Cure For Communalism - Patience And Piety

Of all the innumerable people who inhabit this world besides us, there are few who are not trying to achieve some kind of success, or who are not at least striving to outdo their fellow-men. To attain these ends, they will proceed as they please, for they have been given complete freedom of action by their Creator. There is, therefore, a never-ending scramble for the good things of life, a constant jockeying for position, and an all-too-frequent lack of scruple in elbowing contenders out of the way. We have to face the sad fact of life, that in this ongoing rough and tumble, the weakest are those who will fall by the wayside. There is no way of averting the hurts and losses of our competitive existence, for that is simply the way that God has made the world. This, it should be noted, is not a feature peculiar to parts of the world where Muslims and non-Muslims live cheek by jowl. It is characteristic of human existence all over the world, and is certainly to be found in all Muslim communities.

The world being as it is, problems cannot be solved by coming into conflict with everyone whose interests clash with our own.  There is only one effective approach, and that is to adopt the policy of avoidance (i‘radh) favored by the Qur’an. Only by sidestepping those who try to obstruct our progress in life can we continue on our journey with any success. But in order to pursue such a course, the virtue of patience must be sedulously cultivated. To adopt a policy of restraint and simply remove oneself from the path of someone who is bent on being obstructive does require a high degree of forbearance.

But then, the alternative – attaining one’s objectives in an aggressive, confrontational way – means being anti-social and creating disharmony on a variety of fronts, all of which is inconsistent with the ideals of social order.

Believers are fortunate in having the assurances of the Qur’an that so long as they are guided by the tenets of their faith, they will not be harmed in any way by the malice or misdeeds of their opponents:

“If you are patient and guard yourselves against evil, their machinations will never harm you. Allah has knowledge of all their actions (3:120)”.

This means that believers should be more concerned with their own inner state than they arewith the external conditions in which they find themselves, and that, above all, they should adhere to the guidance they have received from God, for this will lead them along the paths of patience and piety. The nurturing of these qualities will build up a protective barrier against plotting and conspiracies. It will, indeed, provide them with an impenetrable defense.

But why is it that patience is such a rare quality in human beings? It is because it entails the suppression of one’s feelings when provoked and the suffering of losses and setbacks without protest – neither of which is an easy thing to do. It is only those who can rise above the petty vengefulness engendered by such situations who will be successful in developing this virtue. The first step towards its attainment is the piety so strongly advocated by the Qur’an; it means, in effect, having an eternal fear of God in one’s heart.

The truly pious person ceases to live on purely human level; he ascends to a divine level where, above all else, he cherishes the will of God, and where all of his actions are aimed at consolidating the blessings promised to him by his Maker. Externally, he may appear to be living in this world, but, in fact, he is living on an exalted plane where his inner senses are in tune with the everlasting world of God.

On one occasion in Damascus, the first Umayyad caliph, Amir Muawiyah, distributed some sheets, one of which was given to an elderly Damascan who numbered among the Ansar. Dissatisfied with the particular sheet he had been given, he became angry and shouted, ‘By God, I will hit Muawiyah on the head with this sheet!’

Mauwiyah at that time was Caliph of a colossal Muslim empire, but he did not become angry at what the old man had said. Instead, he sent for him and, uncovering his own head, he said: ‘Go ahead and carry out your oath but remember, one old man should take pity on another.’ The Ansari, ashamed of himself, asked the Caliph’s forgiveness and quietly went away.’ (Al-Dawah, 12 Jamadi al Awwal, 1407 AH).

If, in response to the old man’s outburst, Muawiyah had become infuriated and reacted vengefully, the seeds of dissension would have been sown throughout society. But Muawiyah deliberately avoided displaying any negative reaction and, answering anger with coolness, bowed to this would-be opponent, thus forestalling the development of negative tendencies in society as a whole.

Muawiyah might well have action quite differently. His line of thinking could have been, ‘If I adopt a forgiving stance, my authority over the people will be compromised and it will become difficult to keep order in governing them.’ But this would have been a highly superficial assessment of the situation, for never in the entire course of history has anarchy resulted from the adoption of a forgiving attitude on the part of a ruler. It might easily be assumed that disorder would ensue, but, in fact, events take quite the contrary course.

There is no one in the world who displays greater power than one who answers stridency with calmness, ruffian behavior with sobriety, who, faced with contumacy, make a gift of gentleness and love in return.