Page 147 - The Vision of Islam

The Vision of Isla m

which one is going to warn people be a cause of great apprehension
for one’s own self, and one be oneself extremely desirous of the
Paradise whose glad tidings one is conveying to others. If one’s
preaching or dawah work is not marked by these characteristics it
would be ludicrous to even think of undertaking it.
The greatest enigma of present history is how over the last
two hundred years, in the entire Muslim world, innumerable great
movements were set in motion which gave Muslims immense
opportunities; to do their work, yet the actual results of their
efforts were almost negligible. This failure came about in spite
of the Muslims having all kinds of resources for the execution
of their programme. There was nothing that was not abundantly
available to them—in terms of learned and venerated persons,
sincerity, numbers of great of people, sacrifice, quantity, material
resources, etc. However, if the results of their tumultuous efforts
are considered, it will become clear that they have actually driven
the caravan of the Ummah backwards.
Those who do not believe in God or do not regard God as the
Living Doer of all things, would be prone to give any self-styled
explanation for the above failure. However, faith in God demands
that we understand this whole event as being the result of God’s
Sunnah and consider it a divine matter in the complete sense.
If we look at it from this perspective and make the Quran
our guide, then it is proved beyond doubt that the reason for the
failure of our movements has been only one. And, that is, these
movements have not performed the real task for which God
promised divine succour for the community. God promised divine
succour on the condition that we help Him. Helping God means
to engage ourselves in the divine mission of making people aware
of the Creation Plan of God. Our movements should be aimed not
at acquiring worldly rights through protesting and demanding, but
rather sould be Hereafter-oriented movements, in which our goal
is to make man aware of what he will have to face in the next world.
Thus, our movements should be dawah-oriented and not political
or economic in nature.
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