A beautiful story worth
sharing!
Here it is:
An old American Muslim lived on a farm in the mountains of
eastern Kentucky with his
young grandson. Each
morning Grandpa was up
early sitting at the kitchen
table reading his Quran. His grandson wanted to be just
like him and tried to imitate
him in every way he could.
One day the grandson asked,
“Grandpa! I try to read the
Quran just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do
understand I forget as soon as
I close the book. What good
does reading the Qur’an do?”
The Grandfather quietly
turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, “Take
this coal basket down to the
river and bring me back a
basket of water. The boy did
as he was told, but all the
water leaked out before he got back to the house. The
grandfather laughed and said,
“You’ll have to move a little
faster next time,” and sent
him back to the river with the
basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster,
but again the basket was
empty before he returned
home. Out of breath, he told
his grandfather that it was
impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a
bucket instead.
The old man said, “I don’t
want a bucket of water; I
want a basket of water.
You’re just aganot trying hard enough,” and he went out the
door to watch the boy try in.
At this point, the boy knew it
was impossible, but he
wanted to show his
grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the
water would leak out before
he got back to the house. The
boy again dipped the basket
into river and ran hard, but
when he reached his grandfather the basket was
again empty. Out of breath, he
said, “See Grandpa, it’s
useless!”
“So you think it is useless?”
The old man said, “Look at the basket.”
The boy looked at the basket
and for the first time realized
that the basket was different.
It had been transformed from
a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out.
Son, that’s what happens
when you read the Qur’an.
You might not understand or
remember everything, but
when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That
is the work of Allah in our lives.”
