BITTERNESS LEADS TO FAILURE
Focus on Your Goals
ZAFAR IQBAL is a former Indian field hockey player. He went on to captain the national team of India. He led his team to a host of trophies, including the coveted 1980 Olympic gold. He was recognized as the best outside-left in the game. According to Vijay Lokapally of the Patriot newspaper, the secret of Zafar Iqbal’s success is that he concentrates on his game at all costs, and does not retaliate to fouls committed by his opponents. Neither does he harbour any bitterness against anyone. Zafar Iqbal explains this—his most vital and telling tactic—by saying: “The day I do so, I would cease to be a sportsman.”
What, in Zafar Iqbal’s words, is true of sportsmen, is also true of the whole human race. Anyone who bases his life on a policy of retaliation and harbours bitterness and malice against his fellow human beings cannot be called a true human being. Man, in the real sense of the word, is a being who has a purpose in life and who keeps struggling to achieve that purpose regardless of the treatment inflicted upon him by others.
It is unfortunate that this fact, which has been realized on both intellectual and practical levels by a great Muslim “sportsman”, has been ignored by great Muslim “men” of the modern age. Muslim leaders in recent times have all conducted a policy aimed at redressing the “wrongs” inflicted upon them by their socalled oppressors. In so doing, they have failed to reach out to their fellow beings with the message of peace and spirituality which Islam stands for.
Just as success on the sports field lies in avoiding minor disputes with one’s opponents and concentrating on winning the game, success in the field of life in general lies in putting trivial issues and quarrels to one side and devoting oneself wholeheartedly to one’s central task. The result will not only be success in the purpose of life, but the side issues which might have distracted one’s attention will also recede into insignificance, or be settled to one’s advantage.
Zafar Iqbal was serious about executing his duties as a player and captain. He really wanted his team to succeed. That is why he realized the key to success and put it into play on the field. If the Muslims are serious about discharging their responsibilities, both as human beings and as Muslims, they will also take Zafar Iqbal’s lead and cast all irrelevant issues and disputes to one side in their determination to succeed.
