PART of my job responsibilities before retiring from a multinational company a few years ago was to look after human resources.
Based on my interactions with personnel, I arrived at the conclusion, as the saying goes, that “people behave the way we expect them to behave”.
Now, I spend my time reading, writing, travelling and performing prayers at the surau nearby.
Based on my observations of human behaviour, I have come up with the hypothesis that people can be categorised into three groups, irrespective of their age, gender, locality, education and economic background.
GROUP 1: People in this group follow the example of Prophet Muhammad.
When people approached him in a rude manner, he smiled and reacted politely.
On many occasions, these people embraced Islam after seeing the good character exhibited by the Prophet.
People in this group are normally emotionally mature. They are not self-centred, and politeness and compassion come naturally to them.
GROUP 2: People in this group choose to keep quiet. This is because they take the stand that “if you have nothing good to say, then it is better to say nothing”.
More often than not, they say that people can gauge our intelligence whenever we open our mouths.
We can say that this group of people possess a balance between intelligence and emotion.
GROUP 3: These are people who lash out at others if what was communicated to them was not to their liking. Being abrasive in nature, they just don’t care whether their words hurt others. Insinuation becomes second nature to them.
Having said that, perhaps people in this group are intelligent, but they lack emotional stability.
To conclude, I believe that life is simple, so we should behave properly and not complicate matters.
If we treat others nicely and with respect, then by the Law of Averages, people will treat us in the same manner.
KAMARUDDIN HASSAN, Shah Alam, Selangor