Gems from the Quran

Came across two wonderful verses from the Holy Quran in the Times of India a few days back, and just couldn't help mentioning these gems or rather, putting them down for contemplation later, which might be oftener than I realize. The first one goes like this -

 

 

"Whatever misfortune befalls you is of your own doing" ( 42:30)

 

What a wonderful way for a seer to gently remind people to look inwards, rather than blaming external factors and agencies for catastrophes and misfortunes, trying to find out what actually went wrong! Raising the bar as it is, accepting full responsibility for ones' own thoughts and actions, whether involuntary or well thought of, for everything has its genesis in the mind. As you sow, so shall you reap, but so much more succinctly stated. Fatalism banished to the background, the power of positive action could not have been emphasized more. The second one -

 

"God alters not what is with a people, until they alter what is within them" ((13:11) 

 

Once again, positive action underlined. A wake up call of sorts, a promise of rewards in the horizon.
 

There is scarcely anything religious in these verses except for pure common sense and these words could very well have come from the most ardent atheist. But then, the most ardent atheist could not have spoken so lyrically and with so much effect.

 

While the first verse is a diagnosis of sorts, the second is the prescription.
The problem and the solution.
The ailment and the cure!

That perhaps, is the silver lining in the black clouds that seem to completely envelope the blue sky, what with glaring inadequacies in civic services, the near total disregard for the environment or the ecosystem, the politics of hate and the cancer of corruption eating into the vitals of the country ...