BY Sattar Choudahry
Imagine…!! One morning you wake up and the world has changed… Neither buildings have changed, nor governments, nor markets, nor roads, only one change has occurred, a plaque is placed on the chest of every human being, on which the real price of his heart is written… On someone’s chest it is written, Love… Five hundred rupees… On someone, loyalty… One thousand rupees… On someone, conscience… Sold… And on someone’s lucky chest it is written, Character… Priceless… Then perhaps the world’s greatest revolution will take place. For centuries, we have been assessing the value of humans by their clothes, cars, bungalows, positions and bank accounts, we have made wealth synonymous with honor… And buried character in the yellow pages of an old book, but if the real prices are revealed, it is possible that the most expensive person will be the one whose pocket is empty and the cheapest one will be the one who has heaps of wealth. Perhaps on that day, not goods are being sold in the markets, but the realities of humans.
Just think…!! How many relationships will suddenly be exposed on this day…. That friend who has been claiming loyalty for years, may have written on his chest… “Available according to interest”…. The person who gives lectures on ethics in every gathering, may have his conscience worth less than a cup of tea…. And that quiet man, who sits in a corner and eats his hard-earned bread, may have his character worth more than any treasure…. Then perhaps the standards of marriages will also change, people will start reading the values written on hearts instead of family, wealth and property, a father will not ask for his daughter how much the boy’s salary is, but rather see how true his love is and how valuable his loyalty is…. Perhaps the biggest earthquake will come in the field of politics, if the real value of their promises is written on the chests of the leaders standing on the stage of the meetings, the public will not need long speeches, one look will be enough. There may be some faces surrounded by thousands of guards, but their conscience is worth no more than a few coins… And there may be some anonymous people who do not hold any position, but their honesty is written priceless… Perhaps on this day we will know for the first time that the greatest poverty in the world is not of money, but of character… And the greatest wealth is not the bank balance, but the heart that has not been sold yet. We will also know how insignificant those we considered great were, and how great those we considered insignificant were… But perhaps the most interesting scene is seen in the markets, shopkeepers are not looking at things, but at people. On one side, a person getting out of a car worth millions is standing, but on his chest is written, Faith… Available at a modest price. On the other side, a worker is standing in his sweat-soaked shirt, and on his heart is shining, Honesty… Priceless… And then a strange worry arises, many people stand in front of the mirror and try to erase the price written on their chest, some make excuses, some give explanations, some blame others, but the prices do not change, because they are not written by any government office, but by human actions. Then perhaps for the first time we realize that the most difficult task in the world is not to earn wealth, but to keep the price of our heart high, because wealth can be stolen, position can be snatched, reputation can be erased, but a character that has fallen once cannot regain its original value even after years… And perhaps the most worried on this day are those who have been trying to become great in the eyes of others all their lives, they have built magnificent houses, worn expensive clothes, bought fancy cars, attached great positions to their names, but suddenly it turns out that the price written on their heart is much less than all these things. The more expensive they thought themselves to be, the cheaper they actually turned out to be… On the contrary, there may be some people who were not given importance throughout their lives, they continued to perform their duties silently, they did not get newspaper headlines, TV screens, or social media fame, but when the value written on their chests is read, it is known that they are the real rich people of this society… A teacher who has shaped generations, a mother who has sacrificed her desires to fulfill the dreams of her children, a laborer who has sweated all her life for a halal livelihood, a friend who has stood by them in every difficult time, all of them may have one word written on their hearts… Priceless… Then perhaps the world will realize for the first time that the value of a person is not determined by the things he has, but by the qualities within him, but the tragedy is that values are not written on hearts, that is why deception is alive, hypocrisy is alive, pretense is alive, we read faces, not hearts, we believe in words, we do not bother to examine character… And this is why cheap people often look expensive… And the truly valuable people get lost in the crowd…
Perhaps then the biggest question in the world is not how much do you have…? But rather, what are you…? People should ask for an account of conscience instead of bank balance, should want to know the value of character instead of fame… And should consider loyalty as capital instead of wealth, but perhaps God did not write prices on hearts for this reason that a person should be given a test. We have to judge not by looking at faces, but by looking at deeds. We have to weigh deeds, not words. We have to know that not everything that glitters is gold and not every simple-looking person is ordinary. The truth is that all the markets in the world combined cannot buy a good conscience. There is not enough wealth in any treasury to buy true love. There is no power that can create loyalty… And there is no note that can raise a fallen character again.So perhaps the real question is not what would we know about others if values were written on our hearts, the real question is if today our value suddenly appeared on our own chest, would we be able to proudly show it to the world?… Because a person’s greatest wealth is not what is in his pocket, but what is in his heart… And sometimes a poor person is more valuable than the rich in the whole world because of his character.