Differentiating Between the Relevant and the Irrelevant
Re-planning has every chance of succeeding but with some preconditions. One condition is that during planning one should not become involved in any such activity as may become an obstacle to the process of planning. Only then can the process of planning continue uninterruptedly.
One example of this is the construction of the Kabah. The first construction of the Kabah was done by Prophet Abraham and Prophet Ishmael about 2000 BC in Makkah. Once Makkah was hit by a storm with heavy rains in the wake of which a part of the building of the Kabah was destroyed. At that time Makkah was dominated by idolaters. They rebuilt the Kabah around the 5th century AD. For certain reasons they did not build the Kabah on its foundations, but rather left one portion uncovered, which still remains as it is. According to the Abrahamic plan, the Kabah was in the form of a rectangle, but the Quraysh rebuilt it as a square. They left one part of it uncovered, without a roof, which is now called Hateem. The area of Hateem is one fourth of the area of the Kabah.
According to Sahih Bukhari, as recorded in the books of Hadith, the Prophet of Islam once said to Hazrat Ayesha, “Have you not seen that when your people built the Kabah, they made it smaller as compared to the Abrahamic Kabah?” Hazrat Ayesha replied, “O messenger of God, then why don’t you build it again on the Abrahamic foundation?” The Prophet said, “If your people had not entered Islam recently, I would have done so.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 1583)
This saying of the Prophet of Islam has been explained thus by Ibn Hajar Al Asqalani: “He gave concession to the hearts of the Quraysh.” (Fath Al-Bari Vol. 3, p. 457)
The truth is that, in the matter of religion, people are very sensitive. When any religion has lasted a long time, it acquires a sacred character in the eyes of the people. They do not tolerate even minor changes in it. If the Prophet of Islam had made changes in the building of the Kabah, it was to be expected that the people would not be able to tolerate that, hence the result would be negative. Consequently, the process of gaining acceptance for the religion of monotheism in Arabia would have been jeopardized. The real mission would have been greatly harmed by this.
This shows that Islam attaches great importance to giving concessions to the people in the Quran (9:60). This is called talif-e-qalb (softening of the heart). A study of the life of the Prophet of Islam tells us that softening of the heart is an important principle of Islam.
The Prophet always differentiated between the relevant and the irrelevant in his dawah mission. He never ignored something important for something of no significance. He always kept the real target in his focus. He always avoided anything irrelevant to the real target. This is another condition for re-planning. Concentrating on the real target is a permanent principle of Islam. Another name for this principle is wisdom. After studying in detail the life of the Prophet, the writer has discovered this definition of wisdom: “Wisdom is the ability to discover the relevant by sorting out the irrelevant.”
Dr. Michael Hart in his book, ‘The 100’ tells us that the Prophet of Islam was the most successful man in human history. In my view this was because he always adopted this wisdom in his mission. This was the secret of his great success.
