CHALLENGE, NOT REVENGE
What happened to the Muslims in Spain is commonly explained as the revenge of the Crusades. The Crusades had ended by the late thirteenth century. Maulana Shibli Nu‘mani (1857–1914), a prominent Indian Islamic scholar, interpreted all such events up to the First World War (1914) in the same way. He expressed this view in the following verses:
Kahaan tak loge hum se inteqam-e-fatah-e-Ayoubi,
Dikhaoge humein jang-e-Saleebi ka sama kab tak?
How long will you keep taking revenge from us for Salahuddin’s victory?
How long will you keep showing us the scene of the Crusades?
This view still persists among Muslim intellectuals. Thus events from Palestine to Bosnia are again put into this same revenge-based explanatory box. But that explanation runs counter to both the Quran and the laws of nature.
The era of Ibn Khaldun was exactly the time when the Muslim rule in Spain ended. In his Muqaddimah, he outlined this law of history and nature: every political empire or rising civilization ultimately passes through a period of decline. (see Ibn Khaldun’s chapter: “States have natural lifespans just like individuals”).
The truth is that the world’s order is based on the principle of challenge. The Quran clearly states this principle:
• “We bring these days to men by turns.” (3:140).
• “…you are each other’s enemies!” (2:36).
One nation’s rise becomes a challenge to another. That challenge awakens the abilities of the humiliated people; they rise and can defeat the dominant nation. Therefore, competition—in the form of a challenge between the victorious and the defeated—continues in various forms. That competition, that challenge, is the only ladder of all human progress. In this process, one nation falls and another rises, yet overall humanity’s journey moves forward toward development. The defeated nation can meet the rising challenge and become dominant again; but complaints and protests will not lead it anywhere in God’s world.
A revenge-based interpretation only creates feelings of hatred. In contrast, an interpretation based on natural laws inspires a person to face the challenge before him and regain his lost position—with even greater strength than before.
