FAULT-FINDING, EULOGIZING
Reviving a Community
MUSLIM writers and speakers today know only of two cultures: fault-finding or slandering and eulogizing. They have a knack for extolling and eulogizing their great leaders, whether they are alive or dead; and then for others all they have is slandering or faultfinding. This culture is so common among Muslims today that there is hardly any exception. However, neither their eulogies nor slandering is based on any solid arguments. They know only the language of praise for those whom they consider their own, and the language of criticism for those whom they don’t consider their own.
This phenomenon is a manifestation of the decline of a community. When a community is in its heyday, it tests a person on the basis of merit. It forms a non-partisan and unprejudiced opinion about everyone on the basis of merit, whether one is from its own circle or someone outside its circle. But when a community reaches a state of decline, then its condition is such that it divides human beings into its own and others. The community has only good words about its own people, and critical words about others.
Those who plan a group-based political or social revolution in a degenerate community are utterly ignorant of the laws of nature. Such reformers themselves need reform. They are unfit to become reformers of the community.
When it becomes customary in any community to judge human beings on merit, it should be understood to be alive and thriving, and when the writers and speakers of a community begin to speak the language of verbal praise and verbal slander, that community should be considered to be declining and stagnant. When this state of decline sets in, there is only one thing left to do: individual based reform. When the community is alive, group-based reform can be useful, but when the community is in its state of degeneration, one should look for individuals and focus on reforming individuals. There is no other way to get positive results. Those who plan a group-based political or social revolution in a degenerate community are, of course, utterly ignorant of the laws of nature. Such reformers themselves need reform. They are unfit to become reformers of the community.