One day, the path of six people merged on a single road. They did not know each other beforehand. They were forced to be together for the first time. They had halted at an unexpected and dangerous stop. The vehicle they were in had technical troubles and they had been stranded on the road. It was cold and dark. They had all huddled around a fire and trying to do away with the gloom that had crept over the night as they tried to stay warm. Their fire was about to die out. As the flames got weaker, the dark began to set in again. The heat that struck against their faces slowly diminished. They began to feel more deeply the dark and cold which increased everyone's solitude and helplessness. The fire required more wood. It was not as though they didn't have wood. Each one of them had a piece of wood in their hands. The woman, who was sitting at the very beginning of the circle, had hidden her piece of wood behind her. She had noticed that one of the men sitting around the fire was black. She was not in possession of anything she was willing to sacrifice for a black person. The man sitting beside the woman looked at everyone around him, one by one. There was nobody else from his nation; because the piece of wood he'd cast into the fire would work to heat others, it would be better to remain in the cold. He held on tightly the piece of would he had in his hand. Right beside him was a man who appeared to be wealthy. This wealthy man had a comfortable life. He cursed the fact that he now had to seek refuge alongside "ordinary" people. He has always been a money earner. And now why should he use his only wealth, the piece of wood in his hands, to help these sluggish people? He didn't throw what he had in his hand into the fire. The man sitting next to the wealthy man, had had is jacket taken from him by a poor man. He looked at the well-dressed wealthy man sitting next to him with hate. Why should he sacrifice from himself a piece of wood for a selfish rich man who abused people and didn't grant them their rights? The black man on the other hand possessed hatred for all white men. The stick in his hands was his only weapon to protect himself from the others. He couldn't possibly cast it into fire and lose it. And the man at the very end of the circle had never done anything for someone else without expecting a favor in return. His mother and father had taught him to give, only when someone had given something to him. That was the rule of the game. He didn't throw the piece of wood into the fire.
***
The next day six human corpses, which had froze alongside the ashes of the fire, were discovered. All six were found to be tightly grasping a peace of wood.
Their hands were as stiff as could be: Their hands were held back by their selfishness which had prevented them from giving for someone else. Their hearts had become frozen: The truth that that which one loses from one's self in fact remains with them had never dawned upon them. Their eyes were stoic and cold: They had never learned to consider anyone but themselves. Their faces had lost their warmth: Their seeds of selfishness had never been able to break their crust and had rotted before they even bore the fruits of "help. "
Everyone had ostensibly died due to the cold. However, the stinginess which held everyone's hands from giving was even colder. The indifference which swayed people into the valley of arrogance was even darker. It was the selfishness of looking out only for one's self which was the most deadly frost of all. It was the opportunism, which prevented people from considering others that paved the way for the chilling darkness.
He (pbuh) had long ago voiced the warm words that would melt such ice:
"Give to those who give not!" The syllables which diffuse the darkness poured out of his lips: "Go to those who come to you not!"
The word which broke the stern walls of selfishness and which had turn into coal, the cold ashes of selfishness, had reignited through his breath: "Be good to those who are good to you not!"
It wasn't the cold outside that killed them, but the cold inside them. Those awaiting resurrection saw the real "flame" on his lips.
