The Loss of the Ghetto Mentality
The state of Muslims today is that almost all of them indulge in negative thinking. Both religious and secular Muslims, men and women, suffer from having this negative frame of mind. Talk to any Muslim, attend any number of their gatherings, visit any Muslim institution, read any Muslim newspaper or magazine and you will find no constructive approach to any of the problems of the Muslim community. Although negative thinking is invariably directed against others, it is a very unfortunate fact that negative thinking does harm to the negative thinker himself, and not to those who are the subjects of his negative thought. This is the law of nature, and this law is unchangeable.
Negative thinking implies the prevalence of a ghetto mentality. This way of thinking is bound to create a separatist mentality. Those with this mindset start living in their own cells, they do not interact with others, and the baneful result of this ghettoized thinking is the kind of backwardness which causes them to lag behind others.
The secret of a worthwhile life lies in interaction, not in separatism or ghettoism. It lies in coming closer to people, not in distancing oneself from them. It lies in becoming their well-wisher and not in harbouring hatred for them. It lies in positive thinking. Negative thinking leads only to destruction, not construction.
Changing the Verdict of History
The Kaaba was built in Makkah by Abraham about four thousand years ago. At that time the Kaaba was rectangular in shape. It was rebuilt by the Quraysh before Muhammad (pbuh) was appointed Prophet. At that time they constructed it in the form of a cube, shortening its length. This square Kaaba remains cuboid in shape till today.
According to the traditions, the Prophet of Islam told his wife, Aisha, that he wanted the Kaaba to be rebuilt on Abraham’s rectangular base. But the Prophet did not have this done, for this, for certain practical reasons, would have proved to be a greater evil (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Hadith No. 1583)
From this narration, we learn of a very important principle, that is: the wheel of history cannot be put into reverse gear. This is no simple matter. From this decision made by the Prophet we learn a law of nature, i.e. the journey of history is always headed from the past to the present and from the present to the future. It is not possible to take a U-turn in history. It is beyond the genius of human beings to conduct the journey of history from the future to the present and from the present to the past. In the matter of the course history will take, planning has to be done by accepting the status quo and not by denying it.
The history of the Kaaba is a case in point. The Prophet of Islam accepted this law of nature and did not attempt to re-build the Kaaba on top of the base laid down by Abraham. Later, Abdullah ibn Zubayr (d. 692 AD) demolished the walls of the Kaaba and re-built it in alignment with the Abrahamic foundations, but immediately after the death of Abdullah ibn Zubayr, Hajjaj ibn Yousuf As-Saqafi (d. 714 AD) raised it and rebuilt it on its previous base. The Muslims of the present day are totally unaware of this sunnah of the Prophet. That is why they repeatedly go against it and, as a result, they further add to their woes.
The Khilafat movement in the first quarter of the twentieth century, the Palestine movement in the second half of the twentieth century, the Kashmir movement in the twentieth century, and all other such movements are a proof of this. The leaders of these movements wanted to change the verdict of history, but it could never be changed. And such unwise politics only aggravated the situation of the Muslims. When the verdict of history is about to be passed, you can at that moment influence the decision by adopting a wise policy, but, once the decision has been made, any attempt to change the decision is little better than committing suicide.
The Politics of the Impossible
The Muslim leaders of the present times have engaged in turbulent politics wherever there is a sizable Muslim population. But all these political agitations have proved to be totally futile. The common reason for this is that all these Muslim leaders are engaged in the politics of the impossible. That is, their campaigns are conducted in the name of something which is totally unachievable. Such politics cannot culminate in anything fruitful.
In present times this kind of politics can be seen in every muslim majority area. The objective in Palestine is to end Israeli occupation and replace it with Arab rule. The aim of politics in Kashmir is to end the domination of India and make Kashmir a part of Pakistan. Similarly, in regions such as Xinjiang (China) and the Philippines, there is a demand to establish Muslim rule once again as it was before. All initiatives of this kind are but the politics of the impossible. Such action can never yield any positive result. The only outcome of such politics is the loss of even what is already in the possession of the agitators and getting nothing in return. This politics of the impossible is not just unwise: it is against Islam. In the field of politics, the demand of both wisdom and Islam is one and the same—that actions should be result-oriented. Where there is no hope of gaining anything, one has to remain content with what one already has. It is only the leaders who benefit from politics. The people have nothing to gain by it.
The politics of the impossible is engaged in by exploitative leaders. For the common man to follow such leaders, it is the crassest foolishness. The politics of the impossible is best described as suicidal. Nothing less than suicidal can express the destructive effect of such politics. Furthermore, this kind of politics leads not only to the suicide of the individual: it leads to the suicide of the whole community.
Ideal and Practical
It is the case with the majority of the people that when a realistic suggestion is made to them, they immediately respond with idealistic notions, such as a demand for justice; or they quote the law of human rights and say things should be like this, or like that, and so on. All utterances of this kind are utopian. In this world, idealism never works. In this world we have to be pragmatic and aim at what is achievable.
What the state of affairs should be by our lights is hardly worthy of consideration. What is actually worthy of consideration is what the state of affairs should be according to the creation plan of God. This is not an issue of arriving at an ideological criterion. This is an issue relating entirely to what is practically achievable and what is not. According to the creation plan of the Creator, every man in this world is given freedom of action and that is something which cannot be cancelled out.
In view of this, the only course that is practicable is that, in planning our actions, we should make concessions to others, so that in doing so, we may ourselves have the opportunity to act.
This is life’s wisdom. Peace is established in the world by applying this wisdom. Failing to coordinate with others will only breed hatred and violence; and these evils only add to the problems of social co- existence rather than reduce them.
This is an eternal principle of nature. It is without exception. Those who go against this law of nature can expect nothing but destruction in this world, even if they have given beautiful names to their unnatural actions (i.e. activities which go against the principles of nature.)
