Last Friday, fresh off a Mac Miller concert. I got home and got ready for the monthly last Friday Tajud (Muslim night vigil) that I usually attend.
I always leave the place with something new, sometimes it could just be a realisation of something I know but then somehow begin to see it from a different perspective.
According to the Cambridge dictionary, perception is “a belief or opinion, often held by many people and based on how things seem”
What I learnt last Friday was about perception, the Alfa who is the equivalent of a pastor told a story about how they attempted raising money to purchase a building they wanted. The organisation needed to raise quite a lot of money of which they were 35k short. They decided to visit mosques in different locations seeking assistance. While on this journey they came across a small mosque and the majority said “let’s not go in there, look how small it is. How can there be people of wealth in there, there is a bigger mosque down the road where I am sure we could raise the money”. They got to the big mosque and unfortunately failed to raise the money, weeks went by and a decision was made to go to the small mosque hoping to raise some of the money and they ended up raising all of the 35k from that same small mosque that they looked down upon.
Another story he narrated was of a situation that took place in Nigeria about a shop owner that was not making any sales, he went to see an Alfa for prayers and some advice. The Alfa told him that the reason he was not making sales was down to him. He was told not to turn anyone down irrespective of who they were, how he felt about them and how they were dressed, he was advised to attend to all customers. He ended up making more sales than he did in the past because he looked at everyone the same.
Once I got home, I decided to speak to my parents about it, telling them how now they should know never to look down on people (African parents tend to that a lot). My mum however thought the story had a different meaning to it. I have always known not to look down on people because looks can be deceiving and what you see is not always what you get, people can have access to resources you could never have imagined and well it is just unpleasant to judge someone from the get-go.
I want to end this with an Aesop fable that I really like and think sums it all up.
The Lion and the Mouse
Once when a Lion was asleep a little Mouse began running up and down upon him; this soon wakened the Lion, who placed his huge paw upon him, and opened his big jaws to swallow him. “Pardon, O King,” cried the little Mouse: “forgive me this time, I shall never forget it: who knows but what I may be able to do you a turn some of these days?” The Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he lifted up his paw and let him go. Some time after the Lion was caught in a trap, and the hunters who desired to carry him alive to the King, tied him to a tree while they went in search of a wagon to carry him on. Just then the little Mouse happened to pass by, and seeing the sad plight in which the Lion was, went up to him and soon gnawed away the ropes that bound the King of the Beasts. “Was I not right?” said the little Mouse. Little friends may prove great friends.
Read my previous post titled “Favour” for a better understanding of this topic.
Hak Gway
POTS 