TASTE, manners, origin, respect, loyalty, love, sincerity, chastity, etc. are good and very necessary qualities that we should all possess.
The question is whether we all have all these qualities? Of course, it is possible because we all want to avoid everything that negatively affects our lives and the lives of people around us.
Education and upbringing play an important and pivotal role, though. We encounter many situations, some beautiful and wonderful, and some unfortunately bad and sad, because of others’ behaviour.
We come across people you wish you had met many years ago, and there are people with who you regret spending all those years with. This is life, and sometimes difficult to reconcile.
I write this after an incident recently. A couple of years ago, I met a former colleague to offer my condolences on a family bereavement. I know this gentleman for 25 years but we did not meet often because of the nature of our work and because we were on different shifts.
For the last two years, though, we have been in constant touch through social media, exchanging messages and greetings and asking about each other’s welfare.
A few days ago, however, this gentleman sent me a piece of paper with my signature on it. It was a ‘compliment slip’ that I routinely write and send along with a gift. I was quite taken aback on seeing this because it had accompanied a packet I had sent him 25 years ago to compliment his work and for all his efforts!
He had preserved it for a quarter of a century.
This was a very emotional moment for me, no doubt, and I recalled all those times we worked together even though we met only very occasionally. I was awestruck by his loyalty and good manners and the purity of his character. Needless to say, I made sure all of my family got to know about this so they could keep him as a role model.
Just as the inner beauty of a person increases when he has virtuous morals, it also brings him closer to the Lord. He becomes good-natured and kind.
As I said, sometimes one undesirable person spoils everything, in the same way a drop of vinegar spoils the sweetness of honey.
The great poet Ahmed Shawqi was right when he said, “Indeed nations have morals that remain, if their morals are gone, they are gone.”
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