Whether it be the life of an individual or of a society the law of competition...

Whether it be the life of an individual or of a society the law of competition, effort and conflict applies everywhere. And as it is the law and it is the fate of man that strenuous effort is unavoidable, it is necessary that we should select a work which is useful, and our competition in the field of our choice should be honourable, fruitful and purposeful. And this is the topic of today's speech.

This topic that is "Successful striving" has taken into account the historical events which took place on certain dates. There are some pre-conditions for a successful effort which it is necessary to know and to keep in mind in, the struggle of life: The first thing is that there should be a specific and clear aim of our effort. An aimless effort is meaningless. Every effort has no doubt an aim but that aim is usually ambiguous and not clear.

It is often seen that a person struggles throughout his life but eventually achieves nothing. Why? It is because his struggle and effort did not have a specified path. He worked and made effort but his aim was not clear and fixed. He roamed about in a blind alley. His labor was lost and he got nothing. If the history of the nations of the world is studied, numerous examples of futile and purposeless efforts will be found.

It is possible that everyone of you may have seen the examples of aimless effort in your own life or in the life of your nation or you may have read about them in books. It is necessary that the target and aim of the effort should be clear and unambiguous and at the same time it should be sublime and meaningful. At times it is seen that the object is clear and fixed and the person concerned can also spend his time to achieve it but does not agree to spend money for it.

At times, however, he considers his object to be more important than wealth and does not mind spending money to achieve it, but steps back if his health is to be staked. At times a person is prepared even to sacrifice his health but when he finds his life to be in danger he becomes nervous and withdraws from the field.

At times, however, the object is so lofty that a person gets ready to sacrifice not only his own life but also to sacrifice, with perfect sincerity, the lives of his most dear ones. This is the precious object to which every human being should pay attention. This object is acquires the pleasure of Allah. This is the first condition of successful effort.