How to lead a successful life

Self-interest is the strongest passion of every man and woman. Everyone is full of desires. And each and every individual feels the necessity to fulfil his or her desires. It is this state of affairs that has resulted in corruption, injustice and all kinds of evil. Since, according to the creation plan, everyone is free, it is impossible to impose a complete check on social evils.
What must one do in this state of affairs? It is not possible to eliminate all social evils. The only possible option is to save oneself from the depredations of others. In other words, to live without being exploited in a world of exploitation. Exploitation is never absent, but it is always possible to save yourself from exploitation. Don’t complain about the problem: simply try to deal with the problem so that it should be in your favour.
This situation, which prevails throughout the world, is not an evil. It is actually a great boon. It is what creates challenges and competition. And, challenge and competition are the only ways to human progress, nay, to all kinds of human development. In the last analysis, it is this very situation that unfolds the entire human potential.
Once I visited a zoo where I came upon a large deer park, which had been designed to be as close to nature as possible – an apparently ideal environment for wild animals. But, as a zoo official explained, the absence of predators had caused the deer to lose their fertility. It seems that when the deer were in their natural habitat, the jungle, they lived in constant danger from predators such as wolves. But, here in the zoo enclosure, their lives were devoid of such challenges and, as a result, their reproductive systems suffered from the resulting mental and physical inactivity. So, as the official explained, they introduced a wolf into the enclosure from time to time, so that the deer had to run helter-skelter from it to save their lives. Once the deer felt threatened in this way and became normally active, their fertility was revived and they became capable of reproduction.
This is a law of nature, which holds not only for animals, but also for man. All human beings are born with great potential, but to unfold this potential they need to face constant challenges. What philosophers call the ‘problem of evil’ is nothing but the problem of challenge. And, it is this that is responsible for maintaining the creativity of human beings.
Life is full of challenges. Every disadvantage is a challenge—poverty is a challenge, difficulty is a challenge, an unpleasant situation is a challenge, even being born with a disability is a challenge. All these challenges are blessings in disguise. These challenges are the stepping stones to progress.
Authored by: Maulana Wahiduddin Khan