LACK OF PERSONALITIES OR LACK OF AWARENESS?
Understand The Times
IT is common for communities to consider some of their key figures from the past to have been larger than life. They project an exaggerated image and at times go to the extent of according them a legendary status.
This is something that present-day Muslims also do—and on a massive scale. Muslims today project some of their past figures in a grossly exaggerated manner. This has caused them two major deficiencies—overestimating their past, and underestimating their present.
Muslim writers and preachers often highlight figures from the past and insist that the only one way for Muslims to change their fortunes is for such figures to be born again. By presenting a larger than life image of these personalities, Muslims think that if only such people were present today, their conditions would be drastically different. This is nothing but wishful thinking.
Muslims today project some of their past figures in a grossly exaggerated manner. This has caused them two
major deficiencies, over estimating their past, and underestimating their present.
Arab historian Khairuddin al-Zirikli (d. 1976) prepared a multi-volume compendium of famous Muslim personalities of the past, titled al-A’lām. He imagined that Muslims could experience a new revival if such figures could again be born. In a couplet, he expresses this sentiment:
Bring Salahuddin Ayyubi back in our midst! Let there be a revival of the Battle of Hattin or battles of similar vigour!
This couplet only shows the poet’s complete lack of awareness of the times. Today’s age and conditions are drastically different. To do anything, the first condition is to have a deep understanding of the times, and surely not to have Salahuddin Ayyubi (Saladin) being born again. The fact is that in today’s age, people like Salahuddin Ayyubi Muslims today project some of their past figures in a grossly exaggerated manner. This has caused them two major deficiencies, over estimating their past, and underestimating their present. Spirit of Islam Issue 32 August 2015 39 have indeed been born, but they could not do much in practical terms, because they were bereft of the required insight and awareness of the times. One example of this was the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (d. 2004). In terms of his natural capacities, you could call him a second Salahuddin Ayyubi, but despite all the sacrifices he made, he was completely unsuccessful.
History can be divided into two major periods—the ancient traditional age, and the modern scientific age. There is a fundamental difference that distinguishes every aspect between these two. This distinction is so immense that if a noted personality of ancient times were to be born today, he might not be able to achieve anything spectacular. In fact, he might find himself a total misfit.
If you want to do anything meaningful in today’s times, a basic condition is deep understanding
of the times. Without this you can do nothing meaningful.
If you want to do anything meaningful in today’s times, a basic condition is deep understanding of the times. Without this you can do nothing meaningful.If you want to do anything meaningful in today’s times, a basic condition is deep understanding of the times. Without this you can do nothing meaningful—be it in the field of education, scholarship, institutionbuilding, governance, leadership, social reform, intellectual exchange or whatever. To provide guidance in any aspect of life today, you need a thorough understanding of modern life. Lacking this understanding, if somehow you manage to gain a leadership post, your case would be best depicted in these lines of a poet:
When a crow becomes the leader of a community, he guides them to the path of ruination.
Wise Adjustment
Always remember that it is not your intention or your desire that determines the course taken by the external world. It is a wise adjustment between your desires and external realities that leads to great success.