Steel and blacksmith
"After spending a youth full of evil and passion, Ahangari decided to dedicate his soul to God.
He worked with passion for years, doing good to others, but with all his piety, things didn't seem right in his life.
Even his problems kept increasing.
One evening, a friend who came to see him and learned about his difficult situation said:
“It's really weird. Right after you decided to become a God-fearing man, your life got worse, I don't want to weaken your faith, but despite all the suffering you gave yourself on the path of spirituality, your life didn't get better!”
The blacksmith paused and did not answer immediately.
Finally, in the silence, he found the answer he wanted.
This was the blacksmith's answer:
"In this workshop, they bring me raw steel and I have to make a sword out of it.
Do you know how I do this?
First, I heat the piece of steel to hell until it is red hot.
Then I brutally pick up the heaviest hammer and hit it repeatedly, until the steel takes the shape I want.
Then I put it in a pan of cold water and the whole workshop gets steamed, the steel moans and suffers because of this sudden temperature change.
I have to repeat this until I get the sword I want. Once is not enough!"
The blacksmith was silent for a while and then continued:
"Sometimes the steel that reaches my hand cannot withstand this operation. Heat, hammer blows and cold water will crack it all.
I know that this steel will never make a proper sword blade.
That's when I throw it in the pile of workshop waste."
He paused again and then continued:
"I know that I will sink into the fire of suffering.
I have accepted the sledgehammer blows that life has dealt me, and sometimes I feel very cold.
It's like I'm steel that suffers from being watered, but the only prayer I have to God is:
My God, don't give up what you want for me so that I can take the form you want.
Go on any way you like, go on as long as you need;
But never, never throw me into the waste mountain of useless steel…”
