Bring a bucket that has a little hole in its bottom. Put it in a dry bathtub under the faucet. Open the faucet to fill the bucket. The little hole at the bottom of the bucket will allow some unintended escape of water from the bucket. There will be a latent time during which the bucket becomes full with to its brim with water. That latent period in which no water will flow out from the top of the bucket after it becomes totally full will depend on two things. First is the speed of flow of water from the faucet into the bucket and second is the size of the hole in the bottom of the bucket. The more intense the flow into the bucket the faster you will get it full and ready to pour. The wider the unintended hole the slower you will get it full inspite of the fast input from above. What will flow out of the bucket is excalty what was flowing into it from the faucet. If the input was water then the output is water and if the input is liquid black tar then the output is liquid black tar and if the input is a mix then the output is a mix of both. On the other hand if the input was very slow such that it was steadly drained out through the unintended hole in the bottom of the bucket you will never fill the bucket and hence will never have an output that flows from the top of the bucket and into the bathtub.
Now that is all very basic and any child knows that!
ALLAAH (SWT) teaches us through His words in the Qur'aan to give very simple examples and similitudes when He (SWT) explains to us the most complex aspects of human nature through diverse and beautiful parabels in the Noble Qur'aan. Consequently one learns how to present one's ideas or thoughts to others such there would be greater understanding between all different peoples and each other.
The above given example of the bucket is a very simplified yet accurate example or similitude to people's diverse roles in life accroding to what they choose for themselves.
The bucket here is an example of one's mind and heart.
What is coming out of the faucet is what you are feeding your mind and heart with.
The little unintended hole at the bottom is forgetfulness and sins.
The bathtub in which the bucket is placed in is the surrounding community.
Accordingly if you continuously feed your heart and mind with useful knowledge and rememberance of ALLAAH, after a period of time you will reach a stage where they are fully saturated with such knowledge and rememberance. If you continue feeding them you will eventually reach a stage will you will start overflowing and hence benefiting your surrounding community with the knowledge you acquired with time. The faster and more persistently you feed or fill your mind and heart the more you will pour into the surrounding community and maybe flood the whole area.
However we have to put in mind 2 important factors. The first is the forgetfulness and sins. The less you have of these the more you will be able to contain the input and hence be able to give to others and viceversa.
The second thing is that there is a latency period during which you are filling and saturating your mind and heart during which there is no production or overflow that would benefit the surrounding. This period is very crucial and dangerous. Many people give up during the latency period and end up neither being fully saturated themselves nor benefiting the surrounding. That period might range from 5-25 years depending on how fast is the knowledge flowing in and the size of the hole (amount of sins and forgetfulness one does) through which one loses his input.
On the other hand if you feed the mind and heart with selfishness and greed or any sinful input you will end up being saturated with them and eventually negatively influencing your surrounding community with them.
Finally if the input is very modest and is nearly equal to the loss though the little hole in the bottom you will end up neither being saturated with anything nor affecting your surrounding community.
To the first category belong the creative sceintists and sincere scholars who are few.
To the second category belong the evil arrogant people in the world.
To the third category belong the majority of people on earth who are born and die without having a role to play that affects their community.
May we all be from the first category and may we all raise our children to be amongst them.
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