Good news, bad news, who knows?

Stories & Lessons · 3 min

An old parable about judging events too quickly

An old farmer's only horse ran away. The neighbours said, "What bad luck!" The farmer said, "Maybe."

A week later the horse came back, bringing three wild horses with it. "What wonderful luck!" they said. "Maybe," said the farmer.

His son tried to ride one, fell, and broke his leg. "How terrible!" "Maybe." Soon soldiers came to take young men to war. They passed over the son with the broken leg.

The lesson

We rarely see the whole story while we're inside it. When a plan falls apart, it's fair to grieve, and also fair to say: I don't yet know what this is.

From the Quran & Sunnah

• When plans fall apart
• A big decision

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