Courage

You know,

nobody gets through life without some kind of tragedy,

some kind of loss of a person or thing that causes pain.

Some things hurt,

and we can even hurt by watching other people suffer,

from compassion for other people's pain.

But that's just what we go through with our emotions.

There's also stuff that happens to us that brings hurt in a much more physical way,

like accidents and illness.

And when we look at all the bad things that can happen to us in our lives

the world can be really scary.

In fact, all the possibilities of what might happen

can be much more frightening than whatever is happening to us right now.

When something bad happens to us we deal with it.

Fear is about the future,

what hasn't happened to us yet.

That's how people can get scared at the movies.

The on-screen killer

that is hiding around the corner in the dark

is only threatening an on-screen character,

not us.

The slashing knife isn't cutting into our flesh,

but the sight of it still scares us.

It's the thought of how it just might happen to us

around some dark corner of our own lives.

Of course we do stand a chance of being slashed by a knife,

but it's much more likely to be in our own hand

as it slips in a direction that we didn't intend

rather than in the hand of some mad killer.

Or it could be in the hands of a surgeon.

That's another possibility.

Knives cut, and cuts hurt,

but some cuts hurt more than others

depending on where you are cut and how deep,

and whether you are under an anaesthetic.

And sometimes we know that we are facing something that is going to hurt us,

and the fear is there even though it isn't hurting us yet.

It's just the scary approach from the future

of something we know that we aren't going to enjoy.

And sometimes the fear is of something that

we don't know if it is going to happen or not.

And that can be even more scary.

Because fear of something that may or may not happen,

the scary prospect of all the possible horrors that lurk in the unknown,

can be even more terrifying than what is probable.

That kind of fear springs from the imagination,

and there's nothing that is likely to happen to us

that is so bad that we can't imagine something very much worse.

So we need something to help us face our fears

if we are to get through our lives

without being terrified of our future prospects.

We need Courage.

And with courage we can face the future

knowing that whatever happens we will deal with it when it comes,

not be afraid of ifs and maybes.

And to help us find courage when facing an unknown future

we need to trust in God.

We need to know that God will not send us any trials that we are not equipped to bear.

But we will be sent trials in our lives,

and the struggle to deal with those trials

is what is known as the Greater Jihad.

And the trials that we are sent to deal with in our lives

are seen as even greater than the prospect of death or injury

that we would have to face in the Lesser Jihad of war.

We need to face both with courage.

The Companions of the Messenger also had to search within themselves for courage,

because at one point God revealed in the Qur'an

that a hundred muslims could overcome an army of a thousand,

and as they then considered that

facing odds of ten to one was obligatory on them

they found it very frightening.

But then a second revelation was sent down

in which God recognised their human weakness

and this time said

that a hundred muslims might expect to overcome just two hundred enemies.

Of course, if God wished it

a small force could win against any number of enemies,

but it was much easier to imagine facing

odds of two to one than odds of ten to one.

Even for the Companions

the thought of each having to fight ten enemies

was stretching their capacity to trust in God

and face the prospect of such overwhelming odds

with courage.

So God took pity on them and showed Mercy,

just as God will with us when we look for courage

to face our fears in our own lives.