The Perfect Heart

Read this touching story

All the way to the end...

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town

proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart

in the whole valley.

A large crowd gathered

and they all admired his heart for it was perfect.

There was not a mark or a flaw in it.

Yes, they all agreed it truly was

the most beautiful heart they had ever seen.

The young man was very proud and boasted

more loudly about his beautiful heart. 

Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd

and said:

"Why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine."

The crowd and the young man looked at the old man's heart.

It was beating strongly, but full of scars,

it had places where pieces had been removed

and other pieces put in,

but they didn't fit quite right

and there were several jagged edges.

In fact, in some places there were deep gouges

where whole pieces were missing.

The people stared –

how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought? 

The young man looked at the old man's heart and saw its state and laughed.

"You must be joking," he said.

"Compare your heart with mine,

mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears."

"Yes," said the old man,

"yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you.

You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love –

I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them,

 and often they give me a piece of their heart

which fits into the empty place in my heart,

but because the pieces aren't exact,

I have some rough edges, which I cherish,

because they remind me of the love we shared. 

Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away,

and the other person hasn't returned

a piece of his heart to me.

These are the empty gouges -- giving love is taking a chance.

Although these gouges are painful, they stay open,

reminding me of the love I have for these people too,

and I hope someday they may return

and fill the space I have waiting.

So now do you see what true beauty is?" 

The young man stood silently with tears

running down his cheeks.

He walked up to the old man,

reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart,

and ripped a piece out.

 He offered it to the old man with trembling hands.

The old man took his offering,

placed it in his heart and then took a piece

from his old scarred heart

and placed it in the wound in the young man's heart.

It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges.

The young man looked at his heart,

not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever,

 since love from the old man's heart flowed into his.

They embraced and walked away side by side.

If a person starts telling you, whether in private or public, something that you already knew very well, you should pretend as if you do not know it. Do not rush to reveal your knowledge or to interfere with the speech.

Instead, show your attention and concentration. The honorable tab'i Imam Ata ibn Abi Rabah said: "A young man would tell me something that I may have heard before he was born. Nevertheless, I would listen to him as if I had never heard it before."

Khalid ibn Safwan al-Tamimi, who frequented the courts of two Khalifahs: Umar ibn Abdul Aziz and Hisham ibn Abdul Malik, said: "If a person tells you something you have heard before, or news that you already learned, do not interrupt him to exhibit your knowledge to those present. This is rude and ill mannered." The honorable Imam Abdullah ibn Wahab al-Qurashi al-Masri, a companion of Imam Malik, Al-Laith ibn Sad and Al-Thawri, said: "Sometimes a person would tell me a story that I have heard before his parents had wed. Yet, I listened as if I have never heard it before." Ibrahim ibn al-Junaid said: "A wise man said to his son: 'Learn the art of listening as you learn the art of speaking." Listening well means maintaining eye contact, allowing the speaker to finish the speech, and restraining your urge to interrupt his speech. Al-Hafiz al-Khatib al-Baghdadi said in a poem:

Never interrupt a talk
Though you know it inside out