NO ONE will dispute that butterflies are beautiful creatures. As we all know, this insect goes through a number of metamorphic changes before becoming a butterfly.
It starts off life as an egg before hatching into a larva. Interestingly enough, during this stage, it is not the beautiful insect we see flying around in gardens pollinating flowers.Instead, the butterfly’s larva is considered as a pest that destroys plants. Then the larva metamorphoses into a cocoon, laying dormant for a period of time. Later, we would see a small hole from within the cocoon where a butterfly would emerge.This process of exiting the cocoon requires quite a struggle. It is a process that seems long and painful to the butterfly. Nonetheless, after going through the hardship, a beautiful butterfly would finally take flight.
In the Quran, God instructs mankind to observe nature in order to learn from it. In verses 17 to 20 of Surah al-Ghashiyah, God says to the effect that: “Do they not look at the camels, how they are made? And at the sky, how it is raised high? And at the mountains, how they are fixed firm? And at the earth, how it is spread out?” God
has given mankind many “anecdotes” in the form of nature so that mankind could understand the scheme of things in life. The butterfly is one such anecdote. Sometimes we find ourselves wondering why Muslims are faced
with so many challenges and problems daily.
Sometimes we tend to think it is not fair for God to test Muslims with so many obstacles when Muslims have placed their faith in God and the teaching of Islam as brought by Prophet Muhammad.
To help us understand why difficult things happen to us sometimes, let us ponder upon this anecdote of the butterfly. A man was watching a cocoon of a butterfly for several hours. There was a little crack in the cocoon which the butterfly was struggling to force its body through.
Then it seemed to the man the butterfly had stopped making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further. So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily.However, the butterfly had a swollen body and small, shrivelled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly anticipating that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to support the body which would contract in time.
None of these things happened. In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shrivelled wings. It never was able to fly. What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready to fly once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never “fly”, as in the case of the butterfly.This had been illustrated clearly from the history of Prophet Muhammad himself.
The Prophet’s father died before he was born. Then he was sent to live in a Bedouin village with a woman named Halimah as-Sa’diyah for four years to make him resilient and courageous.
Not long afterwards, the Prophet’s mother died and he was put under the care of his grandfather. When his grandfather died,his uncle looked after him. The Prophet spent his childhood years as a shepherd. His life was intertwined with hardship and deaths of his loved ones. All these made him a strong and charismatic person.
His early life served as a training ground for his character as he had to struggle through problems and tragedies.
What the Prophet went through, was akin to the struggle of the butterfly. Fascinatingly enough, if we think about it, the economic, political and social problems facing Malaysia that started several years ago were quite similar to the struggle of the butterfly.
When Asia faced the economic and financial meltdown that began in 1997, one Asian economy after another fell like dominos.Several countries, such as Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia, had to turn to the IMF and World Bank for help to put things in order. However, Malaysia chose to face these economic turmoil using its own formula without getting help from the IMF and World Bank.
As can be seen today, Malaysia has managed to recover from the economic downfall better than others. In retrospect, the economic downturn can be considered a blessing in disguise as it made the country stronger and more confident of its own capabilities.If we take the IMF and World Bank as the man watching the butterfly and the aid given as the scissors,then almost surely Malaysia would have been crippled, unable to fly.
Perhaps it was wise for the leaders of the country not to accept the aid given by these world financial bodies.
This far-sightedness on their part has given the country the wings to freedom.
We asked for strength and God gave us difficulties to make us strong. We asked for wisdom and God gave us problems to solve.
We asked for prosperity and God gave us brain and brawn to work. We asked for courage and God gave us dangers to overcome.We asked for love and God gave us troubled people to help. We asked for favours and God gave us opportunities.
In truth, we received nothing we wanted, but instead we received everything we needed.
This is a fact of life. Let us strengthen our resolves to face the daily challenges as set forth by the Almighty Creator. With strong iman (faith) and ‘ilm (knowledge), we would be able to emerge from these challenges victorious, not only in this world but also the hereafter, much like a butterfly that can fly.