Forgiveness

This is a story about a teacher who told each of her students to bring a clear plastic bag and a sack of potatoes to school. The teacher suggested to her pupils that for every person they had refused to forgive in their life's experience, they were to take a potato, and write on it the name and date, and put it in the plastic bag.

The teacher then told each of her students to carry this bag with them on their shoulders and on their backs everywhere they went for one week, keeping the bag next to them at all times even beside their beds at night and by their desk throughout the school day, basically 24-hours a day.

Some of her students complained that the plastic bags were too heavy to lug around. The hassle of physically lugging these heavy plastic bags around with them made it clear to the students what their teacher was trying to convey to them about the value of friendship and forgiveness. The students realized what a weight they were carrying spiritually.

This is a great metaphor for the price we pay for keeping our pain and heavy negativity. Too often we think of forgiveness as a gift to the other person, but it clearly is for ourselves. Remember what Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) teaches us in Surah Al-A'raf [7:199-200]:
"Show forgiveness, enjoin what is good, and turn away from the ignorant (i.e. don't punish them). If a suggestion from Satan assails your mind, seek refuge with Allah; for He heareth and knoweth (all things)."