You Are Unique, So Be Yourself

James Gordon Gilkey said:

The dilemma of wanting your own identity is as ancient as the beginning of history, and it is common to all human life. Similar is the problem of not wanting to be your own self. which is the source of much personal imbalance and disturbance.

Someone else said:

You are a unique entity among creation: nothing is exactly similar to you, nor are you exactly similar to anything, because the Creator has brought diversity to the creation.

“Certainly, your efforts and deeds are diverse [different in aims and purposes].”
(Al-Lail 92: 4)

“He sends down water [rain] from the sky, and the valleys flow according to their measure… “
(Ar-R’ad 13: 17)

Every person has unique idiosyncrasies, talents, and abilities, so no one should fuse his or her personality into that of another.

Undoubtedly, you have been created with restricted means and abilities that will help you to accomplish very specific and limited goals. It has been wisely said: “Read yourself and know yourself; you will then know your mission in life.”

Emerson said in his essay, Self-Reliance:

“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.”
(Emerson)

“And say [O Muhammad], ‘Do deeds! Allah will see your deeds, and [so will] His Messenger and the believers.”
(At-Taubah 9: 105)

Contemplate these verses:

“Say: ‘O My slaves, who have transgressed against themselves [by committing evil deeds and sins]! Despair not of the mercy of Allah, verily Allah forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
(Az-Zumar 39: 53)

“And those who when they have committed Fâḥsha [illegal sexual intercourse etc.] or wronged themselves with evil, remember Allah and ask forgiveness for their sins – and none can forgive sins but Allah – And do not persist in what they have done, while they know.”
(Ali ‘Imran 3: 135)

“And whoever does evil or wrongs himself but afterwards seeks Allah’s forgiveness, he will find Allah Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
(An-Nisa’ 4: 110)

“And when My slaves ask you [O Muhammad] concerning Me, then , I am indeed near [to them by My knowledge). I respond to the invocations of the supplicant when he calls on Me [without any mediator or intercessor]. So let them obey Me and believe in Me, so that they may be led aright.
(Al-Baqarah 2: 186)

“Is not He [better than your gods] Who responds to the distressed one, when he calls Him, and Who removes the evil, and makes inheritors of the earth, generations after generations. Is there any god with Allah? Little is that you remember!)
(An-Naml 27: 62)

“Those [i.e. believers] unto whom the people [hypocrites] said, ‘Verily, the people [pagans] have gathered against you [a great army], therefore, fear them.’ But it [only] increased them in faith, and they said: ‘Allah [alone] is Sufficient for us, and He is the Best Disposer of affairs [for us].’ So they returned with grace and bounty from Allah. No harm touched them; and they followed the good pleasure of Allah. And Allah is the Owner of great bounty.”
(Ali ‘Imran 3: 173-174)

“And my affair, I leave it to Allah. Verily, Allah is the All-Seer of [His] slaves.’ So Allah saved him from the evils that they plotted [against him]…”
(Ghafir 40: 44-45)

Source: Don’t Be Sad by Dr Aid al-Qarni