Reflections on Communal Riots

they should do in order to foil riots and to render conspiracies ineffectual. God has placed the solution to the problems of life in serious contemplation and realistic action. But this is precisely what Muslims today are farthest from. They are ready to splurge their wealth and expend their strength on almost everything, but when it comes to realistic methods of dealing with the question of inter-communal conflict, they suddenly seem to have neither the money nor the time. Their condition today is exactly the same as what the Quran (7:146-47) describes in the following words: I will turn away from My signs all those who are arrogant in the land without any right, so that even if they see all the signs they will not believe in them. If they see the right path, they shall not walk upon it: but if they see the path of error, they shall choose it for their path, because they have given the lie to Our signs and paid no heed to them. The actions of those who denied Our signs and the Meeting of the Hereafter will come to nothing—they shall be requited only, according to their deeds. When someone gets worked up, angry and emotional, he can only relate to superficial things. No serious thing will appeal to him. This is the case with Muslims today. No matter what obvious evidence you may give them in favour of realistic approaches and methods, it does not seem to enter their minds. Instead, they enthusiastically support and embrace causes and approaches that can only result in their own further destruction. They dismiss approaches and methods that can lead to success as ‘philosophical’, ‘theoretical’ and ‘impractical’. Like a person who has lost all awareness, they go about banging their heads—sometimes against one wall, sometimes against another. In terms of results, their efforts are continuously proving to be entirely useless. Yet, their eyes just refuse to open. They continue to resort to the same superficial methods that, having been tried innumerable times before, have clearly proven their failure.