Why me?
We have developed a habit of asking this question from ourselves, from others, even from Allah too. Whenever we face a difficulty, mostly this question is the first thing that comes in our minds. Why? Isn’t our attitude wrong?
Let me tell you a story.
There was a boy named Arthur Ash born in Richmond, who lost his mother when he was 11. Tired of the loneliness, he decided to do something that no black man has ever tried, so he started playing tennis. He entered the court and conquered it. In 1963 he was the biggest tennis player in America and 1st black man to ever enter in American National tennis team who won the United States Davis Cup team. Newspapers, television channels, radios made him the star of America by 1969. In 1969, Ashe applied for a visa to compete in the South African Open, but was rejected by the South African government, which followed a strict racial segregation policy. He as a result left tennis, and fought for the rights of Black men in America until South African Embassy granted him his visa. Though it was a huge success, word spread that now that he has been out of the tennis court for such a long time, he wouldn’t be able to play tennis again. But in 1975 he gave his answer by winning the greatest award there is in the world of tennis, The Wimbledon Cup.
Unfortunately, in 1980, he had a heart attack. The blood Ashe was given in the hospital contained HIV which made him the victim of AIDS. The hero once, was a zero now. He fought with this disease for 13 years but despite the efforts of 4000 doctors, he passed away on 6th Feb, 1993.
You people must be thinking that the story is over, but the real one starts just now. When Ashe was on his deathbed, he received a letter from a fan in which he asked Ashe one thing, he said
“There are 5 billion people in the world right now, why did the nature only chose you for this disease out of those 5 million people sir? WHY YOU?”
And to this, a legendary answer came from the legend. He said
“In the whole world, every year, 50 crore children start playing tennis, out of those, only 5 crore children learn how to play it, out of those 5 crore, only 5 lac become professional tennis players, out of those only 50,000 enter in the circuit of the game, out of those only 5000 reach Grand Slam, out of those only 50 people play for Wimbledon, out of those 50 only 4 people reach the Semi Finals, and only two of them play the finals and in the whole world only one person wins the Wimbledon cup and I am that one person. I am the person who, out of those 50 crore players, who started playing tennis and reached the Wimbledon. I have won 800 big awards of Tennis in the world. It was a record. I clearly remember that whenever I would go to receive a trophy, a cup or an award, I used to consider it my right. I never asked my Allah that why did You chose me for this honor, WHY ME? Today when I am in pain and when I think about asking from Allah that why me, then I remember all the honors that I have received and I think that when I did not ask Allah when I was being successful that “GOD WHY ME”, then I don’t have the right to ask this now, if I didn’t thank Him on my achievements then I shouldn’t whine on my failures as well.”
Arthur said this before dying:
“O people! Never tell Allah how big your problem is, always tell your problem how great your Allah is, and you will get rid of all your pain and problems. One who wasn’t grateful at the time of his accomplishments, he has no right to complain on his failures and one who thinks his problem his greater than his God, then he should not call himself the man of God.”
Whenever I feel low, I just think about this man, the pain he was suffering from, and the level of contentment he had and then I stand up with a new zest and enthusiasm. So tell me what you think about the difference in his attitude and ours?
