Troubles and Suffering until the Missing Thing is Regained

What is the colossal and root problem of man, if once solved, mankind will be sure to get salvation and feel in peace and satisfaction? Getting rid of hunger and bringing prosperity? Of course, it is. But is it not strange what the history tells us about the communities when they were flourishing with abundance of the means for their worldly life, instead of showing their thankfulness, they forgot One Who is actual Benefactor and real Donor, and doing something better for welfare of mankind they chose arrogance and headstrongness. In lieu of creating an atmosphere free of belligerence, they, themselves became oppressors and exploiters. Most of the Prophets sent by Allah, the Most Exalted, first of all faced hostility and opposition to the Heavenly Message by (Mutrifeen) those who were of the elite class of the society and leading luxurious lives in their communities. They rejected what the Prophets came with and showed to be heedless and were atheists. It was this class refusing to believing accountability on the Day of Resurrection. They were the bitterest opponents of the Dawa of the faith of Oneness of Allah and moral and social reforms:
“And We did not send into a city any warner except that its affluent said, “Indeed we believe not in that (Message) with which you have been sent.
And they said, “We are more in wealth and children, and we are not going to be punished.” (Saba: 34)

It was not someone else but this upper class of the society who used their worldly position to keep the status quo and ignorant system unchanged:
“And similarly, We sent not a warner before you (O Muhammad) to any town (people) but the luxurious ones among them said: “We found our fathers following a certain way and religion, and we will indeed follow their footsteps.” (Az-Zukhruf: 23)

Even today, in these times of enlightenment and man’s acclaimed intellectual loftiness and cultural highness the nature of wealthy and luxurious ones, may they be individuals or societies or states, is the same. Turn the pages of the Forbes Magazine’s ‘The Forbes 400” and “The Billionaires” we will find the world’s wealth, enough to feed millions of the peoples in Africa and Asia, who are longing for only a few bites of bread two times daily, treasured in the bank accounts of only a few hundred persons. A great number of the people are left for starving. There is no end to their greed. The more these billionaires amass, the more their avariciousness grows. Imagine, America has squandered more than 3700 billion dollars in a faceless ‘War on Terror’ which could be enough to help the poverty hit countries in solving their economic problems, but is not willing to give 1/100 of this amount as aid to the poor people.

Communities often think their boom and good times relied on their industrial advancement. We, the Muslims also have a dream of it and of course, we should have that. The West has made a dazzling progress with every facility available for man and making his life immensely comfortable. But trend to exploit other nations increased. A tremendous furthering in the field of science and technology brought with it lethal gases and deadly weapons of mass destruction, both conventional and nonconventional. Loss of millions of lives in two World Wars is a terrible proof of it. The nations at the top in manufacturing the weapons are at the top in their ruinous acts against humanity. The number of the victims, non-combating men, innocent children, women and elderly people, in the wars raged by the powers having huge piles sophisticated weapons is a little less than that of the two World Wars. Why? In spite of formidable progress in science and technology and industry, still there remains something very important missing.

One Momentous Thing is missing

What is that ‘One Thing’ of the bottom importance missing, in absence of that, if all poor rise tomorrow from the rage to the riches, they will act with others in the same manner, they are treated today. They may be much more selfish and merciless than those who are making them subject to their callousness.

Now take power in place of hunger as a problem of a colossal need. It may be hegemony of a super power or colonization of the imperialism or invasion of the crusading forces. In absence of that ‘Momentous Thing’ every type of power is a barbarism and savageness. Power actually only relates to a royal family or a despotic system or the leadership of a party in democratic system, as we see in some countries in the Middle East and North Africa, in the Muslim world. Most of those who gain power prove excessively hungry of the wealth and plunder through corruption, leaving their people drooped in the marsh of destitution. It is now obvious what Zian El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Qaddafi of Libya had been doing with their people and what Bashar Al Asad of Syria is doing with his revolting people is an inebriation of the power. Even having the mask of democracy on his face, Asif Ali Zardari, the elected president of Pakistan, keeps billions of dollars in his foreign accounts, is too miserly to spend a little for his people sunk in flood waters in the province he belongs to.

Is it not joking with the nation that thousands of people are severely affected by fatal fever caused by Dangue mosquito and the president advised the people for collective invocations to get cured from the lethal virus, while he himself flew to London for his health checkup and treatment, not placing his trust in prayers and not relying upon the health laboratories and expertise of the doctors in the country?. Usurping the power is for making money and multiplying the wealth. Why, because here also we find the same ‘One Thing’ missing.

What is that ‘One Determining Thing’ missing?

That is Guidance (Hidaiyat). Man makes good or not in understanding the fact, but every moment of our present life shows it and every page of the past human history tells us that in absence of Hidaiyat all, wealth, power and all the resources of material progress becomes Fitnah (trial and tribulation) and Sharr (evil and harm).

Adam (AS), after descending from the Heaven on the earth, undoubtedly faced great fear and grief. While starting his life on the land from the zero point, there were a lot of problems for his living. Making arrangements for food and lifting a ceiling over head and walls around for protection from the harsh climates and brutes, provision of tools for tilling the land to grow grain, vegetables and fruits and many other problems were not negligible. But his Creator, his Lord, mentioned nothing of these things. What was thought crucial for his life was Guidance (Hidaiyat).
“We said: “Get down all of you from this place (Paradise), then whenever there comes to you Guidance from Me, whoever follows My Guidance there shall be no fear on them, nor shall they grieve.” (Al-Baqarah: 38)

From Adam (AS) to Muhammad, the final and last Messenger of Allah, be peace and blessings upon him, all the bearers of the Message from Allah, the Most Exalted, had their utmost duty to guide the mankind to the right path. As I have mentioned above, man has to be assured of food to eat, water to drink, medicine to cure, protection from the perilous situations to bring peace, all are immensely important but in the sight of Allah Hidaiyat is the most consequential thing.

For the Muslims, in every Raka’ of the prayer recitation of Surah Al-Fatihah is compulsory. We have many, many problems in our lives, all to be solved and properly addressed but in our five time congregational and individual prayers, we stand in the presence our Lord as supplicants at least 34 times begging for Hidaiyat:
“(Our Lord) Show us the straight path…”

We shun the path of Namrud and Firaun, of Qaroon and of the pagan chiefs of Makka, the path of the prominent philosophers like Plato and Aristotle of ancient Greece which even could not rid the Athenian people of corruption, aristocracy and slavery throughout their lifetime. We have nothing to do with sheer negativity of the ideas of those who appeared on ideological and philosophical horizon of Europe after the medieval period and also those who gave birth to Renaissance and so-called enlightened period of European history. We condemn the philosophies of German philosopher Hegel (1770-1883) and Karl Marx (1818-1883), French Jean Paul Sartre and the British philosopher Bertrand Russell. We reject the way of Aristotle’s student Alexander, falsely given the title of ‘the great’ by the European historians. We disapprove horrifying atmosphere of savagery and slaughter created by ferocious Mangol Emperors Changez Khan, Halaku Khan and Teimur. We dislike destructive Napoleonic wars, disastrous Bolshevik revolution brought by Lenin and Stalin in Russia and horrible scenes of mass destruction by military adventures of Adolf Hitler. Why, because none of them was on the right path, the path shown by the Messengers of Allah. One who is out of obedience of the Prophets has really gone astray and we do not want to go on the path of those who have evoked Allah’s anger and are astray.

Is it not a striking point that the Quran has ignored all the philosophies and barbarous acts of all the above mentioned (and many of those not mentioned here) philosophers and warriors and has recorded the wisdom of an African slave, Luqman and only one conqueror Zulqarnain? Because of the Hidaiyat, both of them were blessed with. Some of the commentators have unfoundedly asserted that Zulqarnain, mentioned in the Quran is actually Alexander of Macedonia. But if it was Alexander, then the thoughts of his guru, Aristotle, that greatly influenced the modern Europe, would have been much more worthy of having been recorded in the Quran.

The Muslims, in their five times prayers beg to be shown the path of those on whom Allah has showered His Favors and Grace:
“And whosoever obey Allah and the Messenger, then they will be in the company of those whom Allah has bestowed His Grace, of the Prophets, the Siddiqun, the martyrs and the righteous. And how excellent these companies are” (An-Nisa: 69)

Mischievous philosophies and evil deeds of the above mentioned thinkers and war campaigners, lacking Hidaiyat, proved to be the mother of denial of the Creator, fascism, racism, nationalism and all other ideological Fitnan. They are the root cause of all the sufferings of man today. Thus they were the people who earned the wrath of Allah and remained astray. Due to them “Evil (sins and disobedience of Allah) has appeared on land and sea because of what the hands of men have earned (by oppression and evil deeds), that He (Allah) may make them taste a part of that which they have done, in order that they may return (by repenting to Allah, and begging His Pardon)." (Ar-Rum: 41)
Salvation of mankind is impossible until return to the thing missing, and that is Hidaiyat (Guidance).