�An Injury Is Forgotten Much Sooner Than An Insult�

  What is an injury? Essentially anything, which causes pain and affects one�s appearance, constitutes an injury. But it is not as simple as a name of a severe unbearable condition of having pain, especially if someone else imposes it.

One might agree with the statement that an injury is forgotten much sooner than an insult but if we ponder a little and consider an injury which is imposed by someone else we might see that an injury is itself an insult, particularly if it becomes known to the other people. Anyhow we have to agree that injury is a lower degree of insult and if an injury is in greater amount then it becomes an insult.

A shallow person may hide his injuries from public but a sensitive individual takes his injuries as an insult, as it erodes his self-esteem. Only a person who remembers his injuries strives to avoid his mistakes in future and thus succeeds in having higher achievements. This is one of the characteristics of a perfectionist personality. This may have a negative impact on the performance of an individual if it goes beyond a certain limit and the excessive anxiety makes him commit more mistakes.

In the history of Muslims, King Shahab-ud-Din Ghauri is said to have provided the best example of remembering his injury, taking it as a personal insult and making amends in the shortest possible time. When he was defeated by Hindu Maharajas and was seriously injured at Bathinda (a place in Indo-Pak), he vowed to himself that before taking revenge and defeating the enemy he won�t change his clothes or ride a saddled horse and in the next year he did impose a decisive defeat at Panipat (a place in Indo-Pak) on the collective armies of all the Indian states.

As the great poet and philosopher of Pakistan, Iqbal has said that,

�The injury itself is not important but when the nation loses the sense of injury, forgets its failures and is content upon its degraded situation, it lapses into decline and does not rise again.�

�Karwan ke dil se ehsaase zian jata raha�(URDU Language)

So it obvious that injury is the second name of insult. In the past the invaders have purposefully inflicted repeated injuries on the conquered people to lower their self-esteem so that they may not think of a revolt.

Now coming to insult you may know very well that after the failure of 1857 revolt the English rulers made their waiters and peons to wear a uniform which resembled the royal dress of Mughals (Kings at that time), so that their image in the public eye is irreparably damaged. They targeted the Muslim Nobility in particular, as they feared a counter movement from their side. This was only because they knew that the Muslims must have taken their injuries as an insult. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and his associates first of all tried to restore the self-esteem of Muslim Nation for that he considered the injuries of 1857 revolt as an insult. He himself wrote a treatise on the causes of failure of 1857 Indian Revolt. The name of that bulletin was �Asbab-e-Nakami-e-Baghawat-e-Hind�.

As the means of an insult and an injury have been clarified to some extent, so I come to describe some more aspects of this particular topic.

In an opinion by William Peter, if you go on neglecting your injuries and do not feel ashamed on them and do not try to make amendments and corrections, you can never succeed in life. One more thing which may be the most important of all and is described by William Adrian in his book �Basic Principals of Life� is that,

�If a person considers that there is a big difference between an insult and an injury he can never succeed in any field of life.�

The main theme of my essay is described in the following saying by Michael Macleod,

�There are two basic kinds of injuries. One which is only due to the will of God and the other which is imposed by someone and the injury which is imposed by someone is the second name of insult.�

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With best regards,
Usman Malik,
President of Decentman.Da.Ru,
Pakistan

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