Dear Colleagues! This is Pharma Veterans Blog Post #325. Pharma Veterans welcomes sharing of knowledge and wisdom by Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here.
The fable goes like this.
A stray dog fell in the village well and died. The villagers came to know about it when they found smell coming out of the well. They looked inside and could see the dead dog floating on the water surface.
The villagers had three issues now. One, it was the only well they had so they could not abandon it. Two, the dog was considered unclean by religion and that meant the entire water of the well became unclean (Na Paak). Three, the bad smell was a problem and could not be ignored.
The village elders sat together but could not reach a unanimous decision, so they decided to contact the Prayer Leader (Imam) for advice and guidance. The Imam listened intently and moved his head up and down several times to signify the seriousness of the matter. The Imam then got up, went inside his house and returned after some time. He declared that he had consulted the shariah books and found the solution. The villagers waited eagerly. The Imam said that the villagers should take out forty buckets from the well and it would make the water clean (Paak) again. The villagers were very happy to see such an easy solution. They returned and deputed few able-bodied youngsters to take out forty buckets, which they did rather promptly.
Happy and Blissful, the villagers started using water freely. However, the smell became fouler and intolerable and some people also fell sick. The concerned villagers returned to the Imam and told him that they had done exactly what he had prescribed. But the problems were persisting. The Imam scratched his head and went inside to consult the books again. He returned after some time and said that they had forgotten the critical step. They had to take the dead dog out first and then draw out forty buckets.
The villagers did as directed and lived happily ever after. Moral of the story; Take out the root cause of rot first before applying cleaning solutions.
The moral is not too complicated, but it is mostly forgotten, or ignored, or left out because it may involve hassle.
Covid19 is here and we are all extremely worried, rather terrified. We are fighting an invisible enemy and we are not sure how to protect ourselves. We are taking precautions which are unproven as yet. If, God Forbid, anyone contracts COVID19, there is no definite treatment. This is a an extremely bizarre situation the like of which mankind had not seen before. We, with all our science and wisdom and equipment and money and resources and might have become powerless and worthless. It is a very tough time no doubt. In such times, the believers are strongly pulled toward prayer. It is not important what the belief is. We, the Muslims are among the first to bow before Allah. We are offering alms, doing charity, paying zakat and making long prayers. We are asking for Allah’s forgiveness at all levels which is equivalent to taking out forty buckets of water. But what about the dead dog? Well, it Is probably still there.
The Dead Dogs are bribery, hoarding, overpricing, undue profiteering, Injustice, unfairness and cruelty which are still rampant all around. Do we think that drawing forty buckets or even multiples of it will make the uncleanliness wash away? Think again please.
Let me share a personal anecdote. After I had understood Allah’s injunctions about ‘Interest’ or ‘sood’, I went ahead and mortgaged a house. The interest rate was highest at that time but that was not the primary issue. The core issue was that I had chosen to pay interest after I knew it was wrong. I got the house and started paying instalments. We had the house for four years, but we never lived in it even for a day. I had taken 4.5 million rupees from the bank for a period of 15 years. The monthly instalment was around 45,000 rupees per month. Over time, I became more and more cash strapped and the instalment felt heavier though I earned enough to pay it. I still persisted in my folly and kept suffering for almost four long years. After about three and a half years, I realized I have made myself fall into a ditch by choice. I desperately wanted to get out of the whole thing. I promised to Allah to dispose it off and pay back the bank loan. I put it up for sale. The property prices had not yet appreciated which they did a year later. I put up the condition that I would take at least 50% up front, if not all. It took couple of months to get a serious buyer who agreed to pay 50%. I told them about mortgage and that I would release it before receiving the balance payment. Allah helped and it happened smoothly. Financial summary; I paid 2.0 million to bank as instalment, they adjusted 1.6 million against Interest and 0.4 million against Capital. All in all, including insurance and fees and what not, I lost about 2.0 million. A large sum for me, but I am so much grateful to Allah that He helped me out of it. I still ask for His Forgiveness for the deliberate wrong I did. I do not own a house, but I am happy and contented. This is a classical ‘Dead Dog’ case. If I had not taken the dead dog out, and kept taking out forty buckets, I may still be doing it, and dying of toil.
May Allah make us understand the spirit and keep us on the path of the righteous. Aameen.
Concluded.