The Loss of the Ghetto Mentality

is: the wheel of history cannot be put into reverse gear. This is no simple matter. From this decision made by the Prophet we learn a law of nature, i.e. the journey of history is always headed from the past to the present and from the present to the future. It is not possible to take a U-turn in history. It is beyond the genius of human beings to conduct the journey of history from the future to the present and from the present to the past. In the matter of the course history will take, planning has to be done by accepting the status quo and not by denying it. The history of the Kaaba is a case in point. The Prophet of Islam accepted this law of nature and did not attempt to re-build the Kaaba on top of the base laid down by Abraham. Later, Abdullah ibn Zubayr (d. 692 AD) demolished the walls of the Kaaba and re-built it in alignment with the Abrahamic foundations, but immediately after the death of Abdullah ibn Zubayr, Hajjaj ibn Yousuf As-Saqafi (d. 714 AD) raised it and rebuilt it on its previous base. The Muslims of the present day are totally unaware of this sunnah of the Prophet. That is why they repeatedly go against it and, as a result, they further add to their woes. The Khilafat movement in the first quarter of the twentieth century, the Palestine movement in the second half of the twentieth century, the Kashmir movement in the twentieth century, and all other such movements are a proof of this. The leaders of these movements wanted to change the verdict of history, but it could never be changed. And such unwise politics only aggravated the situation of the Muslims. When the verdict of history is about to be passed, you can at that moment influence the decision by adopting a wise policy, but, once the decision has been made, any attempt to change the decision is little better than committing suicide. The Politics of the Impossible The Muslim leaders of the present times have engaged in turbulent politics wherever there is a sizable Muslim population. But all these political agitations have proved to be totally futile. The common reason for this is that all these Muslim leaders are engaged in the politics of the impossible. That is, their campaigns are conducted in the name of something which is totally unachievable. Such politics cannot culminate in anything fruitful. In present times this kind of politics can be seen in every