Third Word Worship And Happiness Sin And Loss The Two Soldiers

The Third Word

بِسْمِ اللّٰهِ الرَّحْمٰنِ الرَّح۪يمِ

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

يَٓا اَيُّهَا النَّاسُ اعْبُدُوا

O you people, worship! (2:21)

If you want to understand what great profit and happiness lie in worship, and what great loss and ruin lie in vice and dissipation listen to and take heed of the following story which is in the form of a comparison.

One time, two soldiers received orders to proceed to a distant city. They set off and travelled together until the road forked. At the fork was a man who said to them, "The road on the right causes no loss at all, and nine out of ten of those who take it receive a high profit and experience ease of mind. While the road on the left provides no advantages and nine out of ten of its travellers make a loss. But the roads are the same as regards distance. Only there is one difference: those who take the left-hand road, which has no rules and no one in authority, travel without baggage and arms. They feel an apparent lightness and deceptive ease. Whereas those travelling on the right-hand road, which is under military order, are compelled to carry a kit-bag full of nutritious rations four okkas or so in weight and a superb army rifle of about two kıyyes which will overpower and rout every enemy."

After the two soldiers had listened to what this instructive man had to say, the fortunate one took the road to the right. He loaded the weight of one batman onto his back, but his heart and spirit were saved from thousands of batmans of fear and feeling obliged to others. As for the other, luckless, soldier, he left the army. He did not want to conform to the order and he went off to the left. He was released from bearing a load of one batman, but his heart was constricted by thousands of batmans of indebtedness and his spirit was crushed by innumerable fears. He proceeded on his way both begging from everyone and trembling before every object and every event until he reached his destination. And there he was punished as a mutineer and a deserter. As for the soldier who loved the order of the army, had guarded his kit-bag and rifle, and taken the right-hand road, he had gone on his way being obliged to no one, fearing no one, and with an easy heart and conscience until he reached the city he was seeking. There he received a reward worthy of an honourable soldier who had carried out his duty faithfully.