Benefits of Keeping
a Positive Mentality
On our visit to Switzerland, we met with an Indian Muslim. He was travelling to Europe for some work. One of my companions excitedly told the Muslim gentleman that an international organisation in Switzerland had invited Maulana to give him a peace award. The man remarked, ‘The Indian Muslims are being ruined, so why this joy on this award?’
This negative thinking regarding the conditions of the Indian Muslims is not some isolated or individual case. Instead, this thinking is found among almost all the Muslims of India. All Muslim writers and public speakers write and speak in the same vein. Therefore, it has made the mindset of all Muslims a complaining one.
Later on, this Muslim man mentioned that before I947 (i.e., in the period before India gained freedom from British rule), the economic conditions of his family were very ordinary. Today, this man runs an export business. Compared to 1947, he has progressed 100 times in economic terms. The very same thing is true for the majority of the Muslims of India. If you ask any Muslim in the country who is engaged in some work or the other how his family’s economic conditions were in 1947 and how they are now, you will find that in this period, almost all Muslim individuals and every Muslim institution have experienced significant progress.
It is a very astonishing phenomenon. Before 1947, pro-Pakistan leaders said they would sacrifice the Indian Muslims and establish a separate Pakistan. Fanatic elements thought that after India attained independence, the Muslims who remained behind in India would meet the same fate as the Muslims of medieval Spain. Following India’s independence, Indian Muslim leaders and intellectuals constantly claimed that a conspiracy was being carried out against the Indian Muslims in line with their earlier mentality. They were victims of severe prejudice and had been made a target of oppression. It was as if, according to the Muslim media, a process of converting India into a second Spain was underway. However, despite all this, the Muslims of India continued their journey of remarkable progress.
Compare the conditions of the Muslims of Delhi today with how they were in 1947. Compare the economic conditions of the Muslims of Hyderabad today with how they were under the Nizam. Similarly, compare the conditions of Muslims in other cities and towns in India, and you will find that Muslims everywhere have, in this period, made remarkable progress. (For details, see my book, Indian Muslims)
This remarkable progress that occurred in the decades after India’s independence needed to be researched, and lessons needed to be drawn from it. However, this did not happen. This is because the Muslims of present-day India live in a complaint psyche. People who live in a psyche of the complaint are as incapable of learning about positive realities as a mother-in-law, on account of her complaining mentality, remains unaware of the virtues of her daughter-in-law and, in the same way, a traditional daughter-in-law because of her complaining mentality, is unable to discover her mother-in-law’s goodness.
With God’s grace, I do not possess a complaining mentality. On account of my non-complaining and positive mentality, I have done unbiased research on the conditions of Indian Muslims. The greatest benefit of keeping a positive attitude is that our mind keeps calm, so it helps us to find ways to manage the situation. Following this, I discovered a great truth: that the remarkable progress experienced by the Indian Muslims in the years after 1947 is related to the changes that a new era has brought about.
Prior to 1947, India was in the agricultural age. At that time, economic means were minimal. Therefore, people could exert their efforts only in a limited sphere. However, after 1947, industrialisation rapidly spread. As a result, a process of what can be called an ‘economic explosion’ began. On account of these new conditions, it no longer remained possible for anyone to stop someone else’s progress.
In the words of the Quran, this revolution was an issue of ‘God will provide for him from an unexpected source’ (65:3). It was something for which Muslims should have been filled with immense gratitude. However, their complaining mentality deprived them of understanding of this great discovery and, likewise, of great gratitude too.
