BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES
On my trip to Afghanistan in October 1988, I came across something interesting I had never seen before. In simple terms, people called it a “fish.” It was a countermeasure used against the dangerous American-made Stinger missile. The process of using this device was known as flare fishing.
After Russian forces entered Afghanistan in December 1979, a constant war broke out between them and the Afghan Mujahideen. The Mujahideen only had ground forces, while the Russians used helicopters to fly over and bomb their positions.
This was a very difficult situation. The Mujahideen tried to shoot down the planes with guns, but bullets travel in a straight line. Hitting something moving so fast in the air was nearly impossible. Despite their efforts, the Mujahideen could not bring down many Russian bombers.
At that point, America supplied the Mujahideen with a modern anti-aircraft missile known as the Stinger. With it, the Mujahideen gained clear superiority over Russian bombers. Whenever they spotted a Russian plane, they would fire a Stinger. The missile would chase and eventually strike the aircraft, because unlike a bullet, the Stinger doesn’t fly straight. It changes direction in pursuit of the plane until it hits its target. Earlier, the Mujahideen were on the defensive, but now the Russian air force was forced into defense. Yet this world is full of possibilities—no invention rules out the chance of a bigger one. Soon the Russians discovered a way to counter the Stinger, which they called flare fishing. They found out that the Stinger works by chasing heat. Since the hottest part of a plane is its engine, the missile locks on to it and destroys the aircraft.
To counter this, the Russians developed flare fishing. This was a special chemical substance that, when released from the plane, burst into flames and produced a bright flare. The flare burned hotter than the engine. So instead of hitting the plane, the Stinger was diverted and collided with the flare. In this way, the plane was saved.
There is an important lesson in this event: success comes from discovering and exploiting the opponent’s weakness. In a world of competition, those who succeed are the ones who can identify the weaknesses of the other side and make use of them.
The Russians showed this ability. They took advantage of the fact that the Stinger had no human intelligence. Its strike was not conscious but mechanical. Being a device, it could not recognize a plane—it could only detect “heat.” As soon as the Russians discovered this secret, they had already won half the battle. The use of flare fishing against the Stinger was a successful example of this strategy.
The truth is that everything in this world has a countermeasure. Against every danger, the possibilities are always greater—provided a person does not lose courage when facing problems. By using the intelligence God has given, one can always discover a way out.
This is exactly what a Hadith says: “One hardship can never overcome two reliefs” (Shu‘ab al-Iman by al-Bayhaqi, Hadith No. 9541). In other words, if difficulty is one, ease is double. If one path is blocked, another remains open.
In such situations, complaining and protesting are not only useless but also show a lack of trust in God. This lessens God’s greatness. A person who complains suffers two losses: first, he misses the chance to turn failure into success again; second, he becomes guilty in God’s eyes for daring to call a perfect world flawed.
The reality is that this world is a place of boundless possibilities. No past mistake can destroy future opportunities. No enemy action can end the chance of a better response. After every loss, the opportunity remains to try again and succeed.
A person should look forward rather than dwell on the past. They should work to recover what they have lost after each setback and regain their position through effort and determination.
