TRYING TO CHANGE HISTORY’S OUTCOME
Futile and Impractical
THE Kabah was originally constructed by the Prophet Abraham some 4000 years ago. At that time, it was rectangular in shape. Before the advent of the Prophet Muhammad, the Quraysh of Makkah had reconstructed the Kabah, and made it into a squareshaped structure. The Kabah retains this square shape even today. According to a Hadith in the Sahih al-Bukhari, the Prophet told his wife Aisha that he wanted to reconstruct the Kabah once again on its Abrahamic foundations but he abstained from this because, owing to practical reasons, this was no longer possible. This report concerning the Prophet teaches us an important principle — and that is, that the wheels of History cannot be put into reverse gear.
The wheels of History cannot be put into reverse.
This is no ordinary matter. This report about the Prophet indicates a very basic law of Nature — that the journey of History always proceeds from the past to the present and from the present to the future. It is not possible to reverse History; to unmake what has already happened. It is beyond human control to make History travel in the reverse direction — from the future to the present, and from the present to the past. Given this, the only sensible thing to do in this regard is to accept the present status quo as far as History is concerned and to make one’s plans accordingly, rather than seeking to deny this status quo.
The History of the Kabah is an example in this regard. The Prophet accepted the above-mentioned law of Nature and did not try to reconstruct the Kabah on its earlier Abrahamic foundations. Later, after the Prophet’s demise, Abdullah ibn Zubair (d. 692 AD) destroyed the structure of the Kabah and remade it on Abrahamic foundations. But soon after Abdullah ibn Zubair’s death, Hajjaj ibn Yusuf al-Thaqafi (d. 714 AD) destroyed the structure that Abdullah ibn Zubair had built and reconstructed the Kabah on the foundations that the Quraysh had earlier built it on.
Present-day Muslims are completely unaware of the principle of Nature that is exemplified in the above Hadith about the Prophet. And that is why they repeatedly violate this principle. The only result is that in doing so they further magnify their own destruction.
Once History has been written, then, trying to change it is in practical terms, nothing but folly.
The Khilafat Movement in the early 20th century; the Palestinian Movement in the mid-20th century; the Kashmiri movement at the end of the 20th century; and scores of other such Muslim campaigns are ample evidence of this. Those who led these movements tried to reverse the outcome of History. But this did not happen. History cannot be changed. But the folly of this sort of Muslim politics only further increased and exacerbated the Muslims’ devastation.
At the time when History is being made, you can influence this decision if you adopt a wise policy. But once History has been written, then, trying to change it is in practical terms, nothing but folly.
If one does not make oneself a target for another’s vengeance,
but lets everyone continue pursuing his own goal in life,
then one is not going to find one’s own path
blocked by others.
One will find everyone so absorbed in
minding his own business that
he has no time to interfere
with that of others.