7 Wonders of the World
A group of students were asked to list what they thought were the present
Seven Wonders of the World. Though there was some disagreement, the
following got the most votes:
- Egypt's Great Pyramids
- Taj Mahal
- Grand Canyon
- Panama Canal
- Empire State Building
- St. Peter's Basilica
- China's Great Wall
While gathering the votes, the teacher noted that one quiet student
hadn't turned in her paper yet. So she asked the girl if she was having
trouble with her list.
The girl replied, "Yes, a little. I couldn't quite make up my mind
because there were so many."
The teacher said, "Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help.
"
The girl hesitated, then read, "I think the Seven Wonders of the World
are: 1. to touch 2. to taste 3. to see 4. to hear. She hesitated a little,
and then added 5. to feel 6. to laugh 7. and to love
The room was so full of silence you could have heard a pin drop. Those
things we overlook as simple and "ordinary" are truly wondrous.
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Why Are You My Friend
A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. In
a specific point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend
slapped the other one in the face. The one, who got slapped, was hurt,
but without anything to say, he wrote in the sand: "TODAY, MY BEST FRIEND
SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE".
They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided
to take a bath. The one who got slapped and hurt started drowning, and
the other friend saved him. When he recovered from the fright, he wrote
on a stone: "TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE"
The friend who saved and slapped his best friend, asked him, "Why,
after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now you write on a stone?"
The other friend, smilingly replied: "When a friend hurts us, we should
write it down in the sand, where the winds of forgiveness erase it away.
And when something great happens, we should engrave it in the stone
of the memory of the heart, where no wind can erase it"
Learn to write in the sand, when you have differences and hurt feelings
with your friend. Learn to write in stone when your friend had done
some thing really good to you.
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Merchant with Four
Wives
There was a rich merchant who had 4 wives.
He loved the 4th wife the most. He adorned her with rich robes and
treated her to delicacies. He took great care of her and gave her nothing
but the best. He also loved the 3rd wife very much. He's very proud
of her and always wanted to show her off to his friends. However, the
merchant is always in great fear that she might run away with some other
men. He too, loved his 2nd wife. She is a very considerate person, always
patient and in fact is the merchant's confidante. Whenever the merchant
faced some problems, he always turned to his 2nd wife and she would
always help him out and tide him through difficult times.
Now, the merchant's 1st wife is a very loyal partner and has made great
contributions in maintaining his wealth and business as well as taking
care of the household. However, the merchant did not love the first
wife and although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her.
One day, the merchant fell ill. Before long, he knew that he was going
to die soon. He thought of his luxurious life and told himself, "Now
I have 4 wives with me. But when I die, I'll be alone. How lonely I'll
be!"
Thus, he asked the 4th wife, "I loved you most, endowed you with the
finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I'm dying,
will you follow me and keep me company?"
"No way!" replied the 4th wife and she walked away without another
word. The answer cut like a sharp knife right into the merchant's heart.
The sad merchant then asked the 3rd wife, "I have loved you so much
for all my life. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me
company?"
"No!" replied the 3rd wife. "Life is so good over here! I'm going to
remarry when you die!" The merchant's heart sank and turned cold.
He then asked the 2nd wife, "I always turned to you for help and you've
always helped me out. Now I need your help again. When I die, will you
follow me and keep me company?"
"I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!" replied the 2nd wife.
"At the very most, I can only send you to your grave." The answer came
like a bolt of thunder and the merchant was devastated.
Then a voice called out : "I'll leave with you. I'll follow you no
matter where you go."
The merchant looked up and there was his first wife. She was so skinny,
almost like she suffered from malnutrition. Greatly grieved, the merchant
said, "I should have taken much better care of you while I could have
!"
Actually we all have 4 wives in our lives. The 4th wife is our body.
No matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good,
it'll leave us when we die. Our 3rd wife, is our possessions, status
and wealth. When we die, they all go to others. The 2nd wife is our
family and friends. No matter how close they had been there for us when
we're alive, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave. The
1st wife is in fact our soul. Often neglected in our pursuit of material
wealth and sensual pleasure. It is actually the only thing that follows
us wherever we go.
Perhaps it's a good idea to cultivate and strengthen it now rather
than to wait until we're on our deathbed to lament.
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A Touching Story
Joe was driving home one evening, on a two-lane country road.
Work, in this small midwestern community, was almost as slow as his
beat-up Pontiac. But, he never quit looking. Ever since the factory
closed, he'd been unemployed, and with winter raging on, the chill had
finally hit home. It was a lonely road. Not very many people had a reason
to be on it, unless they were leaving. Most of his friends had already
left. They had families to feed and dreams to fulfill, but he stayed
on. After all, this was where he buried his mother and father. He was
born here and knew the country. He could go down this road blind, and
tell you what was on either side, and with his headlights not working,
that came in handy.
It was starting to get dark and light snow flurries were coming down.
He'd better get a move on. You know, he almost didn't see the old lady,
stranded on the side of the road. But, even in the dim light of day,
he could see she needed help. So, he pulled up in front of her Mercedes
and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.
Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped
to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn't
look safe, he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened,
standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was that chill
that only fear can put in you.
He said, "I'm here to help you ma'am. Why don't you wait in the car
where it's warm? By the way, my name is Joe." Well, all she had was
a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Joe crawled under
the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a
time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire. But, he had to get
dirty and his hands hurt.
As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down her window and
began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was
only just passing through. She couldn't thank him enough for coming
to her aid. Joe just smiled as he closed her trunk. She asked him how
much she owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She
had already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had
he not stopped.
Joe never thought twice about the money. This was not a job to him.
This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty who
had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way,
and it never occurred to him to act any other way. He told her that
if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone
who needed help, she could give that person the assistance that they
needed, and Joe added, "...and think of me." He waited until she started
her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he
felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.
A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to
grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last
leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were
two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The cash register
was like the telephone of an out of work actor - it didn't ring much.
Her waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair.
She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole
day couldn't erase. The lady noticed that the waitress was nearly eight
months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude.
The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving
to a stranger. Then she remembered Joe. After the lady finished her
meal, and the waitress went to get her change from a hundred-dollar
bill, the lady slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time
the waitress came back. She wondered where the lady could be, and then
she noticed something written on a napkin. There were tears in her eyes,
when she read what the lady wrote.
It said, "You don't owe me a thing, I've been there too. Someone once
helped me out, the way I'm helping you. If you really want to pay me
back, here's what you do. Don't let the chain of love end with you."
Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to
serve, but the waitress made it through another day. That night when
she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about
the money and what the lady had written. How could she have known how
much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it
was going to be hard. She knew how worried her husband was, and as he
lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft
and low, "Everything is gonna be all right - I love you, Joe."
-Author Unknown
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Life is precious.Handle
with care
"Daud, a rich guy, loved fast cars and he did have a few in his possession.
He loved to speed and could not be bothered about breaking speed limits.
Many a time he was caught by the cops and speed radar, fined, but still
he never bothered until, one day as he was driving at a very high speed
as usual, he saw a cop following him in his police car.
The cop overtook him finally and asked him to stop and checked his
licence. He then took out his pad and started writing and then handed
over the sheet of paper to Daud. How much was this one going to cost?
Wait a minute, What was this? Some kind of joke? Certainly not a ticket.
Daud began to read:
"Dear Daud, Once upon a time I had a lovely daughter. She was six when
killed by a car. You guessed it, a speeding driver's car. A fine and
three months in jail, and the man was free. Free to hug his all his
three daughters. I only had one, and I'm going to have to wait until
heaven, before I can ever hug her again. A thousand times I've tried
to forgive that man. A thousand times I thought I had. Maybe I did,
but I need to do it again. Even now. Pray for me and be careful, Daud,
my son is all I have left."
Daud turned around in time to see the cop's car pull away and head
down the road. He watched until it disappeared. A full 15 minutes later,
he too, pulled away and drove slowly home, praying for forgiveness and
hugging a surprised wife and kids when he arrived. Life is precious.Handle
with care."
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The Man and the Cocoon
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly
for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little
hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if
it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.
So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors
and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then
emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that,
at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support
the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened!
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around
with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.
What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that
the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to
get through the tiny opening were Allah's way of forcing fluid from
the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for
flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If Allah
allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple
us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never
"fly"!
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