Donkeys have it easy. Often referred to as mistreated poor creatures with the burden of the world on their backs. Physical load that is. I doubt any donkey has a hard time falling asleep at night because its evil boss kicked him in the butt that morning. Quite unlike us over-burdened fools. The tiresome weight of a smile, a tear; a touch, or fear; it all becomes a deathly problem that we take very seriously.
It’s a miracle how we pull ourselves out of bed each day to go to work, to school, or even to the kitchen to cook. Our brains enable us to think but we end up blowing it all out of proportion. God wanted us to use our brains for the greater good. We ended up using it for collective destruction. We think so much, we eventually forget where we started off. We think our little heads into a frenzy, till every last cell in the central nervous system is just that – nervous!
Everything inevitably transforms into a backbreaking load on our hearts and minds. We love and then cry our hearts out when we don’t get that love in return. We hate like nobody’s business and then wilt with sorrow when even hate becomes too taxing. We sing and we dance. But we can’t accept the burden of people watching. We learn and we un-learn. The burden of knowledge opens thorny paths for us. Yet the load of ignorance completely rips us apart. We hold on to secrets and pretend nothing has changed. But inside, every word weighs down on us like a heavy boot squishing an ant. We gossip and we judge. Words that ultimately shed their acidic skins on our already ailing hearts. We think we know about friendship. Until the burden of an age old friendship weighs us down like an anchor and we can’t figure out what went wrong. We get married to stay happy. Then we get out of marriage to stay happy. We can’t stand the burden of hunger; and unsurprisingly gluttony is our biggest vice. We revel on jealousy and in return jealously thrives on our dense hearts. We can’t stand the burden of people around us excelling. We find jobs to counter life’s selfishness. Then we work to relieve our lives of job’s atrocities. We get killed. Then as a counter action, we kill. And prove that we are no better than the murderers. We crave for importance but never give importance to the deserving people in our lives. We pray and tell others to follow suit. Then we pray that they don’t get extra points from God. We give charity. But then feel burdened when the whole world doesn’t know how charitable we are. We depend on other people too much. And never have enough faith in ourselves or in our God. We think we have it all figured out. But when one piece of the puzzle goes awry, we fall flat on our faces. We are just too full of ourselves; like a balloon reveling in its hot air. Bring out a needle and see your world explode.
Burden raised to the power of infinity. Forever imprinting our souls with misery.
Its all mixed up. Its all related. Its all because billions of cells in our brains are doing nothing productive. Its because we love making mountains out of molehills. Its because we are large creatures with shrinking hearts. Some things are truly burdening and call for instant resolution. But zillions of other things in life that we fret and worry over should not be given such importance. Differentiating between which weight to carry and which to throw over the bridge is what we need to learn.
Our shoulders droop. Our muscles tense up. Our stress levels kiss the sky. Our hearts scream. Our minds freeze. We fall sick. On the bright side – doctors make a lot of money making people pop anti-depressants that never work. Mostly because many problems aren’t actually problems to begin with. And if they are, then they need a lot more than an opportunistic hand of a pharmaceutical company.
“For indeed in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest” (Holy Quran, ar-R’ad; 28, (13: 28)
HE already told us how it is supposed to be. Repeatedly. Everything is not a burden. And that which is, can be overcome. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.
(Holy Quran: Surah Al-Baqarah [2:286])
God does not burden any human being with more than he is well able to bear.
(Holy Quran: Surah Al Talaq – 65:) God does not burden any human being with more than He has given him – [and it may well be that] God will grant, after hardship, ease.
Nida Khan Writes 
Not for nothing they say that child is the father of man. So simple yet so profound. A lesson to be learnt ; a life to be lived. Beautifully articulated NS. God bless you and may others who get the message make peace with themselves
LikeLike
Means the world to me :)!!!!! Thank you so much
LikeLike
I am sure people in developed nations bear less burden perhaps because they don’t overthink, make optimal utilization of their brains, ‘live’ their lives rather then dragging themselves to death and consequently enjoy higher life expectancies.
Unfortunately,In the country where i am residing at the moment, people neither live nor let others live and subsequently undergo emotional traumas and depression.. Melancholy and despondency is found in abundance here..you’ll rarely find anyone happy !! I could be wrong in this contrast since i have never been to any of the developed nations yet. Correct me if i am wrong
On the bright side! you have successfully conveyed a very important message to your readers and i am surely going to think productive from now on and thereby make my life easy. Thanks for opening our eyes Nida! =)
LikeLike
Beneath the burden………… is what we need to search for…
Exquisite depiction of the variety of burdens that are there Nida!
LikeLike
Thanks Nadia:).
LikeLike
You have brilliantly analysed the complex human being
LikeLike
Thankyou so much:)
LikeLike
Definitely brilliant work. To re-phrase Mohsin Zahur’s comment, I would say you have brilliantly analysed human beings who should be simple but have made themselves complex (this includes me and many many others I know). I would definitely like to see your future works.
LikeLike
I guess that’s just how it is. Simply complicated creatures called humans. Thank you for the appreciation:)
LikeLike
Simple yet philosophical
LikeLike
Reblogged this on on the road to inkrichment and commented:
A short hiatus from blogging these days. So I thought I’d share an older post again. Tell me what you think:)
LikeLike
But we are homo sapiens after all. You lose your lifelong friends and don’t think twice about it; haunting but true; We human beings are overly burdened by the righteousness of our existence. It all revolves around the self; like it or not! Tragic but true, wish I was living in an ideal world. Guess moral of the story is we all need to move on. There are no permanent bonds except bonds of the family; Friendship is rather an overblown, exaggerated attribute that remains relevant as long as it is mutually convenient. It can never be a substitute. Haunting
LikeLike
Friendship is overrated I guess. There is a lot more to it and a lot less to it. What can we say:)
LikeLike
If we have something other than worldly view with which to think, we can make mental adjustments to stay positive, even in the face of the fiercest adversity. Nice post to make us think.
LikeLike
*mental adjustments to stay positive* . I like that. Thanks for reading Meredith:)
LikeLike
For the BRAiN we boast among all creatures under heaven, people are just dumb lol. But that’s because the body is more than the mind. Our heart is the battleground. We covet, overdose, envy, hurt our neighbor and ourselves because we’re worshiping our own desires, not worshiping aright. A beautiful treatise.
LikeLike
Oh yes. Dumb is the word. lol. Thanks for reading D. :)!
LikeLike