Blindspot!
From Issue: 602 [Read full issue]
Accomplishment
An Islamic society can be built only by Islamic personalities. However, one cannot build an Islamic society by merely knowing the stories and life histories of great Muslims of the past. The early Muslims had the vision and the courage to build a system within the framework of Divine revelations that would serve long after they had departed. Yet, there are some today who, while working to revive the Islamic teachings, seek the fulfilment of their destiny and belief by living in and for the past, blindly following their leaders and ignoring their individual prerogative and responsibility of choice. Malik Bennabi, has said in this regard: 'The result has been to walk towards the future with backs turned to it and eyes fixed on the past in search of a faded glory, instead of seeking to build a new order, to which glory will come by right of accomplishment and not by right of inheritance.'
When we only dream of the past, we fail to build for the future and our precious present passes by. Accomplishment and success are a result of preparing for the future without breaking the faith and contact with the past, but also realising that constructive work can only be done in the present. Tomorrow never comes and yesterday never returns.
Compiled From:
Islam: The Way of Revival,"The Islamic Personality" - Mahmud Rashdan, p. 232