It is said that a boy was known in the village for his great anger and impatience, so that these two characteristics got him into many problems, after which his father decided to teach him a lesson in slowing down and controlling anger, so he brought him a bag full of nails and put it in front of him saying: Son, I want you to hammer a nail into a fence Our Wooden Garden Whenever you feel angry at a person or situation or lose your temper for any reason, the boy denounced his father’s request and did not understand the purpose of it, except that he had to agree to it, and promised his father to implement it.
On the first day, the boy hammered 37 paths into the fence, and he noticed that inserting nails after each time he was angry was not easy, which prompted him to try to control himself when angry the next times to avoid the trouble of hammering nails. Days passed and the boy continued what he promised his father, However, the father and his son noticed that the number of nails that the boy hammered into the fence was decreasing day by day, until the day came when the boy did not have to hammer any nail into the fence, which aroused his surprise and pleasure at the same time. The boy learned from this experience to control his anger. And he restrained himself, which was being aroused for the slightest reason, so he went out rejoicing to tell his father of his achievement. The father was happy with his son, but he approached him and said:
But now, my son, you have to try to take a nail out of the fence every day that you don’t get angry. The boy was amazed, but he started to carry out his new task of taking off the nails, and he kept pulling out a nail every day you kept calm, until I finished removing all the nails in the fence. And when the task was finished, he told his father about this, and again his father expressed to him how happy and proud he was of his achievement, then he took his hand and took him to the garden fence, and asked him to feel the places of the holes left by the nails in the wall with his hands and said to him: Son, now look at those holes In the fence, do you think these holes will go away with time? The boy replied, “No, my father. You left a deep mark in the wood.” His father said, “This is what the harshness of our words makes in the hearts of others. It leaves a mark inside them that does not go away even with an apology. towards them.
Dr. Taghreed Zuhdi Muhammad
Goodwill Ambassador
President of ofuq alsalam alduwali.osd Center
General Coordinator International Norwegian Organization For Justice And Peace