Character Development: Compassion - The Aladdin Way

Compassion in simple words “helping those who are hurting.”

Compassion usually begins with sympathy, which is seeing someone’s pain. It is noticing a student who skins his knee or a friend who hurts her arm. It is being alert to a weary friend or a stranger who needs assistance.

Compassion also includes empathy, which is feeling someone’s pain.

Alladin and Abu find themselves with a loaf of bread and begin to eat it when Alladin spots a brother and a sister looking through trash to find food. Alladin feels empathic towards the children. He shares his only loaf of bread with the kids. Seeing this Abu, who was initially unobliging chooses to share his piece as well.

This brings us to the full meaning of compassion, which is doing something to relieve someone’s pain. It is not enough to see needs and feel badly for those who are hurting. Compassion means getting involved, investing in others, and finding ways to “bear someone’s burden” in order for healing to occur.