The Man and the Butterfly
A man was sitting one day in his garden enjoying the weather. He was looking at one of his toot (berry) trees when he noticed a butterfly cocoon hanging from a branch not too far from where he sat. While he was gazing at it, to his amazement, the butterfly began to emerge right before his eyes. He watched intently as it struggled to emerge and then was disappointed to see it stop, as if it were tired. It started to struggle again some more and then stopped.
The man thought to himself a bit, and wanting to help the little creature, he ran inside to get a pair of scissors. He came back out and approaching the coccoon, he very carefully and slowly cut away part of it so that the butterfly could crawl out, which it did, onto the branch. The man watched with an expectant look on his face, waiting for the wings to expand any second now, and for the beautiful butterfly to take its maiden flight.
But it never did. It crawled around on the branch, with a hideously bloated body and shriveled little wings, doomed to a miserable life.
Despite his honest and best intentions, what the man didn’t realize is that it was Allaah ta3ala’s wisdom that a butterfly has to go through such hardship during this phase of its life.
The coccoon opening is small and restricted, so that when the butterfly struggles to crawl out, it naturally pushes the excess fluid from its body into its wings, thereby allowing the wings to expand to their full shape. In order for it to achieve a beautiful set of wings and to be able to fly properly, it has to undergo certain hardships that make it stronger and more suited for this life.
Similarly, the hardships we go through are designed to make us more stronger, more resilient and more beautiful. Thus we are able to face the challenges of this world properly. Otherwise, if we had an easy life with no challenges to learn from and no harships to make us stronger, we would be very weak and unsuited for the rigours of normal life. You wouldn’t expect to go through school, university or even work without having some types of checks, tests, exams or performance reviews along the way. You know there would be higher standards to strive for, new milestones to reach, and to do all that means you must exert an effort and it doesn’t come easy.
Nothing in this life is easy.
But then again, who wants nothing?
Mira wrote,
Beautiful. Thank you
Link | February 3rd, 2007 at 9:59 pm
sumaiya wrote,
MashaAllah, nice story.
Link | February 5th, 2007 at 2:15 am
Hala wrote,
wow i didnt know thats why allah (swt) made it that way…….the fluid goes into the wings like that
i think Bassam told me the story once too but you explaind it better
nice
Link | February 6th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Almira wrote,
Great story, it reminds me of some parents who baby their children even when they grow old. They think they are helping their children by over comfroting every time they fall, but in the long they are not. They end up making their children potential food in a world full of wolves.
Nice post brother, do you mind if I link your blog?
Link | February 8th, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Maverick wrote,
Almira - sure go ahead
Link | February 8th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
ibnZiad wrote,
This story is a great gem, and there are many others on http://www.qisas.com
JazakAllah for sharing.
Link | February 17th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Mussa-chan wrote,
That poor butterfly.
Thank you for the beautiful post.
Link | February 18th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Maverick wrote,
oh hey thanks ibnZiad … I remember hearing the story from somewhere else but I didn’t know you also had it up on yours. Awesome.
Link | February 18th, 2007 at 3:40 pm