As citizens of this macro-reality, we can often feel as if we are but pawns in the vast global chess game being played by multinational corporations, traditional superpowers, new and emerging nuclear powers, and the economic pushbuttons of development and consumer capitalism. Within such a world, some may find it difficult to believe that our individual choices can make a difference in our communities. So what if a few dozen or even a few hundred people in our city get together for an interfaith meal? So what if families from different cultures living together in a town get to know each other? What difference does it make in the end? Political powers and other forces call the larger shots and will send us all into war and conflict if they so desire. Human nature being what it is, we will succumb to our baser instincts in hard times no matter how many positive interfaith or intercultural experiences we’ve had with others.

Critics of interfaith dialogue often make this case. They point to examples from Bosnia, the Middle East, Kashmir, Punjab, Rwanda and elsewhere to illustrate that people who coexist peacefully for centuries can be manipulated into barbarically killing each other relatively quickly. Tyrants, insurgents and other power-seekers have learned that cultural, ethnic, and/or religious differences can form natural fault lines in a given communal fabric, which can be exploited by skillful media messaging and the opportunistic staging of current events into powerfully persuasive political theater. Once the mass media have been harnessed, if not outright hijacked, power seekers can move populations as if mountains – whipping up mass fear, anger, hysteria and eventually an appetite for genocide.

Interfaith dialogue seems no match for these gargantuan modern monstrosities. And, in many cases, it isn’t. The warmly felt bonds of interfaith harmony that thrive in times of relative peace and prosperity chill easily in times of strife and hardship, especially when political, economic or national security interests are at stake. In such times, usually all but a few individuals will succumb to fear, and then retreat to their respective religio-ethnic corners to prepare for a fight. The individuals who maintain their commitment to peaceful coexistence with their neighbors resist the fight, try to save their friends who have suddenly become “the enemy” because of their religion or ethnicity, and often lose their lives in the process. They may be heroes, to be sure, but they are dead. And they do not win in the end; the warmongers do – at least, most of the time.

But not all the time. Occasionally, we find exceptions to this all too common trajectory in human socio-political relations. Situations wherein populations held themselves together despite enormous pressures to fight and kill one another. Where community leaders resisted the gravitational pull of hatred that strips them of their voices and replaces them with those of fear mongers and peddlers of hatred. When we find these exceptions, we must review and analyze the exact conditions that made them possible in the first place, and determine if they can be replicated in other situations of strife and war.

I encountered such an exceptional situation this past spring while visiting Croatia. Fuzine is one of several quaint mountain villages in the district of Gorski Kotar in northern end of the Dalmatian coast of Croatia. I recently listened to the former governor of the district and a local radio producer tell their stories from the period of the war in 1991.

A Yugoslavian Army base camp was built near the district, on top of a hill. Normally, the existence of this base would have been the beginning of the end for peaceful relations between the Croat and Serbian villages of the district. Croats would view the base as a danger and a provocation, as well as a support camp to the Serbian villages. The Serbians, for their part, would have used the base as a “back-up” for their own violence against their Croat neighbors. Since violence begets violence, Croats or Serbs would make the first strike and the cycle would begin. Many would die, the villages would be destroyed, and the resulting “life” would resemble existence on the surface of the moon.

That’s not what happened.

In a stunning turn of events, the municipal leaders of all the villages – Serb and Croat – approached the base commanders and established a relationship with them. After several meetings, it became clear that none of them wanted either to shoot at each other or to be shot. So, they made a written agreement that constituted the “terms” of their coexistence during those months. For example, when the Yugoslav army was required to fire on the villages, per orders from up the chain of command, they warned the citizens ahead of time and instructed them on how to survive the barrage. They provided the citizens with maps of the mines they laid. The village leaders returned the favor and provided base commanders with a “heads up” when they were forced, by public opinion and the radical fringe, to fire on the army base. The local radio producer treated the army base as another “village” in the district and reported its news, events, and played music for the troops, etc. They called the families of wounded guards to apologize – and did so publicly on the radio – when radical elements in their midst broke the agreement and fired on the soldiers. Media reports stayed ahead of the rumor mills, reported the facts of things, and controlled the message to minimize the inflammatory impact of the angry rhetoric coming from other sources.

As a result of the extraordinary bravery and commitment from people on both sides, no one from the district was killed and no one was taken to a wartime prison camp.

Leaders on both sides suffered consequences. Two of the base commanders went to prison for 12 years. One of them disappeared into the mists of “the system” while the other was killed by civilians after being released. The radio producer in Gorski Kotar was banned from media and only recently has begun to work again. Other city leaders voluntarily disappeared into anonymity – this story was kept quiet at first – so as to avoid persecution and death for their actions.

Upon analysis, a few things stand out about this exceptional situation. First of all, there were conditions on the ground that the village leaders exploited to their advantage. The Gorski Kotar district was somewhat geographically remote from the heart of the fighting during the war. As such, neither the base nor the villagers had direct daily involvement in the heart of the war’s operations. Without interventions for peace that could have certainly changed, and the district could have become an additional center or “theater” of the war; however, the interventions took advantage of the district’s “off the beaten path” status. An additional opportunity came in the fact that one of the base commanders was nearing retirement, weary of his job and of fighting, and was inclined to strike a deal with the villagers as long as he could save face. Therefore, when village leaders approached him and his colleagues with a plan for peaceful coexistence, they were ready to negotiate a plan that would let both sides fly under the radar of the larger war and possibly come away from it largely unscathed.

Secondly, media leaders took their share of responsibility for the creation and maintenance of the arrangement with the base camp, as well as for keeping the peace between the villages during particularly tense weeks. Put simply, radio and print media controlled the message in favor of peace. When infractions to the agreement happened from time to time, from both sides, reporting of the story was done in the least inflammatory way possible. For example, when the base camp did an obligatory firing on the villages (after warning the villagers of the times and locations) and accidentally damaged the radio transmission tower, the base commander sent his own soldiers to repair it immediately so that broadcasts could resume as soon as possible. More importantly, this fact was reported to the community so as to minimize anger and outrage over the incident. In short, media operatives used their power for peace and not for war. They recognized the power of media to incite, enflame, and create the larger narrative in which people experience things in their communities. Through skillful messaging and the coordination of communication lines, they maintained and nurtured the agreement for peace through its many months, creating the very conditions for peaceful coexistence.

Finally, we can see that community leaders in the villages refused to relinquish immediately their roles as leaders to the larger forces of the army. They easily could have done otherwise. Once the base camp was established, they could have decided that war was now inevitable, that their little villages stood no chance to resist the war tide rolling towards them, and that each village needed to now begin fortifying themselves against the army and each other, and prepare to fight and die.

They didn’t do this. Instead, they banded together, created a plan, and took a huge risk in walking up the hill to the base camp and presenting it to the commanders. The creativity, courage and will power this required of them simply cannot be overstated. In the end, this human element is what makes the ultimate difference. Human beings are endowed with self-consciousness, agency and imagination, which allows us to not only visualize alternative scenarios in any given situation, but also to imagine and implement alternative courses of action within them – for ourselves and for others. These leaders together resisted the war tide, created an alternative possibility for their district, and bravely took radical steps to implement it. And it worked. Not flawlessly, but enough to keep their people, their homes and their way of life from going up in flames.

Can what happened in Gorski Kotar work everywhere? No and yes. No, in the sense that certain conditions in place on the ground in this district that contributed to the peace are not in place ubiquitously. Most army base commanders aren’t open to illegal agreements with “enemy” villagers. Not all regional or district leaders – in the media or otherwise – have working relations good enough to band together in wartime to create and implement such a thing as this. Many other factors prevent any one exception, such as what happened in Gorski Kotar, from providing a stable template for peace easily applicable to any other situation. These situations are exceptions, after all.

Nevertheless, what happened here can be instructive for other areas. The positive and necessary role of media in maintaining the peace agreement in Gorski Kotar is abundantly clear. Those who find themselves in similar situations of religious and ethnic conflict will do well to procure access to media, if possible, sooner rather than later in order to shape the messaging toward peace and restraint, away from hatred and violence. Today’s 21st century media technology resists totalitarian control in important ways, as recent events in Iran, China and even North Korea indicate. Those with skills can exploit media for peace as well as for war.

Finally, in the end, much turns on the simple power of human agency and choice, and the willingness of people to join together and exercise that agency in the direction of peace in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances. Of course, such principled action plans don’t always make a difference. In fact, such plans may often fail in times of war. But, they certainly have no chance of success at all if people give up on the fight from the beginning and refuse even to attempt to alter the course of things. On this point, people on the brink of war in all sorts of situations have at least a chance – perhaps not a big chance, but a chance nevertheless – to turn the tide in another direction, or at least to reduce the body count and carnage.

I am haunted by an image one of the community leaders in Gorski Kotar used in telling us their story when we met with them. The radio producer told us that media flies “as fast as a bird, as fast as the speed of light” even; however, it typically arrives after the dead bodies already lay on the ground. The producer and the other leaders in the community wanted to avoid bodies on the ground altogether. They wanted media to be faster than the dead.

It seems, in this case at least, they succeeded.

B. Jill Carroll is an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University.

Human life in this world is a composite of two distinct powers, the spirit and the flesh. Although it is sometimes the case that these two powers act in harmony, conflict between them is more usual, conflict of a kind in which the victory of one results in the defeat of the other. In an individual who vigorously indulges bodily lusts, the spirit grows more powerless as it becomes more obedient to those lusts; however, in another individual, one who has given the spirit dominance over the flesh, in whom the heart (the seat of spiritual intellect) has power over reason, and who vigorously opposes the bodily lusts, it attains eternity.

The secret of attaining the eternal life of the spirit

Every part of a spiritually bankrupt country can be likened to a graveyard, no matter how many hundreds of triumphal arches and statues adorn its thoroughfares. The mass of people living in such a country are in reality blind and unfortunate, and a world not built on the breath of the spirit is nothing but the plaything of human violence. A culture which has not developed an ethos that encourages virtue is like an evil sorceress who has ambushed humanity. However, it may never be possible to persuade coarse, insensitive people of this, people who pay no attention to anything except their own pleasures, who have become incapable of considering their lives as connected with the well-being and happiness of others. If only such people had some perception of the mystery of their own deaths, they might yet attain the eternal life of the spirit.

Only those who have filled their hearts with the most sublime ideals and love of humanity will lead a spiritual life so as to attain eternity in their very selves. These fortunate people transcend their carnal desires, grow spiritually alert and attain victory over the commands of the self.

Only the person who overcomes his or her self can rightly be called powerful and victorious. The miserable individuals who have not been able to release themselves from captivity to the self are liable to defeat even if they have conquered the entire world. Moreover, we cannot give to their conquest of the world the name of “victory,” since their permanent presence in the lands they have invaded is an impossibility.

Real heroes

Napoleon was in the madness of esteeming himself sole ruler of the world. I wonder whether he was able to grasp that his real failure was when he slapped a philosopher and this was more bitter and humiliating than his defeat at Waterloo. In the person of that philosopher he actually slapped knowledge and virtue. Mustafa Pasha of Merzifon had been inwardly defeated before his army was put to flight at Vienna. This first defeat in Ottoman history showed itself in the spirit of the commander in chief, then spread far and wide among his forces, and not only caused him to lose his head, but allowed the greatest army of conquest the world had yet known to experience flight. Yildirim Khan, Bayazid I, was not defeated in Cubuk, but on the day when he belittled his opponent and hailed himself as sole ruler of the world. And there have been many others like these…

But we have positive examples too. Tariq ibn Ziyad was victorious, not when he defeated the Visigoths’ army of ninety thousand men with a handful of self-sacrificing valiants, but when he stood before the wealth and treasures of the king and said, “Be careful, Tariq. You were a slave yesterday. Today you are a victorious commander. And tomorrow you will be under the earth.”

Salahuddin Ayyubi’s generous treatment of Richard I astonished and embarrassed the arrogant commander. Alp Arslan conducted himself in peace and mercy towards Romanus IV Diogenes. Likewise, Kilic Arslan released all the crusaders captured during the battle at Antalya Castle. All these examples of humane and noble behavior are in fact the victory of the sublime spirit.

The enormous army of Mehmed II (the Conqueror) owed its success to the power of faith and the spirit. Mehmed II never relied on physical power; rather, he represented spiritual power as well as his military genius. Otherwise, his entry to Istanbul would have been no different than Caesar’s entry into Rome; but Mehmed II entered the capital of Byzantium in a manner of forgiveness, tolerance and justice just like Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, upon the conquest of Mecca.

Selim I regarded the world as too small for two rulers. He was truly victorious, not when he crowned some kings and dethroned others, but when he entered the capital in silence while its people were asleep so as to avoid their enthusiastic welcome and applause for his victories. He was also victorious when he ordered that the robe which had been spattered with mud by the horse of his teacher be draped over his coffin because it had been honored. The Roman commander Cato was victorious and made a place for himself in his people’s memory, not when he defeated the Carthaginians, but when he handed his horse and command over to the Roman Emperor, saying, “I fought to serve my nation. Now my duty is fulfilled, I am going back to my village.” And all the while his army was entering Carthage, the capital city of Rome’s enemy and rival, in triumph.

To transcend selfishness

Sacrificing one’s enjoyment of worldly pleasures has the same significance for human progress as the roots of a tree have for its growth. Just as a tree grows sound and strong in direct relation to the soundness and strength of its roots, so too a human being grows to perfection while striving to free himself or herself from selfishness and instead to live only for others.

We must look at history in order to find examples of real heroes since it is full of stories of great individuals. For instance, history tells us of the caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab, whom it finds carrying a sack of flour in public as soon as he felt a little pride in his heart. We have such heroes who effectively conducted armies and ruled countries during the day while they spent the night in remembrance of God. Those fortunate ones able to maintain a spiritual life no matter what their duties always appeared within the same tradition.

It is essential for an individual to overcome the carnal self. The idea of the “greater jihad” or “struggle against the carnal self” is the starting point of this struggle which gradually affects all the conduct of human beings. This idea also teaches the person how to become invincible against the self. Only those who have attained a victorious spirit can dominate all types of materialistic power in the Universe. In contrast, those who are captured by the self are liable to defeat and regarded as miserable even if they conquer the world. Therefore, the heroes we have mentioned here are different than others. Indeed, real heroes and victorious commanders attained triumph because of the victory of the spirit in their very selves.

To conclude, those who are deprived of sublime ideals and who cannot overcome their personal pleasures cannot be called victorious even if they conquer the entire world. In this case, their temporary success unfortunately results in their everlasting defeat. The only way to transform possible defeats into eternal victories is to attain the victory of the spirit. The crowned heads of the future will be those fortunate ones who have attained felicity through victories of the spirit.

“Philosophy considers force to be the point of support in social life, and life as the realization of self-interest (as its goal) and conflict (as its principle).”1 When Said Nursi wrote this sentence in The Words, he was looking at the Cyclops-like aspect of the European philosophy of his time, which totally excluded spirituality from the interpretation of the relationship between humans and the universe. There was only one eye on that face which concentrated solely on the materialist side of the creation. Said Nursi called this face “philosophy”; he was opposed to nineteenth century materialist philosophy, but rather favored one that was open to metaphysics and the spiritual as well as to the rational, an approach that he would later call “the marriage of the mind and the heart.”

This materialist philosophy, which considers “power” to be the point of support in social life, actually shaped the social and political movements of the twentieth century. Those individuals who were empowered with personal and financial resources built production facilities and had the less powerful individuals in society work for them in exchange for little remuneration. Capital thus quickly accumulated in the hands of an increasingly prosperous minority, whereas the majority of the members of the “developing” society were barely able to make a living. Mercy seldom descended from the narrow top of the pyramid to the base-and envy and resentment rose in dark clouds from the wide base to the top. Power became the main determining effect in social life, as individuals or groups tried to realize their self-interests to the degree that their “power” allowed them to.

When there was a conflict between interests, might was used as the arbitrator. Revolutions simply shifted the building blocks of the pyramid, but the shape of the pyramid always remained the same. “Natural selection,” a misconception thought to be observed in nature, became the very basis of civilizations. The political arena always had its actors whose pockets were full and waves of ordinary people were merely directed, explicitly or implicitly, in what they should do with their lives. Nations with less economic power became oppressed, their lands and resources were looted, and their futures were thrown into a deep, dark well of uncertainty. The world saw the bloodiest wars of all times as humanity descended to the lowest of the lowest, “asfal al-safilin.”

There has not been any single event in the course of social history which has not been motivated by a system of thought. The intellectuals of the last century tended to strip human beings of their inner dimensions and consider them as a piece of walking/talking machinery. This machine was supposed to produce goods constantly in order to satisfy the increasing needs of mankind. Simultaneously, the circle of the needs extended itself to the farthest point of the imagination, until there was no way that circle could be encompassed. Most of these needs took the shape of carnal desires, and the machine became dedicated to gratifying these desires. Relations between individuals and their families, in neighborhoods and within countries, started to deteriorate. Divorce, domestic violence, deceit, murder, and other crimes-enough to make anyone with a heart grow mute-began to seem and sound normal to the general public. Thus, the machine began to annihilate itself and its surroundings. Bediuzzaman Said Nursi brought the matter to public attention at that time with the following words: “Force calls up aggression, seeking self-interest causes battles over material resources, and conflict brings strife.”2

Since life was considered to be the realization of self-interest, the self became the center of all interests. Individualism was raised as the banner of victory, while the bonds that connected selves together began to disappear. “Country, religion, family, ideas of civilization, all the sentimental and historical forces that stood between cosmic infinity and the individual, providing some notion of place within the whole, have been rationalized and have lost their compelling force.”3

Contrary to accepting power as the fabric of social life, such as it has been in the past two centuries, the Holy Qur’an accepts “rights” to be the constant point of support in social life. The first Caliph of Islam after the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, the honorable Abu Bakr, stated this Qur’anic approach in his first speech to the public: “The weakest among you is the strongest in my eyes until his rights have been delivered to him, and God willing I will accomplish that; and the strongest among you is the weakest in my sight until he delivers the rights to their real owner, and God willing I will pursue that.”4

One of the five pillars in Islam is the prescribed alms, zakat. According to the Qur’an, every Muslim with adequate financial resources is obligated to give one-fortieth of his wealth to people in need. This portion of the wealth of the rich is considered a right that is given to the poor from God. This is a very interesting point, because the Qur’an draws a circle around the rights of the powerless within the circle of the powerful. In so doing, the Qur’an effectively silences brute force and allows “rights” to speak instead. Thus, the Qur’an teaches and commands believers to practice “giving precedence to the common interests of the community over one’s own interests.” The fact is that all unrest in human social life proceeds from two sources or attitudes: “Once my stomach is full, what do I care if others die of hunger?” and “You work, I will eat.”5 These statements symbolize a world where labor and capital confront each other and zakat, as a moral imperative, is abandoned; yet mankind has been advised to use charity as a form of purifying alms that is essential to the establishment of social welfare and order.

Human rights, huquq al-ibad, are a very important issue in the Qur’an. A devout believer who has pursued a virtuous life in this life may be pardoned for all their sins. However, the violation of the rights of others is excluded from this pardon, for such a violation must be resolved between the person who violated the rights and the one whose rights has been violated. The “others” here can be Muslims or non-Muslims and they can be of any race, ethnicity, belief, or worldview, in fact, anybody whom God has created. An anecdote from the time of the third Caliph, Umar is noteworthy here. It occurred in the city of Hims (Syria) in 635. The Muslim army was in retreat and leaving the city at the approach of a huge Roman army. The commander of the Muslim army ordered his men to reimburse the people of the city for the taxes that had been collected. The tax collectors told the Christian population of the city that the Muslim army would not be able to protect the city against the Roman army, and that since the taxes had been collected in payment for the protection of the city, the army no longer had any right to keep the taxes.6

The Qur’an does not leave the individual by themselves in the universe. “Does man think that he will be left uncontrolled (without purpose)?” (Qiyama 75:36). Human beings have the willpower and determination to choose between evil and good. Humans are responsible for their choices as well as their actions, and they will be held accountable for every deed they commit. This very fact should urge everyone who hears this message to adjust their standing within the community. The Qur’an commands each soul to uphold righteousness and forbid evil. This command is not limited only to the person’s interactions with the rest of the society. Rather, each person is also responsible for their own physical and psychological being. Nobody can commit suicide, harm their own body, or fall into despair or cut themselves off from society.

From a Muslim’s point of view the holy books that preceded the Qur’an also hold “rights” to be paramount within the community for the establishment of justice and harmony; the Qur’an states, “And we have sent down to you (O Muhammad) the Book (the Qur’an) in truth confirming the Scripture that came before it” (Maida 5:52). If we want to live in a safer and a happier world, where every human being’s rights are secured, the followers of the Holy Scriptures should refer to the enlightening realm of the revelation, advocating “right” rather than “might” as the criteria for any decision that affects the destiny of humanity. Rights have to be promoted at every level of society, and this cannot be done without taking the metaphysical dimensions of the individual into consideration. Looking at how people all around the globe are returning to the warm home of religion and how members of different faiths are striving to understand each other, one can hear the joyful celebration of the marriage between the mind and the heart and can see rights sitting on their throne supported on the shoulders of might.

Notes

1. Nursi, Said, The Words, The Light, Inc., NJ: 2005 p. 146-7.

2. ibid. p. 146-7.

3. Bloom, Allan, The Closing of the American Mind, Simon & Schuster Inc., 1988, p.85

4. Hz. Muhammed (s.a.s.) ve Hayati (Prophet Muhammad and His Life), Diyanet Yayinlari, Ankara: 1996, p. 435, Turkish Religious Council Publications, p. 435

5. Nursi, Said, The Letters, 22nd Letter, Truestar, London: 1995, p. 74.

6. Belazuri, Futuhu’l-Buldan, Beirut, 1987, p. 187.

After the Hijra, the great migration of Muslims to Madina, God’s Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, made Bilal his mu’adhdhin-the caller to prayer. He was so esteemed among the Companions that Umar the second Caliph, said of him: ‘Bilal is our master (meaning Abu Bakr) emancipated him’.

The ideal of equality and human brotherhood is explicitly enjoined in the Qur’an and discrimination on the basis of nation or race (tribe) is explicitly rejected: 0 mankind! We created you of a man and woman and made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another. The best and most honoured of you in the sight of God is the most pious and God-fearing among you. Surely God is the All-Knowing, the All-Aware. (49.13)

Abu Dharr, the leader of the tribe of Ghifar, and one who accepted Islam in its early days, narrates: ‘Once I was conversing with Bilal. Our conversation gave way to a dispute. Angry with him, the following insult burst from my mouth: ‘You cannot comprehend this, 0 son of a black woman!’

As Islam expressly forbade all kinds of racial, tribal and colour discrimination, Bilal was both upset and greatly angered.

A while later a man came and told me that the Messenger of God, upon him be peace and blessings, summoned me. I went to him immediately. He said to me:

“I have been informed that you addressed Bilal as the son of a black woman.”

I was deeply ashamed and could say nothing. God’s Messenger continued his reprimand: “This means you still retain the standards and judgements of the pre-Islamic days of ignorance. Islam has eradicated all those false standards or measures judging people by blood, fame, colour or wealth. It has established that the best and most honourable of men is he who is the most pious and upright in conduct. Is it right to defame a believer just because he is black?”

Abu Dharr felt profound remorse. He went straight to Bilal’s house and, putting his head on the threshold, said: This head will not rise from here until the blessed feet of Bilal tread on the face of foolish, impolite Abu Dharr.’

Bilal responded:” That face deserves to be kissed, not trodden upon’, and forgave Abu Dharr.

Zayd ibn Haritha was one of the first four people to accept Islam. Slave traders had kidnapped him from his parents and sold him in the Makkan market. Khadija, the future wife of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, bought him and, upon her marriage, gave him to her husband as a present. The future Prophet emancipated Zayd and adopted him as a son. After years of search, Zayd’s parents found him in Makka but Zayd preferred to remain with the Prophet.

Zayd was also a black man. The Messenger loved him very much. He gave Zaynab bint Jahsh, famous for her beauty and nobility, to him in marriage. He made Zayd the commander of the Muslim army in the baffle of Mu’ta, the first encounter of Muslims with the Romans. Zayd was martyred in this battle.

Usama was the son of Zayd. The Messenger loved him too very much. When Usama was a child, the Prophet would sit him on one knee, while Umama, the little daughter of one of the Companions, sat on his other knee. During his Caliphate, ‘Umar assigned for Usama a larger stipend than for his own son, ‘Abdullah, even though there was no difference in seniority or merit between them. ‘Umar explained to ‘Abdullah why he did so: ‘My son! God’s Messenger loved Usama more than you and his father more than your father.’

Before his death, the Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, formed an army to dispatch against the Romans in which all of the leading Companions including Abu Bakr and ‘Umar also participated. The Messenger appointed Usama as a commander of that army, without considering that Usama was still a teenager, and said: ‘As his father had the necessary qualities to command an army, Usama too is qualified to be a commander.’

The Messenger, upon him be peace and blessings, fell ill before Usama’s army left Madina. When the Messenger died, Abu Bakr was chosen as the Caliph and he dispatched the army. 

The earth in springtime is a wonderful image and instance of universal renewal. Grass, trees and soil-in a thumbnail portion of which countless organisms are nurtured-all together come back to life. Take a walk amongst the living creatures-how they sally forth, putting on their uniforms of renewal and rejoicing in growth! How seemingly lifeless things come to life, like armies called out to parade, transforming the earth into a cheerful, multi-coloured paradise! Thus the spring puts on show innumerable signs of global renewal. Here a sentient, animate creature panting, heaving itself forward, in a mighty effort to achieve self-renewal. There, sprouting plant-forms pushing and struggling against whatever hardship surrounds them to emerge into the light in a cluster of shoots. And there, seeds scattered in thistle down, blown along with so many other kinds by winds obedient to the season, and pollen carried upon the legs of busy insects to fertilize the eager flowers, all alike actively seeking their renewal and continuance of life. And where the effort for self-renewal is not made, a decomposing and sinking back into the soil, there to be consumed without hope of renewed emergence.

Man too must, like every other creature, make the effort for self-renewal, individually and collectively. The more that communities and societies revive and rejuvenate themselves in mind and spirit, the better they are able to shoulder the world-wide responsibilities. That is accomplished by enlightening the sciences with the truth of religion, by applying technology with the wisdom of faith, and by carrying the message of revival to all people. Those communities who fail to renew themselves in this way will never be safe from destruction and the chains of captivity.

Self-renewal must not be confused, as it often is, with the indulgence of mere novelty and the latest fashions which is mere cosmetic covering up of defects. True renewal is providing the community with immortality through the water of life from the fountain of Khadr1.

True renewal is seeking and obtaining higher and purer levels of contemplation. It is preserving the purity of seed and root, of upholding the values refined and handed down over the centuries in association with the knowledge and ideas of modern times. It is sheer delusion to make outward forms of dress a measure of modernity or backwardness, and another delusion to suppose people will long be taken in by so shallow a criterion.

Self-renewal takes place in the metaphysical, not the physical, realm and is a revival of the spirit and of the spiritual life; the term ‘renewal’ is not seriously used for any other kind of renovation.

Renewal is true insofar as it engages in and uses modern scientific developments and technological facilities as means to increase our knowledge of the universe. However, we must constantly hold up to our hearts the mirror of self-examination so that our understanding is truly and meaningfully renewed.

An individual who has succeeded in renewing himself may be considered an enduring support to the well-being of the community. A society which comprises many such individuals becomes an important element in the balance of the world. But certainly there cannot be a society-wide renewal without sufficient numbers of individuals who have truly renewed themselves. Such people have hearts radiant with faith and minds soaring into different realms in quest of ‘bright days’, people who each moment renew the quality of their consciousness of that which is holy and true. Further, it is necessary that individuals of this calibre be followed by successors willing and able to hold aloft their thoughts and ideals like a torch.

The Ummayyads were unable to save themselves from destruction at the hands of powerful rivals because, as a dynasty, they proved incapable of carrying on the revival of ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al- ‘Aziz: they wallowed in corruption and passed away in humiliation. Almost the same is true of the Abbasids, and of the Ummayyads in Andalusia, and of the Ottoman Turks of the 18th century. These magnificent states decayed and disintegrated in a similar manner, at the same time receiving heavy blows from external enemies. They applied themselves to Latin and Greek philosophy in the hope of sparking a renewal of their spirit thereby. This proved no remedy at all, rather it accelerated their destruction. Worse, in the case of the Ottomans, it caused them to deviate from their essential line of development and engage in a mindless imitativeness of their enemies so that the Ottoman intelligentsia became something of a laughing stock in Europe.

Neither the ‘New Regime’2 nor the massacre of the Janissaries, nor the Imperial Edict proclaimed in Gulhane Park3 by some callow and fanciful imitators of the West could open the road to a revival for the Ottoman society. Indeed, the reverse is true, that such measures stifled that society and threw it into a deathlike coma. We do not deny that there were some positive aspects to these movements but these were of so localized a nature as to have no bearing on the negative outcome. It can even be argued that the evident weaknesses of the Ottoman regime, disguised by these reforms, became thereby more insidious and therefore more dangerous. Such inappropriate remedies had no more long-term usefulness than sedating a patient suffering convulsions or applying a truss to a hernia.

Almost all the promises made by such dead, unintelligent souls who had lost their own way have proved a delusion which have led, and continue to lead, the ordinary mass of people astray. I do not know whether we shall be able to teach true renewal to those who have been, over and over again, deceived and misled.

Notes

1. A sage and saint believed to have been a leading a life unique to himself for centuries and to appear, at the right moment, to help those who are worthy, Those who are directly guided and educated by him are also believed to gain a kind of eternity referred to as ‘drinking the water of life from Khadr’s fountain’.

2. When the Ottoman Empire began to decline and suffer successive defeats, reforms were considered necessary. The ‘New Regime’ (nizam al-jadid) under Selim III was the result. Until the 18th century the Ottoman army had consisted of two main divisions, the State Guards (including Janissary troops) and the Cavalry units stationed in different parts of the empire and mobilized at need. Following the death of Suleiman the Magnificent, signs of degeneration began to appear in the imperial army as well in other institutions. The decline intensified in the following centuries. Under Selim III an attempt to establish a new regime was instituted for the army and a new division created on the French model and with the name nizam al-jadid. However, this was not at all a fundamental reform; there were some superficial improvements but nothing of any lasting, positive significance.

3. This Edict, read out in Gulhane Park by Moustafa Rashed Pasha, the then Grand Vizier, proclaimed the so-called political reforms of Sultan ‘Abd al-Majid.