Points to Ponder — Page 44
— 44 The Violin A divine saw a king ’s servant playing a violin. He grabbed the violin from him and broke it. The servant complained to the king and said, “Today he broke my violin. Tomorrow he may belittle a minister or you. ” The king was enraged. He called for the divine and had a violin by his side. The divine came to the court. The king did not say anything to the divine but picked up the violin and started playing it. The divine just kept sitting unhappily. The king said, “You broke my servant’s violin yesterday, why do you not break mine today?” The divine answered, “Mighty King, the Holy Prophet, may peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, has said, if you see evil, and you have strength, use it to bring about reform. If you do not have the ability to do that then try to stop it through speech. If you do not have even that much courage then at least feel bad in your heart. Mighty King, yesterday I could reform evil using strength so I broke the violin of the servant. But today I do not have the strength to counter evil with strength, neither can I dare to counter it with speech