CHAPTER SEVEN — Final Word

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.