Starve the problems, feed the opportunities.
The book collects the pearls of wisdom from the pen of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, guiding people toward right thinking. The greatness of humanity lies in our ability to think. We believe first, then act. We will decide on the right course of action if we have the right review. Life is a series of experiences. The readiness to learn lessons from our experiences, and those of others, help us to develop intellectually and succeed. It is our level of thinking which determines our success or failure. Success is the result of right thinking. Think right, do right, and succeed.
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Maulana Wahiduddin Khan (1925-2021) was an Islamic scholar, spiritual guide, and an Ambassador of Peace. He authored over 200 books and recorded thousands of lectures giving the rational interpretation of Islamic concepts, prophetic wisdom, and the spiritual meaning of the Quran in the contemporary style. His English translation, The Quran, is widely appreciated as simple, clear and in contemporary style. He founded Centre for Peace and Spirituality (CPS) International in 2001 to re-engineer minds towards God-oriented living and present Islam as it is, based on the principles of peace, spirituality, and co-existence. Maulana breathed his last on 21 April, 2021 in New Delhi, India. His legacy is being carried forward through the CPS International Network.
The End
The word “shortcut” may apply to the world of roads and footpaths. However, there are no shortcuts in the struggle of life.
You have removed most of the roadblocks to success when you have known the difference between motion and direction.
Tension is another name for taking a wrong choice.
Maturity is perseverance, sweating out a project despite setbacks.
Success is never final, and failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts.
It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; they are difficult because we do not dare.
The only initiative worth taking is one which will yield positive results.
He who has no mission in life is the poorest of all.
Whoever seeks to obtain small benefits at the risk of great dangers is like a fisherman using a hook of gold; should it come off, no catch would compensate for the loss
Evil can have no beginning but from pride nor any end but in humility.
With peace, one can achieve what one cannot achieve with violence.
If you have a good excuse, don’t use it.
If someone pelts you with stones, do not quarrel with him. Instead, raise yourself to such a height that the stones cannot reach you.
A two-word success story— work works.
Wisdom lies in knowing what is possible and what is not possible in terms of the circumstances.
Do not rail at the darkness.
Light a candle, and the darkness will itself disappear.
When two different ideas clash, a third idea emerges. So take the difference as an intellectual challenge, and it will certainly be a blessing for you.
If your building is weak, you cannot prevent it from being washed away by the flood.
The secret of success lies in man’s learning the secret of failure.
No seed turns into a tree by leaps and bounds. Similarly, a person cannot reach his destination without travelling for the requisite period.
To live in a state of happiness, you must learn the difference between need and desire.
Tolerance is one of the greatest factors in stabilising human relationships.
If you want to succeed in this world, the first thing you have to do is display enough courage
to welcome failures.
The secret to success in life is to plan one’s time and energy wisely and
to avail of the opportunities within one’s reach.
People are equal as regards respect, but they are different in the roles they play in life.
Accept the status quo in controversial matters and divert your activities to the non-confrontational field.
The world is full of friends.
Someone is your actual friend; another is your potential friend.
Man is born to succeed, but he makes himself a failure
due to his negligence.
The ordinary person lives in his greatness. The believer lives in the greatness of God.
Be large of heart and succeed.
Be small of heart and fail.
The wind carries away the scattered particles of sand, causing them
to float all around.
However, when these particles of sand join together to make
a mountain, no tempest is strong enough to shake them.
Man has to pay the price for his faults, however much he tries to find someone who will pay the price for his mistakes.
It is bad to do evil. However, it is worse to hate the evil-doer.
It is possible to usurp something, but keeping a possession that is not rightfully yours is impossible.
The world is a testing ground for wisdom. It is not a political platform for protests and clamour.
It is a wise man who learns from his own mistakes.
When a piece of wood breaks up, it breaks into two or many parts. However, there is no question of defeat and destruction for a living being. When a live amoeba breaks up,
it becomes two living amoebae.
Complaint is the origin of every evil. Complaint leads to hate; hate leads to enmity, and enmity leads to violence.
No one fights for another: everyone has to fight life’s battles himself.
Success depends on the ability to convert unfavourable circumstances into favourable ones.
The false man bows before power.
The true man bows to the argument.
Man has a hidden treasure within him.
Difficulties and setbacks bring it forth.
No one puts out other people’s lamps. It is the lack of oil that puts them out.
Life is an ongoing trial.
After falling ten times, rising the eleventh time is success.
In prosperity, caution; in adversity, patience.
It is not difficult for one who can conquer himself to conquer others.
The hopeful man sees success in failure, sunshine in the storm.
Many people fail to recognise opportunity because it comes disguised as hard work.
Crisis is part of life. But you cannot deal with crisis without patience.
The day will, in any case, end in twelve hours, whether you make good use of it or waste it.
Error is the discipline through which we advance.
No one is so powerful that he can harm others without harming himself.
If man could but know the hopeful circumstances of tomorrow,
he would never lose heart over the unfortunate events of today.
It is easier to blame others than to accept responsibility for oneself.
A defeatist mentality is shaped by history.
A positive mentality shapes history.
If you want to move mountains, you must, first of all, learn to move particles.
Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement.
A man should give out fragrance like the flowers and shine like the sun.
This is the world’s daily message in silent language.
Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.
Man has been created to succeed, but he fails due to negligence.
You cannot separate the thorns from the flowers, even if you run a bulldozer over them.
Most stupid is he who would lose something great for something small.
Life is more precious for it to be used for a lesser purpose than for some great one.
Everyone wants to grow his tree separately. That is why humanity’s garden does not grow.
Only he knows how to speak who knows how to keep silent.
To conquer an enemy by force is half a victory, but to conquer him by love is a complete victory.
Only those who prove to be giver members of society can establish themselves in life.
The way to escape thorns is not to get entangled with them; instead, one should cautiously move away from the place of thorns.
Everyone has excuses,
but the living does not use excuses.
The truthful beginning always ends on truth, and the false beginning always ends on falsehood.
If the bricks are scattered, they are a pile of debris,
but when bricks mutually unite, they become a building assuming the shape of a strong fort wherein nations seek refuge.
Peace means normalcy, and normalcy provides such
opportunities as favour the growth of a healthy environment.
A significant sign of a man being flawless is that he does not search for flaws in others.
The cost of disrespecting others is to be held disrespectful
in the eyes of God.
Impatience is reflected in a hasty response to a situation, while a well-considered, well-thought-out
response is what patience is all about.
Your critic is your best adviser.
What is unity?
To live unitedly despite having differences.
The essence of religion is to fear God and to like for others what you want for yourself.
When envy and arrogance enter into man, wisdom goes out.
The cost of great work is to humble yourself; generally, people do not agree to humble themselves;
which is why they cannot do any significant work.
Seeing a problem as a problem is a problem. However, if you see a problem as a normal event,
there is no problem.
Envy eats up one’s good deeds as the fire eats up wood.
The art of rejection is easy,but only a great mind can accept it.
Acceptance is a phenomenon of maturity.
In their silent language, flowers proclaim: stay amongst men like flowers.
Good luck asks: Is prudence present inside the house by knocking on everyone’s door?
High status is always achieved by elevating yourself, not by shouting slogans.
Not fighting is the most successful war, but only a few people know how to fight such a war.
If your roof is weak, you cannot prevent it from being hit by a flood, no matter how much hue and cry you may raise.
The only way to save yourself from the mischief of others is not to get provoked despite provocation.
Always consult others in all matters; consultation protects against loss.
The most successful way of avenging one’s enemy is to forgive them.
However, very few people know this secret of success.
To say “I was wrong” is the way to success.
The most unimportant word in collective social life is “I”, and the most important is “We”.
The greatest secret of success is patience, and the greatest secret of failure is impatience.
There is only one plan to survive in this world: every man should have a large graveyard wherein he would
keep on burying the faults of others.
Man’s impatience is his enemy’s greatest weapon; stupid is he who himself would provide this weapon to his enemy.
Complaining against others generally turns out to be an admission of one’s incompetence.
The most straightforward way to keep yourself safe from others’ evil design is to keep others safe from your ill will.
Change yourself; your luck will change on its own.
The cause of man’s failure always lies within himself, but he often searches for that in others.
To be successful, a man has to exert himself; while for failure, he has to do nothing; it is itself running towards him.
The secret of success is that man learns the art of failure management.
Success lies on the other side of patience, but generally, people search for it on this side of patience.
People generally do not utilise themselves a hundred per cent, which is why they fail in their plans.
Tolerance is not cowardice; it is a principle of life.
Holding others responsible for all your woes results in hatred and frustration while holding yourself accountable for them inspires you to act achieve goal.
To find something, you shall always have to lose something. However, people are never ready to lose. That is why most people cannot even become finders.
A foolish man often starts waiting for the end of a journey that
he has not yet begun.
Patience is not inaction; patience is another name for planned action.
Progress is the result of man’s hard work, but many consider others’ destruction the nearest step
to their progress.
Do not be afraid of difficulties, for it is the difficulties that go into
the making of a man.
The harsh truth of life is that you cannot ask someone else to pay
the price for your wrongdoing.
Difficult’ is an excuse that history never accepts.
Question: How long will the big fish continue to swallow the small fish?
Answer: Till the time the small fish makes itself large enough not to fit into the mouth of the big fish.
No seed can suddenly become a whole tree; similarly, it is not possible for someone to suddenly reach
his destination.
When you face darkness, do not curse it. Instead, light the candle, and the darkness will disappear.
The secret of success for
a person is that he does not lose his rationality even at the height of his emotional moments.
Recognition always comes after rejection.
Nothing is impossible in this world of God. The only thing impossible is striving to achieve the possible
by using impossible means.
If you wish to be successful in this world, first develop the courage
to welcome failures.
Wise is the man who can live in peace with things he cannot change.
If you speed up your vehicle where you must apply brakes, it would be driven towards the graveyard instead of
the destination.
Think before taking revenge; revenge too will be avenged.
This world is a world of competition; if you do not get ahead of others, others will get ahead of you.
Fragrance does not need to prove its presence by a proclamation.
Deprivation can lead you to progress if it awakens your latent potential.
If you do not know how to speak, then learn to keep quiet because keeping quiet is as important as speaking.
Everything can be earned through sheer hard work, not simply through wishing.
One who does not listen to others’ difference of opinion is not to be counted as a learned man.
Excessive words cannot compensate for your lack of practical ability.
A wise man expects everything from himself, and a fool expects everything from others.
What is loss?
It is a failure to act on time!
Petrol and water are alike, but petrol ignites a fire while water extinguishes it.
The silence of an elephant is a thousand times stronger than the barking of a dog.
People know what to speak, but a wise man also knows not to speak.
Misfortune always enters through the door which we have left open.
Life’s problems are solved by employing a rational strategy, not by making complaints.
You can, in a moment, raise your dream palace, but raising a building, in reality, is not possible without
a long strenuous effort.
What is loss?
To miss an opportunity!
Forget whatever you have lost
so that
you may avail of what is left with you.
Man himself is supposed to pay the price of his mistake, but after
committing a mistake, he tries to find someone else to pay for his fault.
If two people quarrel, both are at fault; had the innocent one
withdrawn himself from the spot, the brawl itself would not have.
The formula for de-stressing: forget the past and re-plan the future.
Only that person arrives at his destination who is willing to tackle the obstacles in one’s path successfully.
Wise is he who agrees to accept less than what he rightfully deserves and stays ready to give others more than what they justly deserve.
A wise man is one whose competitor comes to know about his plan only after it is accomplished.
If one has missed a train, one can always take another, but people often forget this when they lose one chance in their life’s race.
Think, think, think; there must be a better way.
Anger is a negative response to any given situation.
To appeal to a powerful enemy for justice is like asking the rock to give you water.
Holding others responsible for your disaster proves that you were unaware of your vulnerability.
One who cooks his food
in a wooden pot will never be able to fill his belly.
How beautiful is the Taj Mahal of words, the storm of facts washes it away like a pile of straws blown away by the wind.
To have a flower, you must know how to handle the thorns.
For a man to achieve anything worthwhile in life, he has to work towards it in a planned and methodical manner.
If man could learn a lesson from others’ mistakes, he would never commit a mistake himself.
The secret of life is that man must know that with every flower,
there is a thorn and with every thorn, a flower.
Ships are safe in the harbour, but they are not meant for that purpose.
If you want to hide your secret from your enemy, do not talk about it, even with your friend.
People engrossed in petty issues only prove they cannot achieve anything significant in their lives.
The road is closed only for one who does not know how to walk; the pleasant breeze gives
this message every day.
The most successful war is when the enemy is disarmed and left with no fighting power.
Today’s sunset must rise the next day, but most people do not wait until the upcoming day.
Experience is what we learn from others, for our expertise always comes at the cost of loss.
A step taken with insufficient preparation further complicates the problem.
A single push cannot ground a wall. An effort to do so may, however, hit your head.
A small container cannot hold much water. Similarly, a small heart cannot achieve great success.
If you arrive at the station late, you cannot complain about the train
that departed without picking you up.
Wise is he who forgets
the faults and wrongs of others and keeps his faults in mind.
Nothing can make the sun rise early, but everyone wishes his life’s morning to dawn early.
Strategic retreat is the first phase of planned action.
If you wish to raise your dream palace from top to the ground, in the end, you will not find anything except
a pile of debris.
A wise man thinks before taking action;
a stupid man thinks afterwards.
If you do not sow in time, you cannot harvest
at the harvesting time.
Do not make haste; hastening doubles the delay.
Not to fall is not a miracle; the miracle is that you fall and stand up again.
The fool said:
“I have wasted my past and present.”
The wise man replied: “But your future is still safe.”
Defeat is a delay, but not failure.
Opportunities do slip away, but they never vanish.
If you have found your beginning, you can find your end;
another name for the right ending is the right beginning.
There is no greater sacrifice than that of one’s own opinion.
To concede defeat is the expression of one’s determination to try again to win what one has lost.
Success knocks at the door, but only once.
In this world, no sunset is final, for every sunset is destined to be followed by a new sunrise, provided man dares to turn
his evening into morning again.
Our past and present may lie in ruins, but our future is still secure.
What is sympathy?
Sympathy is your pain in my heart.
Everyone has lost his yesterday; success is destined for one who does not lose his today.
Children’s sandcastles collapse in less time than it takes for their making.
Chasing after the impossible, you lose what is possible.
One person says, “night has fallen”, whereas another would say, “morning is yet to come”.
Despite being of any magnitude, a defeat always happens to be
temporary. It can always be turned into success by better planning.
A new morning follows every evening, but only he can find it who waits until it comes.
If you are strong from within even after losing everything, rest assured that you have not yet lost anything.
Wishing to have more than what you deserve is as good as disqualifying yourself from what you rightfully deserve.
What is maturity?
Maturity is the ability to live with things we cannot change.
One who can conquer oneself can easily find victory over others.
Life is a long tiring tale; only he can study it successfully whose attention always stays focused on the tale’s next paragraph.
One who has a book with him is never alone.
People often take up reading the book of life without learning its language.
What God most earnestly desires from human beings is worship. The Quran says: “I have not created jinn and mankind except to worship Me.” ( 51:56 )
