IN SEARCH OF TRUTH
Formula from the Quran

THE moral character of a person who calls people to God (dayee) must be marked by patience. It takes patience to wait for the right opportunities for calling people to God work to arise, and it also takes patience for the right sets of conditions to be created. Those who are unwilling to remain patient in the face of ignorant obduracy and unpleasantness can never fulfill the true calling of dayee.

Sir James Jeans, the renowned English scientist, once stated in the foreword to a book he had written on physics and philosophy in 1941, that the scientific study of the universe had led us to the point where it seemed ‘to suggest that the door may be unlocked, only if we could find the handle.’ (Sir James Jeans, Physics and Philosophy, ed. 2009, p. 216)

This notion was put into words by this English scientist at a time when Muslims the world over, provoked at the domination of English, were waging war against them. When the Muslims looked at the English, they saw in them only hateful enemies. Had they displayed patience at their political domination, they would very soon have discovered that the ‘handle’ the English sought to the door of Reality, was already available to Muslims in the form of the Quran.

With this knowledge their entire attitude towards the English would have drastically changed. They would have considered them as their addressees to convey God's message to them and not treated them as rivals. They would have prayed for their well-being. They would have made them aware of the creation plan of God.

Quran informs human beings quite categorically the limit of their intellectual pursuits. It offers to show the way beyond with complete authenticity. Patience is the necessary condition of conveying the message. Just reacting to a situation without a thought of the true state of affairs instead of taking stock of the situation patiently brings more harm in its wake.