Starting Point

Starting Point

1986 5 May 15 Starting Point (412) When the Prophet of Islam left his home town of Mecca and emigrated to Medina, these words were on his lips: “Mecca, my dear and beautiful town. If my people had not expelled me, I would never have lived anywhere else.”

The Prophet resigned himself to being deprived of his beloved country and the result of this was that Medina became a powerful centre of Islam. If, instead of emigrating to Medina, he had followed a policy of head-on confrontation with the people of Mecca, the history of Islam would have ended before it had started. Its first step forward would have been its last.

To resign oneself to loss is truly the most intelligent action, and to fail to do so is sheer folly. Here lies the secret of success and failure, both in this world and the next.

To reconcile oneself to loss amounts to accepting matters as they actually are. When one accepts matters as they really are, one knows where to start working from.

If, on the other hand, one does not accept things as they are, one will work to achieve things which are never going to come one’s way.

On hearing this, the shortsighted will say: this means that a person or nation that is in a deprived state today should accept being deprived forever, But such thoughts spring from total unfamiliarity with the ways of life. Life is an evolving reality, in which nothing remains as it is. When one resigns oneself to occupying one’s real position – it is as though one is putting oneself in a position where life’s evolutionary capacity can be activated. One can then proceed to the next stage in life. Those who reconcile themselves to loss know their starting point, and to know one’s starting point is the greatest secret behind arriving at one’s destination.

As one philosopher put it: “Politics is a game of possibilities.” This means that one should start with what is possible today. Only then will one achieve tomorrow that is impossible today. If, on the other hand, one starts from the impossible, one’s journey will never get under way. The possible will elude one, and the impossible too.

Some guests came to see Jabir. He brought them bread and vinegar to eat. Aiman says that he had heard the Prophet remark what an excellent condiment vinegar was. The Prophet also said that people who showed disdain for what they were offered would be destroyed.

(Baihaqi)