Hardship is man's best friend

You may not agree with me, but I strongly believe that, hardship is man’s best friend. We may not realize, but it is due to the hardship, we dare to dream big. Whenever we are in a ‘comfort-zone’, we have no ‘true friend’ to challenge us to achieve more and obtain a better ‘comfort-zone’. Hence, hardships don’t only make us want to dream big, but they also are the one who make us recognize of our mistakes and sins.

The best example is our beloved prophet Muhammad p.b.u.h who had faced countless trials and tribulations just to spread the teachings of Islam worldwide. He was hated, isolated at one time, and even had faced murder attempts. But, he never hates the hardship confronted. Today, the population of Muslim world wide has reached to 1.81 billion in year 2007. In fact, we used to have great Muslim empires such as during the Uthmaniyyah and Abassiyyah ruling. Nevertheless, the golden era Muslim is already a history. Hopefully, this millennium Muslim’s hardship may once again bring us back to the golden era.

I read a simple biography of our past prime minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamed. He actually had to deal with loads of difficulties and other hardships. During his life as a medical student, they need to commute from one place to another by a lorry just to have a laboratory practical. The hardship he had faced before our independence makes him dare to dream big which is to develop the nation. I believe that, this also applies to other Malaysian leaders.

Isaac Newton, described as pathologically disable for even a small conversation had a miserable childhood life. But, today he is one of the world greatest scientists who came up with such a basic yet important theory of gravity and law of motion. Albert Einstein who was a college dropout had come out with theory of relativity and other important findings. Same goes with Stephen Hawking who suffers from a disturbing health condition, did not have a good career beginning. This however, did not prevent him from becoming one of the world known scientists.

If you read or come across with other public figures or any other successful person, we will see that they had faced many hardships during their earlier days. The second richest Asian women in United Kingdom used to sell ‘samosa’ from house to house. Today, she has her own factory to supply her own ready made curry to whole United Kingdom.

It is up to us to describe happiness, success and achievements. They vary in individuals and we have to respect that.

At one point of our life,when we are so happy and content, we may forget and neglect our best friend -> hardship.

When suddenly ‘they’ come by and say hi to us; we should actually think back of what we have done. Maybe ‘they’ want us to realize, recover and achieve more.

So, in whatever state you are in, never ever forget or even hate our true friend ->hardship. Then, we will always be a better and stronger person, to survive in the world with endless challenges, so that ultimately, we can be happy in the hereafter.