JANUARY 25

Success Out of Failure

The Prophet Joseph was thrown into a deserted, dried-up well by his enemies. This, apparently, was a disaster. But the Quran says that no sooner had he been cast down into this dark pit than God revealed to him that he would emerge from it to a new life, and that he would soon reach such heights that even his own brothers would fail to recognize him. It was as if, instead of judging Joseph’s predicament from the outside, God saw its inner reality. Viewed from such a standpoint its whole complexion changed. That is why God revealed to Joseph at that crucial point in time the fact that his worst moments were about to become his best moments. Where antagonists had intended to put a sudden end to his life’s history, a whole fresh chapter was about to unfold.

There is a hadith which says, “Beware of the believer’s wisdom, for he sees things by the light of God.” Seeing things “by the light of God” is tellingly illustrated by God’s prediction about the future course of Joseph’s life. It means looking not at things, but into things in order to find their hidden potential. Looked at from this angle, what at first appears to be the worst of fates soon takes on the aspect of a stepping stone to better things. One who sees things by the light of God can see advantage in disadvantage, bright prospects in murky situations. He can then plan for the future, with a greater guarantee that he will be able to surmount all obstacles in his path. The strength of this planning is such that it cannot be thwarted by those who, failing to see the reality, judge only by appearances.

In present times, Muslims have suffered, and are still suffering on many counts at the hands of other nations. This is undoubtedly a deplorable state of affairs. But if we look at this issue only on the surface, we shall have no option but to regard certain nations as oppressors and then waste a great deal of precious time in repeatedly registering protest against them. Sadly, most Muslims today are perpetually engaged in such activities; they have yet to see their own situation by the light of God. Had they ever perceived it in this way, they would have known that every cloud has a silver lining. They would have known that what appears to be the worst dilemma can bear the best of fruits.

Here, I should like to refer to an aspect of human history which has been particularly emphasized by Arnold Toynbee in his well-known book, The Study of History. In this book Toynbee has examined in depth twenty one civilizations of the old and new worlds. What has struck him as truly remarkable is that the creators of the great civilizations were mostly those nations which had suffered some major defeat, or which had had to face conditions of great adversity. This unexpected assessment would clearly indicate that favourable developments are born from the wounds inflicted by unpropitious circumstances. Indeed, the modern civilization produced by the western countries provides a clear example in support of Toynbee’s theory.

Before the rise of the western nations, Muslims ruled over a large part of the globe. They had even conquered Syria and Palestine, which were holy places for the Christians. In order to recover them the Christian nations launched a united assault on the Muslim world. These wars are known in history as the Crusades and were waged intermittently for almost two hundred years from 1095 to 1271. But finally the western nations had a crushing defeat inflicted on them by the Muslims, after which they lost their military aspirations. With no further hope of challenging the Muslims on the battlefield, they began to aspire to better things in other spheres. This situation was marked by a new way of thinking which came to be called the spiritual Crusades. That is to say that they were now facing up to their opponents in non-military fields.

They set about learning Muslim sciences, and academic books began to be translated from Arabic into English. After the first stages of imbibing Muslim learning, they began to add to this body of knowledge, and persisted in their efforts for several hundred years to the point where human history entered into a new era: the traditional age was now replaced by the scientific age; handicrafts now gave way to the machine. From the wounds of a crushing defeat, modern civilization had begun its ever-accelerating evolution, leading its creators to eventual world dominance.

The tremendous success of the western nations emerged from an abysmal failure. It was the defeats they had suffered in crusades which led them to the victories of the modern age.

In this world of God, defeat is also the door to victory. The secret of success lies hidden in failure. It is for us to realize this and to avail of it.