The Story Of Rabbit And Tortoise, And Muslims Of Today
Today, I was astonished to watch a video on my Facebook, in which a Rabbit and a Tortoise are seen racing and so many kids standing around are watching their race and joyfully are clapping and enjoying the sight. The Tortoise is slowly and constantly moving, while the Rabbit occasionally jumps and then rests and then moves. This scene reminded me of the story, which I had read when I was a school going kid. I want to share that story with my younger generation and draw some lessons for them. This moral lesson is for individuals and also for nations.
It is said that in a forest, there was a fast Rabbit and a slow tortoise living together. They were friends as well. Rabbit always reprimanded his friend Hare for his slow pacing and very arrogantly boasted on his fast speed. One day, the Tortoise challenged the Rabbit for race. They raced but the Rabbit napped thinking that he will reach the appointing goal in a few jumps, while the Tortoise will crawl with slow speed. The Tortoise kept on crawling without any nap or rest and won the race, teaching us that “slow and steady wins the race.” Success lies in consistency.
The moral of the story is that speed alone does not always win the race. Consistency and patience are also required in achieving one’s goal. The Hare was very proud and confident of winning the race, so he stops during the race and falls asleep. It shows that the people or nations who fall asleep when it is the time of waking, they are bound to defeat and destroy. I am remembered of a couplet of great poet- philosopher Dr Iqbal who in an Urdu verse had said:
یہ مصرع لکھ دیا کس شوخ نے محرابِ مسجد پر
کہ ناداں گِر پڑے سجدے میں جب وقتِ قیام آیاSome playful person has written this poetry line on the arch of the mosque:
when it was the time to act, the fools prostrated”.
It means the importance of time is quite essential to achieve the desired results. Action speaks louder than words.
The Resolution of this story is that when the Rabbit woke up, the Tortoise was near the goal. The Hare now ran his swiftest, but he couldn’t over take the tortoise in time. Do the task in time, if you want to succeed in your mission. Delay is destruction. Delay is death. Delay is defeat. William Shakespeare in his play “Hamlet”, tells us that the Prince Hamlet had an innate weakness of delay, hence, he failed in avenging his enemy who was his own uncle, who had planned the murder of his father and married his mother who was Queen.
Aristotle called this inborn weakness as “Hamartia”. The people and the nations who have distracted minds and do not act with persistency and constancy are bound to lag behind and fail in their attempts. Tortoise crawled slowly but steadily and won the race. Arrogance, over confidence and lethargy became the cause of the defeat of Rabbit in race.
I humbly suggest the people and slow pacing Eastern nations that if they want to compete with the advanced Western nations, they should respect and accept Time-spirit and shun their non-scientific and irrational beliefs to win the race of life. Time is running fast; we will have to run fast with time. In Arabic there is an adage:
الوقت سیف القاطع
Time is a cutting sword.
Had this sword been in our hands, we wouldn’t be suffering at the hands of Israel and India. Out swords are rusted and sheathed. We need sharp swords out of sheaths.
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