Dear Shagufta,
You are a strong woman. Failure doesn’t define you. You have a lot of potential to do anything. There’s a story about life I heard a long time ago, and I’d like to share it with you.
One afternoon, Franz Kafka was walking through a park. People knew him as a writer of deep and thoughtful stories, but that day he was simply enjoying the quiet air and watching children play.
As he walked, he noticed a little girl sitting on a bench, crying. Kafka gently asked what was wrong. Through tears, she told him she had lost her favorite doll. She had searched all over the park but couldn’t find it. She loved that doll very much, and losing it felt like losing a best friend.
Kafka kindly offered to help her search for the doll. Together they looked around the park, hoping to find it, but unfortunately they were unsuccessful.
Before leaving, Kafka told the girl to meet him at the same place the next day so they could continue searching.
The next day, when they met again and still had not found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter. He told her that the letter was written by her doll.
Dear friend,
Please don’t cry for me. I decided to travel and see the world. There are so many places to explore and stories to discover. I promise I will write to you about my adventures.
From that day on, each time they met in the park, Kafka brought another letter from the doll. In these letters, the doll described its adventures around the world, the places it visited, and the conversations it had during its journey.
The girl listened to the stories with great excitement and joy. The letters were written with such care and imagination that she found them absolutely delightful.
Finally, after some time, Kafka brought a doll to the park and told the girl that her doll had returned to Berlin.
The girl looked at the doll and said - “It doesn’t look like my doll at all.”
Kafka then handed her another letter from the doll. In it, the doll explained:
My dear friend,
Traveling has changed me.
The girl looked at the doll again. This time she hugged it and smiled. She understood that after such a long journey, the doll had simply changed.
Not long after, Kafka passed away. Years later, when the girl had grown up, she found a small folded note hidden inside the doll. It had been written by Kafka.
"Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will return in another way."
And that small lesson stayed with her for the rest of her life.
Sometimes what we lose doesn’t truly disappear. It just comes back to us in another way, carrying the same love, only shaped by time and memory. By embracing change, we can transform pain into wonder and love, if we choose to do so consciously and with an open heart. ✨
So don’t lose hope. Give your best without thinking too much about the result. Winning builds confidence, and failure teaches you something valuable. Sometimes Allah lets you fail because He wants to give you something even more valuable.