There is no food without effort. This has been taught to us gradually over the years, both as a proverb and in every degree of difficulty we face in real life, and the truth is always brutally shouted in our faces.
Life is the greatest teacher, and it is also cruel because it chooses the hands-on way of teaching. Moreover, the time spent in learning processes belongs to our lives and we consume a slice of the irreversible cake of life.
Receiving without giving is unique to Allah, so everything we receive has a reward, except for our beliefs. The compensation may include sometimes light and sometimes heavy costs.
We all want to one day be rewarded for everything we have grown by hard work. This is one of our instinctive movements. The moment we pluck the first fruit from a fruit tree that we have planted and grown meticulously and eat it, it is the reward that all our efforts are not in vain.
The fact that the tomato seedling we planted grows and gives us tomatoes is again the reward of the effort. The fact that the vehicle we bought takes us to the place we want in a healthier and more trouble-free manner is the equivalent of the money we paid at the purchasing stage and the fuel we put in its tank.
If the tree did not bear fruit, if the tomato seedling did not grow tomatoes, we would stop watering them and let them dry out. Or we would prefer the shorter route and cut off their heads, cut them with a more polite discourse and sew other products in their place.
If the purchased vehicle does not take us where we want and causes constant problems, we will either dispose of it or have it repaired until it is as we want it.
Every item and every plant that we use throughout our life has an expectation in return for the time we spend. We act with the feeling that they have to pay for it as long as we put in the effort, and we shape our behavior accordingly.
For a week, I will take the dried branches of olive trees, cut the bushes that disturb them, and give animal manure to their roots. I will do this from the moment the sun rises in the morning until the sun sets in the evening. In return, the olive trees will give me olives. I will ripen the olive and sell it as edible. After being selected, I will take the remaining olives to the oil factory and turn them into olive oil.
All this ordering is to show the fruits of my labor for the olive trees. Inefficiency due to various reasons, drought and God's divine decisions are outside this scope.
What I want to tell you is that when I don't get the reward for the effort I put into olive trees for years, I cut them down and sell them to the ovens as wood. I work the remaining land with other products and continue on my way.
This is the cruelty of life, not mine. The phrase "I did it without expecting anything in return" is completely false. Everything has a counterpart in one way or another.
The expected response may vary from person to person, even the shade of some trees may seem sufficient, but the result will not change. The expectation is always that there will be a response.
Even if we have children who are expected in return!
Stay healthy and friendly!
Thank you for reading.
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