MAKING HISTORY

Never lose hope in the face of current circumstances. History often reveals that what appears to be a fading force can revive and rise to prominence once more.

B. Tuchman states that history is the unfolding of miscalculation. This means that observers form an opinion about history based on the present. However, when the present becomes the future, it becomes clear that people’s estimations are entirely incorrect. The future often manifests in ways that differ significantly from what those initially understanding it perceived.

For instance, in 6 AH, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah was concluded between the Messenger of God, Prophet Muhammad and the Quraysh. At that time, all the Quraysh believed that the Muslims had effectively signed their death warrant. Yet subsequent years revealed that this seemingly disastrous loss contained a great victory in disguise. Similarly, in 1945, when American warplanes roared into the skies to drop atomic bombs on Japan, America believed it was turning Japan into a pile of ashes forever. However, forty years later, the world witnessed Japan rising as the largest industrial power.

This demonstrates that it is not humans who shape history; rather, it is God who determines the course of human history according to His will. The shaping of history is decided from the unseen,  not from observable conditions.

This study of history provides comfort to those whom worldly observers may deem extinguished or erased. Events show that seemingly extinguished embers can suddenly flare up in this world. A buried entity can rise again, alive and powerful, standing on the Earth. Here, a seemingly spent force can rejuvenate and become a force once again.

Never let current circumstances dishearten you, for as history turns its page, outcomes often defy the expectations shaped by visible conditions.