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You know, human children when they are young

quickly have to learn a way to behave that is acceptable to their parents,

to friends and neighbours,

and all this is training for going out

and meeting all the other people in the world,

the ones they cross paths with, anyway.

Now the Deen is not just for when we are alone,

but also for when we are dealing with the world.

The Deen gives us a way to see the world,

and a way to behave in the world that we see.

We modify our behaviour with self-control,

for our own good,

the good of the society we live in,

and the good of the world.

We learn not to hurt other people

by exercising self-control,

and we learn to communicate with other people,

learn from them,

and behave with the good manners of our Adab.

We find out that we can't survive alone,

and that we have to learn to live with other people in society.

Sometimes there are important things that must be done

that we just can't do on our own,

which become so much easier with help from someone else,

like carrying someone on a stretcher.

Sometimes we need the strength of many hands together,

like in a Braemar tug-of-war,

raising a sail, or hauling in nets,

effort shared in time together,

with a shared rhythm

like pulling on oars,

submitting to the beat.

And with shared strength and skills,

shared aims and values,

and shared will and imagination,

humans can go from building huts to houses,

then towns and cities,

mosques and hospitals,

schools, universities and observatories.

When humans co-operate

and work together to do things

they can achieve results that take the breath away.

But they first need to learn to co-operate with each other,

share the loads,

agree about who is doing what

and when.

And when they co-operate together they form a team,

And a team works best when its members know each other well.

They need to know each other's likes and dislikes,

strengths and weaknesses.

And that's where things can start to get tricky.

Co-operation means forming relationships with other people,

and that isn't easy to do

We need to show our Tolerance,

our Compassion, our Honesty and Generosity.

In finding the best way to live work and play together,

we use our Deen to make relationships with other people easy.

And good relationships make for good teams,

and good teams can do great things.

What other ways of living in the Deen

do you think might be useful when working with others?

Should I bother to be on time?

Why should I forgive someone?

Why should I care if other people fight?