An emperor in the Far East was growing old and knew it was
time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his
children, he decided something
different. He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, “It
is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to
choose one of you.”
The kids were shocked! But the emperor continued. “I am
going to give each one of you a seed today. One very special seed. I want you
to plant the seed. Water it and come back here one year from today with what
you grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and
the one I choose will be the next emperor!”
One boy named Ling was there that day and he, like the
others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly told his mother the story .
She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered
it carefully. Every day he would water it and watch to see if it had grown.
After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their
seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow.
Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew, Three
weeks, 4 weeks, 5 weeks went by. Still nothing. By now, others were talking
about their plants but Ling didn’t have a plant, and he felt like a failure.
Six months went by-still nothing in Ling’s pot. He just knew he had killed his
seed.
Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn’t say anything to
his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow.
A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom
brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that
he wasn’t going to take an empty pot. But
honest about what happened, Ling
felt sick to his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty
pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants
grown by the other youths. They were beautiful in all shapes and sizes. Ling
put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other kinds laughed at him. A
few felt sorry for him and just said, “Hey nice try.”
When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted
the young people. Ling just tried to
hide in the back. “My, what great
plants, trees and flowers you have
grown,” said the emperor. “Today, one of you will be appointed the
next emperor!” All of a sudden, the
emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his
guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. “The emperor knows I’m a
failure! Maybe he will have me killed!”
When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. “My
name is Ling.” He replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him.
The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced
to the crowd, “ Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!” Ling coudn’t believe it. Ling couldn’t
even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor? Then the
emperor said, “One year ago today, I
gave everyone here a seed. I told you to
take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I
gave you all boiled seeds which would not
grow. All of you, except Ling,
have brought me trees and plants and
flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another
seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty
to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!”
The Prophet taught, “Truthfulness leads to righteousness, and righteousness
leads to Paradise. And a man keeps on telling the truth until he becomes a
truthful person. Falsehood leads to Al-Fajur (i.e. wickedness, evil-doing),
and Al-Fajur (wickedness leads to the
(Hell) Fire, and a man may keep on telling
lies till he is written before Allah, a liar.” {Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol.
8:116}
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