The story is about a family consisting of three people, Abdullah (The Father), Sameena (The Mother) and their son Zahid. One day, Abdullah came home and told his wife and son that they needed to move to a new house in the nearby village because his current workplace was shifted to that village.
During olden days people used to travel on horses and camels. The family also had a Camel which they used as a means of transport. They started their journey to the new place. After helping his wife and son mount the camel, Abdullah decided to walk and thus guide the camel.
When they reached first village on their way to their destination, they found something weird about the onlookers of that village, they heard people say “Look at that poor father, he has a young son and he is of no use to his father. The young boy instead of leading the camel himself is making his aged father do all the work and he is enjoying on top of the camel” Zahid felt guilty and climbed down the camel, made his father sit on the camel and started guiding the camel.
Upon reaching the next village, they heard people say “Look at the shameless father, he is so energetic and his son so weak, and yet he makes his son do that difficult task of guiding the camel” Abdullah got embarrassed and decided to walk along with the son and guide the camel.
They reached the next village and heard people of that village say, “Just look at that lady sitting on top of the camel having a fun ride while her poor husband and son are walking in the scorching hot weather” so Sameena got down and started walking with her husband and son.
The people of next village said “Look at these unthankful people, God gave them a means of transport and they are not using it in an efficient way. They could have used it to travel” On hearing that all three sat on the camel and continued their journey
The next village people told, “Oh my God ! Just look at the family, they are such oppressors. They are burdening the poor animal with all their weight and luggage. They are heartless people” So all of them got down, and confused they took the camel and started carrying it on their heads.
When they reached the next village people there started laughing for they never saw anybody carry a camel on their head. This sight was amusing to them.
The three of them put the camel down and sat there not knowing what to do next.
Moral of the Story
It is the nature of people. If you do a thing with a mindset of pleasing someone you will end up hurting others (intentionally or unintentionally) because you only thought of pleasing a particular person and didn’t think about the rest. Different people, different opinion and different thoughts. So the best thing to do is to do things with an intention to please God, because people might forget the good that you did, but God never forgets your good deeds.
Please your Creator not People!!!
This is a very old story.However I like it as Sara had nicely attempted in putting old wine in new bottle.
You are doing a great service to the people with such kind of inspirational stories. These are definitely going to help the young impressionable minds to develop self-confidence. I am sure you will come up with more such stuff to help groom the new generation.
Please your God not people – thats a good moral
This wisdom will help me in my future decision-making process. Thank you for sharing. Cheers ~
You are welcome. Very happy to know that it is beneficial to you 🙂
I read this moral story in the Childhood in 80’s.
In which donkey was ther instead of Camel. Only characters changed in 2014.
You can never ever please everybody!
Do what you believe to be the best in the circumstances, and for the greater good of all!
And never mind the criticism and the laughter!
Rightly said
I had heard and seen such incidents in Life.You can not please people of different mental states and ability to understand.Thus one should do things with conviction to Please ALLAH S.W.T.Dont bother what others say.Dont change your decisions once taken and that too after consulting peaple with wisdom and experience.it was a good story and specially the final deduction i.e ONLY DO THINGS TO PLEASE ALLAH S.W.T
That’s true. I think each one of us come across such situations, but not everyone realizes it
The same story in arabic was with “Gooha” and his father and his son.
Thanks for the information
Brother Anis Ahmed: Salam, how comes u haven’t heared?? Then where from emerged the proverb ( Pleasing people is an intangible end !)? [ irdhaa’ an-nas ghayatun la tudrak).. The original story is about a father, a son, and a DONKEY; there were no mother/ wife nor a camel.. Regards to the beloved Sara!! ????? ????? ???? ?? ????!?
EXCELLENT – I NEVER HEARD THIS BEFORE