Soul's Reflections - Mirrors

By: Zahoor-ul-Islam

Today was a usual day. I woke up at the usual time. I prepared for the office in the same way as I did every day, did some analysis of my appearance, realized I needed a haircut, some dieting and exercise to get rid of those extra fats! I realized my appearance had changed and I no longer looked like what I used to be ten years back. This realization urged me to think about joining a gym.

After spending some fifteen twenty minutes on self grooming, I was all set to leave for work, my hair neatly done with some gel and dressed properly in a nice white shirt with grey jacket. It was quite a contrast to the state I woke up in! Thanks to the mirror. Mirror gives quick feedback about us, how we look like and how we can improve.

Suddenly one of the neurons in my brain somehow passes an electrical signal through one of its synapses to another neuron and establishes a very absurd but valid inference out of this situation.  “Do we have such a mirror in our lives to judge our personality?” We do have mirrors that tell us of our appearance, but what if we had such a mirror, that could actually tell us how we look when we frown upon other people.

How many of us even think about it or let alone do we realize that we have such mirror in our life that can give us stark feedback of our personality, our bad and good things and give feedback about our attitudes. But how do we find such mirrors?  They are not available at any small store and or shopping malls.

Fortunately such mirrors are quite cheaply available in multiple forms; the very first thing that is handy is called conscience often blurred by our ego and sense of self pride. You don’t need any training to learn to hear your conscience; it is a gift from God. The second are your good friends and people connected to you, including your family, friends and all people who are sincere to you. They keep giving you feedback.

I have no regret acknowledging what I am now could have been years before, if I had looked into my mirror. It was always there but I never looked at it, every word it said, I considered it a reaction or a misunderstanding. I never thought there could be some valid reason associated.

Out of our ego, which always works in black and white, either we tend to reject or accept things, tend to reject and accept humans. We never realize black is absence of possibilities and white is aggregation of possibilities, not the possibility itself. Possibility lies in between.

If we have the sea at Karachi and we are unable to desalinate the water for our use, it is not the problem of sea or water; it is the problem of our limitation! So it is never a problem of the feedback we receive, the problem is in us who fail to understand.

The world is designed as a place that gives us opportunities to prove our worthiness and be judged at the Day of Judgment. Thus nothing comes in pristine condition to us; we have to take things and refine them. In order to refine things, we have to refine ourselves to be benefited. If any impurity exists, it is not in the things around us, it is in us. The world always existed like this, resources have been there and will be there, and opportunities have been there and will be there, the people around us keep giving us feedback, because they are sincere to us. The Almighty wants us to be better humans, because He loves us.