Page 119 - Age of Peace Goodword.indd

The Age of Peace

prepared a multi-volume compendium of famous Muslim
personalities of the past, titled al-Aʿlām. He imagined that
Muslims could experience a new revival if such great men
could be born again. In a couplet of his poem, he expresses
this sentiment thus:
Hati salahaddin thaniyatan fina
Jaddidi hittin aw shibh hittina
(Bring back Salahuddin in our midst
Let there be a revival of the Battle of Hattin or battles of
similar vigour)
These lines of al-Zirikli reflect the general thinking of
Muslims today. Muslim literature chronicles the victories of
Salahuddin Ayyubi and Muslim war commanders of earlier
Islamic history in great detail and at great length, all of which
leads Muslims to think that if a man like Salahuddin were to
be born again, he would bring them the kind of victory which
was achieved in the twelfth century.
This kind of thinking is the result of a lack of precise
knowledge about the present times. Muslims are unaware of the
fact that a victory such as Salahuddin’s in the twelfth century
is simply not possible today. In the present day many leaders,
the like of Salahuddin, have been born among Muslims—such
as Yasser Arafat, Sayyid Qutb and other mujahid leaders—
yet, they have not been able to make any notable headway
in furthering Muslim affairs. Yearning for the return of
Salahuddin is the result of a regrettable unawareness of the
realities of the modern age. Muslims need to bear in mind that
in the present age, power and strength are determined not by
fighting but through advances in science and technology. In
this day and age, giving encouragement to the latter factors is
the surest way to success.
It is due to the Muslims’ failure to take into account the
compulsions of the age in their planning that their endeavours
by and large have gone awry.

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