DOUBT

A woman was gossiping to a friend about a man she hardly knew. That night she had a dream. A great hand appeared over her and pointed down on her. She was immediately seized with an overwhelmingly sense of guilt. The next day she went to confession. She went to the old priest and told him everything.

“Is gossiping a sin?” she asked the old man.
“Was that the hand of god almighty pointing the finger at me? Should I be asking for your absolution father? Tell me. Have I done something wrong?”.
“Yes!” the priest answered her.
“Yes! You ignorant woman! You’ve born false witness against your neighbor. You’ve played fast and loose with his reputation. You should be ashamed!”.

So the woman said she was sorry and asked for forgiveness.

“Not so fast!” said the priest.
“I want you to go home, take a pillow upon your roof. Cut it open with a knife. And return here to me”.

So the woman went home, took a pillow off her bed, a knife off the drawer, took the fire escape to the roof and stabbed the pillow. Then she went back to the old priest as instructed.

“Did you gut the pillow with a knife?” he says.
“Yes father”.
“And what was the result?”.
“Feathers” she said.
“Feathers?” he repeated.
“Feathers everywhere father”
“Now, I want you to go back and gather up every last feather that flew out in the wind”.
“Well…..it cant be done” she said. “I don’t know where they went. The wind took them all over”.
“And THAT….” said the priest “….is gossip!”



-The movie “Doubt”-

Is life fair?

People say a lot that we are all equal and life is fair. But then again is it really? I mean on one side a child gets born to a very poor family and grows up in the slums without being able to pursue a good education and struggling to make ends meet while the other gets born into a rich family without getting to experience what it means to work for a living or to go hungry even for a day. Getting a good education and in time a luxurious life. They are both human beings who were born into two very different lives which would shape them into who they would grow up to be.

Can we really judge the kid who came from the poor family for stealing or taking a wrong turn in life. Afterall, he has been exposed to a lot more misfortunes and has a much greater probability of choosing a wrong path. So are we all equal in that respect and is life really fair? Ofcourse it isn’t. what then? Does it also mean that when they are judged for their actions by god that they would be judged equally? Or does that blame of his actions go to the rest of the ppl surrounding those kids? Or the people responsible for leading him in the wrong direction? The ppl who didn’t give him the advise he needed? Then what of the kid’s actions when he grows up? Are both kids judged in the same manner after they come of age?

Or is the issue more complicated than that? Is it the sins of the parents that are passed down onto their kids? People who’ve mistreated, stolen, cheated, assaulted etc. all those people who haven’t paid their dues in life, all the people who didn’t get caught. Will they all be judged in the hereafter or does some of it show in their lives as well? In their children and how they grow up maybe. But then again it brings us to what ive said earlier. Is it the fault of the kid to inherit misfortunes due to the actions of his parents?

But that is the case isn’t it. If our parents are well known among everyone as being pious, hard working, honest and sincere we their kids automatically gain respect from those ppl as well for being the children of our parents. Same goes for parents whose made a bad name for themselves. Even their kids are automatically judged by ppl as “THAT man’s child. He’ll be no good either. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. It doesn’t matter how different the child is from the father. Only few ppl see that.

Then what about ppl who are born into a different religion? They have known all their life a different religion and have been taught that religion to be the perfect way in life. He might spend his whole life only hearing about a religion called Islam with no knowledge about it whatsoever. Would he be judged the same way as a man who grew up being a muslim his whole life with every opportunity to learn about the religion from ppl around him etc? Is it their fault in any way as to where or in which kind of environment he had to grow up in?

What about ppl whose spent their entire lives devoted to helping the poor and saving the oppressed? Those people who didn’t believe in Islam? Or those ppl that jes didn’t get that opportunity in their lives to study and learn abt this specific religion out of so many more out there? If they cant go to heaven jes because they didn’t get the chance or didn’t get to learn abt a specific religion and believing it would that still be just? How will they be judged? Jes like how a muslim would be?