of perseverance, and inculcate the highest values of life. Great qualities cannot be cultivated without the experience of a difficult journey. All is for your own betterment. The Scottish author Samuel Smiles once rightly said: ‘We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success.’
What is the reason behind this? The reason is that failure makes you all the more keen to attain your goal. Moreover, it brings about brainstorming – the best source of intellectual development – and stimulates you to revise your planning so that it may the more effectively enable you to achieve your goal.
Success brings you contentment, and this eventually brings to a halt your thinking processes. On the other hand, failure makes you discontented, and discontent is the greatest source of continuous effort in life.