Today, the article will start with a story from one of the famous books of Urdu literature, 'Zaavia'. The writer, Ishfaq Ahmad writes that his niece was a very energetic girl who had mighty ambitions for her life. She always talked of great plans for future and talked of the importance of having big dreams and mighty projects.

She never liked to do small household chores and did not give them any importance saying that these were small jobs that can be done by anyone, she should be given some difficult or big work and she was not much interested in doing small works. The writer laughed and said, 'My dear, this is good that you always look to do mighty works but there is a natural order in the world that all the good works start from a small point which rises gradually.' It is the reason why, there is an old saying that, 'You need to rise to the top step by step and in order to rise to the second step, you will have to come to the first step and gradually, you will rise to the top.'

One of our teachers used to say that, 'One who cannot move a small stone should not talk of moving a mountain. The exact opposite of it would be comparatively a better strategy for success. Until and unless you move a stone and don't find out how it is dealt with, how it is moved and how it is held, you will never be successful in moving a stone because with lack of expertise, you might put yourself into danger and get crushed under the mountain but if you were not good in moving a small stone and made a small mistake, it might not harm you too much and this mistake will teach an important lesson and you might not repeat the mistake but a mistake done on a high level will also cost you a lot and you might not be able to recover its losses very easily.'

One of my acquaintances, who was an influential bureaucrat, had developed a habit of forgetfulness. Other day, when we were sitting in a gathering where some other people of his rank and authority had gathered, and they were talking about the mighty plans needed to be undertaken for the development of the country, one of his servants entered and silently handed over the keys of his car. The man stopped for a while, gave an embarrassed smile and said, 'Where were these?' The servant said politely, 'Sir, you had dropped them outside.'

The man took the keys and then remembered that he had left his mobile phone somewhere and called the servant, 'XYZ, can you look for my mobile, I don't know where I have left it?' The servant seemed to be accustomed to this hide and seek game and thus politely said, 'Ok, Sir.' He took out his mobile phone to call the number of his boss and arrived after a while with the mobile phone which he had found on the dashboard of the car. There is no need of mentioning that those who cannot take good care of small things would ever be able to take care of the fate of the nation.

You might have also observed many in your family who are big officers and businessmen but who leave their important documents here and there and later on shout on the family members or the servants to find them. They are the constant source of tension because of this habit and thus there are some wise wives who take care of every small thing of their forgetful husbands. In my opinion, such wives are far more useful than those important husbands who talk of big things but forget small things.

There was an old system of assessing the qualities of a person used by the saints of old times. They asked the person to stay with them for one or three days and in those three days, he was assigned with small works like bringing water, straightening the shoes of visitors, and other small works. When he was found to be good in doing these small works, he was accepted for further training and included in the circle of students of the saint. Otherwise, he was refused to be accepted as a student.

Ishfaq Ahmad narrates a similar story in his book that when he returned from Italy, he was very energetic and was very ambitious to do something for the betterment of the society. Then he joined a circle where good members of society gathered and there was an influential old man among them who used to be their guide and master.

This man was like an ordinary person and there was nothing that could make him appear superior to the others. When he went there for the first time, he was given a task of peeling the peas. It was rather strange for the author and he was shocked as well but the old man laughed and said, 'Until you don't learn how to do the small works, you will never learn to do the big works'. This made his concept clear and understood the importance of small works.

In old times, when people used to eat the food on floor and a cloth was spread on the floor so that food or bread particles should not be scattered everywhere, elders of the family taught an important lesson to the youngsters. They used to advice them to eat in a way that they should drop less food or particles and after the meal was over, everyone should collect the food or bread particles dropped outside the cloth piece and bring them back on the cloth. The logic behind this emphasis was to teach them the habit of discipline as without discipline, they would suffer a lot in their lives to follow.

Similarly, a person's character was assessed by having a look at his habits on eating. If he was found to be disciplined while eating, it was realized that he would be much disciplined in his practical life as well, otherwise, vice versa.

Small works teach us discipline. It is our habit that while handling a big task or important job, we show carefulness and give it due importance and act in a disciplined manner but when we are doing a small work, we don't give it much importance and take it lightly. If we start giving importance to the small works in life, we would be able to season our habits and acts in a framework of discipline and this discipline would bring success in every work, be it small or big.

We claim of being a Muslim, having the best book and religious guidance but we see that we are the most backward in almost all the issues of the world. The only reason behind this is the lack of discipline in the Muslims and it is also the sole reason of the success of the developed countries of the world.

This should be an eye-opener to all those who talk of mighty plans but their indiscipline in life creates a lot of problems to others. Until this basic problem is not solved, the bigger problems might never come to an end.