Burden gives Wisdom

“Why do we fall down?” asked the boy.

After a long silence, the man said, “So that we learn to pick ourselves up!”

(a morphed extract from the movie Batman Begins)

What is life in this world without any hardships and obstacles and problems? Imagine life filled only with happiness, and is essentially beds of roses. Yes, we would feel very much happy. But don’t you think it would be quite empty? Nothing to feel except happiness. No need for hope, no need for longing, no need for anxiety, no need for sorrow, no need for fury.

You see, all these feelings are what makes us human. Hope, longing, anxiety, sorrow, fury, and other thousands of feelings, even some indescribable. These feelings were born from all the hardships and obstacles that we inevitably encounter in this world. We hope because that glimmer of light is the driving force that keeps us going. We long for the people that we love to be reunited with us. We are ridden with sadness and weep because we are hurt, but that scar is a great teacher to us. We feel the fury in our hearts when our kindred are abused, so from that the flame in our hearts fuel the strength to protect. What is life in this world without these feelings, which in turn were born from hardships and obstacles?

Why then Allah burden us all with hardships? Isn’t it so that we learn? So that we become wiser?

The wise wouldn’t be called as such if it were not for the wisdom he had gathered along the paths of his life.

The greater and heavier the burden, the more wisdom he gains, and the wiser he becomes. Strangely, wisdom has a powerful effect on humans. It affects the maturity, the way of thinking, and the psychology of humans.

Look at (almost) any 7-year-old child in Malaysia. They don’t have any care for the world. They run. They jump. They climb. They play. They laugh. They only think of having fun.

Now look at any 7-year-old child in Palestine, for instance. Wisdom has transformed them. Every day they think about the safety of not only themselves, but also the safety of their family. They are already thinking of protecting their family. They keep thinking about death. They are already thinking about fighting. It made me wonder still, how can their minds become like those of an adult. A complete transformation, compared to the children in Malaysia. So matured.

Look at what the burden has made to a teenage as the eldest brother to four younger brothers and sisters, just having lost his dearest parents. Watch as the wisdom he gains allows him to act as a replacement for a mother and a father to his siblings. Watch as he struggles to become the breadwinner of the family. Watch as his face hardens as his mind continuously wonder how is he going to pay the school fees of his siblings. He is so different from most of us, back when we were of the that age. So matured.

Wisdom accelerates the mental maturity of humans. A 7-year-old child may have the maturity of an 18-year-old. A 16-year-old teenager can become as matured as a 23-year-old. When humans mature faster, they can adapt and survive the cruel world becomes an easier task. (easy is too strong a word, and I can't seem to find a replacement)

But everything has its price. The greatest price for those valuable wisdom is the psychological changes. Do the children in Palestine have fun and be as happy as the children in Malaysia? Do the teenager that has to carry the role of a mother and father can enjoy and be as carefree as other teenagers that can still feel their mother’s and father’s embrace? No. The psyche of the wise is forever changed.

In wisdom, there is knowledge. And in knowledge, there is power. If not, why then people turn to the wise for advice and consultation?

(Recently, I was burdened with a weight so great that a person of my age should not be carrying. I never imagined that I, a person so young, have to carry this burden. In fact, the burden still rests on my shoulder. In the desperation and intense thinking, I realized that am not a 20-year-old. I am, in actuality, an adult in his late twenties. My mind ages faster than my physical body does, fortunately or unfortunately I cannot tell. Of course the wisdom I gained is unimaginable. However, with that great wisdom comes a great price. Now, I am still paying that price. Slowly and painfully.)