Two friends Ismail and Ibrahim were walking through the desert, as the sun was beating down on their heads. They were thirsty and began to argue. The argument got heated and eventually Ismail struck Ibrahim across the face. Ibrahim felt hurt inside, but silently wrote in the sand: ‘Today, my best friend slapped me in the face.’
They kept on walking, until they came across an oasis, where they decided to stop and bathe. Ibrahim jumped in and began to wash, while Ismail sat. Suddenly Ibrahim began to scream: he had developed a cramp and was drowning. Ismail dived in after him, and brought him to shore.
When Ibrahim recovered from the shock, he scratched a message on a nearby stone: ‘Today, my best friend saved my life’. Ismail asked him, ‘Why, after I hurt you, you wrote in sand, and now you write on a stone?’
Ibrahim replied: ‘When a friend hurts us, we should write his deeds in the sand, where the winds of forgiveness can blow it away. And when a friend does something good, we should engrave it in stone, where it shall remain for eternity.’
Sand and Stone
