Almost 4 decades before, more than 40 men worked in a farm of a landlord, in a remote village in Helmand province. They all belonged to different parts of the country and thus they lived in the huts that were made for the farm workers. Although they were paid the salary but it was so meager that there left almost nothing when they sent some amount of it to their families. Adjacent to the farm of the landlord, there lived another farmer who had a small piece of land and who lived in his house with his wife and two sons. This man was greatly respected in the area for his kindness and generosity. It was said that he always tried to eat his lunch or dinner with a guest and hardly ate it alone at home. When he saw that the workers in the field were not having enough to eat, he went to the landlord and made an offer to provide with free food to his workers. The landlord agreed and the next day, the farmer invited all the workers to come to his house for lunch. Now, the workers started taking their lunch in the house of the generous man. Although his income was also limited but neither he nor any other of the family was concerned about it. Rather, they were all interested in serving the workers in the best possible manner. The man and his two sons ran to bring food and water to the workers and they stood on their feet until the workers finished their food. Later on, he learned that workers had difficulty in washing their clothes and so he announced that after this, workers would send their clothes to his house for washing. This setup continued for many years and in all those years, he was found to be happy and contented of his work. In the end, he died with all the contentment and spiritual joy.

Then the time changed. The clouds of war started covering the skies of our country and two sons of the farmer decided to migrate to a neighboring country, just like so many other farmers and inhabitants of the area. This is a long story that how they started their life in a new country and how they gradually got themselves established. Anyhow, the small town that they came and settled down had a problem of water shortage. People obtained the drinking water from the wells built inside houses but the wells had slowly started drying up and people looked here and there in search of drinking water. These two brothers dug up a well, built a big room like depot to store water and fixed electric water pump to pump up the water into the depot. First neighbors started coming to water and then there used to be a long line of people waiting for the water. It was strange that wells in the neighborhood gave very less water but this well was pouring up its water and was a constant source of comfort for the people in the vicinity.

The latest follow up of this story is found again in Helmand where these two brothers have again started working in the same field and they have the same quality of their father’s. They always welcome the guests and never let go any chance to be of help to the neighbors. Their kindness and helpfulness have not only earned good name and respect for them in the society but there has been invisible blessings and ease in their lives. It is strange how they spend openly on guests when they are not earning so well? How their well was full of water when the wells in the neighborhood had almost dried up? Why their children have become so well-mannered that everyone gets impressed from them? These are all the questions that can’t be answered easily and their answers are all hidden in some kind of mystery.

There is no need of mentioning the conclusion of this story that has spanned over many decades. It is not necessary that we should also arrange the food of forty men or wash their clothes or build a water depot to distribute to the neighbors but it is necessary that we should have the understanding that there is a simple way of multiplying blessings and carrying it over to generations. Being busy in our daily business, we may not be aware but there are present a lot of people who have this understanding and who are carrying forward this caravan and spreading the light, no matter however small it is. If not possible in form of something, it can be a smile, or waiting aside to give someone the way. 

A person admitted his relative in a hospital. Doctor asked him to give him typical soup (called shorba) which contains very less oil and is free of any kind of spice. Next to the hospital, there was a small restaurant that prepared this soup. As his house was very far from the hospital so he decided to take the soup from the restaurant. When he went to the restaurant, he was annoyed by a clever trick of the administration. They sold the soup with a condition that the customer would also buy other foods with it. There were a lot many poor who could not afford to buy other foods or there were some who did not need any extra food but the administration of restaurant never sold any soup without other foods. It was another way of selling forcefully the product. The man decided to open a shop where he would distribute free soup for the patients admitted in different hospitals. Although he has not started his project, but this idea keeps circulating in his mind and even enters his dreams.

Life is making us more and more depressed with every passing day. We always look for a single chance to throw away this depression. At the same time, there is always present a chance for us to be of help to others. In this regard, we are especially lucky that we live in a society where difficulties wait to the poor and the helpless on every step to engulf them in its wide and merciless mouth. There are many who wait for us, looking for a helping hand. No doubt, there would definitely be those who would be misusing our desire to help others but this small obstacle should not retire us from our journey. We can also search for those who may be benefitted from us, adding more meaning to our lives and making it more blessed and contented.

Our country fell into destruction when we chopped down the route of good deeds and started following the reverse; to achieve our goals by snatching the rights of others. If we want to establish a society where there should be the flow of prosperity, the above formula of lighting candles from candles is going to be of much use to us. This task can be started individually which will later on take in its hold every member of society. Let’s see how much we are going to get benefitted from these.