The Guidance of
the Quran
A verse of the Quran gives us this principle of human history: “No misfortune can affect the earth or your own selves without its first having been recorded in a book, before We bring it into being. That is easy for God to do; so that you may not grieve for what has escaped you, nor be exultant over what you have gained. God loves neither the conceited nor the boastful.” (The Quran, 57:22-23)
This means that all the historical changes that occur in this world derive from the laws of nature rather than from the enmity or plots of any hum an being.
As such, whenever any community or nation is afflicted by adversity, rather than grieving or lamenting over this, a positive response will produce right thinking in man. He will be in a position to analyze the events objectively, and this will enable him to re-plan and regain in some new form whatever he had lost.
The same happened in the case of the Prophet of Islam. He met with defeat at the battle of Uhud (3 AH), but he and his companions did not grieve over this but rather started thinking on this matter from a fresh angle. This resulted in their thinking of giving up fighting and establishing a peaceful environment between the two parties by engaging in re-planning their actions on the principles of peace, whatever the cost. The Hudaybiyyah agreement, which was made in 6 AH, was based on this kind of re-planning. This strategy was highly successful and within a very short time, the Muslims gained dominance without engaging in any war. The Muslims are facing the same situation once again. All over the world they suffer from the psyche of having been defeated by the other party. This feeling is very disturbing to them. Incidents such as suicide bombings in present times result from this frustration.
In the 21st century, Muslims have the opportunity to re-enact the history of Hudaybiyyah so that the history of a ‘clear victory’ might be repeated (The Quran, 48:1). The second victory without doubt is possible but in the non-political sense rather than in the political sense. In present times, such circumstances as made the signing of the Hudaybiyyah peace treaty possible, exist in very large measure. The opportunities found in ancient times in a limited way by making a ten-year peace treaty have now become a part of the universal norm. Now those opportunities have been produced in the wake of the global situation. There is no need to arrive at such agreements through negotiation such as took place at Hudaybiyyah. Now all those things have been permanently achieved, in practice, such as in ancient times had been achieved in a limited way after arriving at a ten-year peace treaty.
What was the objective of the Hudaybiyyah treaty? It was aimed at providing the believers opportunities for peaceful dawah work.
In recent times, under the United Nations Organization (U.N.O), the right to all kinds of freedom has already been achieved. Now the need of the hour is for the Muslims to abandon the path of violence and plan their actions along peaceful lines.
Now there is no need for any nation or community to establish its political power. In ancient times what was possible to accomplish through political power has now become possible to achieve through organizations. In ancient times battles had to be waged to achieve any goal. Now that has become possible through communication. In ancient times, the kings had to use military power to achieve their goals. Now under the universal norm, it has become possible to achieve everything through peaceful methods. In ancient times for any task to be accomplished the political area had to be expanded. Now the same can be done by sitting in a computerized office or through outsourcing, etc.
