What goals are you pursuing?

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيمِ

Al-Imran (The Family of Imran) - 3:14  Alluring unto man is the enjoyment of worldly desires through women, and children, and heaped-up treasures of gold and silver, and horses of high mark, and cattle, and lands. All this may be enjoyed in the life of this world - but the most beauteous of all goals is with God.


What goals are you pursuing?

Once there was a farmer living in the rural outskirts, and he owned several dogs.  These dogs would laze around by the road side and would only become alert when a car or a motorbike would pass by.  Hearing the sounds of an engine, they would become instantly alert, and pursue the vehicle barking loudly and they would keep chasing it till a certain point on the road, after which they would stop and come back to their original positions and lie in wait for the next one.

A wise woman passing through the village asked the farmer:

"What do these dogs hope to achieve?"

The farmer replied:

"I know, it seems rather futile,  and a waste of time. But they have been like this since as far back as I can remember.  And is it so strange? Don't all dogs do this?"

The woman continued:

"What they do has the potential of harming the dogs themselves, or the riders, especially if it is a motorbike rider. And they do raise quite a din as well"

The farmer apologetically said:

"Is it the noise that is bothering you?"

The woman rather enigmatically quipped:

"Well yes, that, and also what will they do if they actually catch up with a vehicle?"