How to Deal with Enmity

Obsessing over conspiracies and enmity causes people to lose their objectivity in thinking. The Quran therefore tells us to ignore all such negativity, and put one’s trust in God alone.

During the life of the Prophet Muhammad, many people turned against Islam and began to conspire against the Muslims and their religion. The Quran mentions this at many points. But the strategy that the Quran advised the Muslims to adopt was not that of unearthing these conspiracies, and launching counter campaigns against them and fighting against them to put an end to them and their enmity. On the contrary, the guidance given to the Prophet and his companions in the Quran was that they should trust in God (33:48). That is, they must ignore all conspiracies and animosity. They should only put their trust in God and continue with their positive activities.

This was a very important piece of guidance. Through it, God turned Muslims away from negative thinking and directed them towards positive thinking. In short, this Quranic teaching meant: “Live in yourself rather than living in others.”

If your mind is filled with the thought that others are conspiring against you, that others have turned into your enemies, it will result in your doubting everyone. You will think everyone has become your enemy or the agent of your enemies. In this way, you will distance yourself from others and thereby lose in strength.

Obsessing over conspiracies and enmity cause people to lose their objectivity in thinking. All their thinking becomes prejudiced. They cannot see the reality of things as they are. They become like the person who, due to some disease in his eye, could see only the thorns of the plants in the garden. Such a person was, as it were, flower blind. He would see the whole garden as being full of thorns. Thousands of beautiful flowers might be blooming there, but he would be incapable of seeing them.