It is for over several centuries that we have been...

It is for over several centuries that we have been considering the existence of forests as useless, but with the passage of time, we have now realized that we obtain a number of useful things from these very forests. Had not people been saying for a long time that the glands in our body are quite useless? But now they say that these glands produce in the blood useful cells technically called phagocytes which devour the invading microbes in our body.

For years people thought that vermiform appendix, the blind pouch at the junction of the small and the large intestine was a useless thing but nowadays it is claimed that this appendix plays an important role in the prevention of cancer.

If we are reading a book which deals with highly important subjects and we come across a difficult word whose meaning is not known to us, we should not arrive at a hasty decision about the book and should not blame its author, but on the contrary, we should review our understanding of the meaning of that word.

Now that we have comprehended the true meaning of justice and that our criticism of it is based on our superficial and hasty decision, we deal with the third point, that is, why we should try to know the causes of our troubles. (iii) The third point is that while counting our troubles we altogether ignore our own doings and blame Allah for all that. We complain to Allah and say, “O Allah!

if you are Just why am I faced with these troubles?” Obviously, many of the troubles and hardships are due to our own faults as for example if we do not take care of our health by hygienic methods we are sure to fall sick. Similarly according to the principle of doing good and preventing others from doing evil and if we do not prevent the evils the evildoers will overpower us and in that case our supplications, implorations and invocations would be of no use.

On this subject too we take the guideline from the following verses of the Holy Qur’an: Whatever misfortune befalls you is a consequence of your own deeds. (3) When We let the people taste mercy, they rejoice in it, but when some misfortune befalls them because of their own doings they at once become desperate. (4) As for man, whenever his Lord tests him by bestowing favour on him and blesses him, he says, ‘My Lord is kind to me.

But when He tests him by stinting his means of living, he says my Lord has disgraced me.