Cutting Man to Size
Al-Risala (English), October 1987, p. 31
By Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is named as the default author of the periodical; a piece that carries another writer’s byline is credited to that writer.
Cutting Man to Size
1987 10 October 31 Cutting Man to Size (233) The Government of India plans that the former Prime Minister’s house shall be maintained as museum so that people may come and pay their tributes to the memory of the most powerful woman in the world – who died a martyr.
The great irony of this death is that not all the power in this world was able to prevent it. At that moment of horrendous slaughter, one saw in Mrs. Gandhi, not a mighty leader at the pinnacle of international fame, but a poor, frail, helpless victim whom nothing and no one could save. It mattered naught that she lived in a splendid mansion, was possessed of unparalleled political power, was heavily guarded night and day, was looked up to by millions. She was dead by the very weapons which should have been used to save her life; and in the end, her lot was worse than that of even lowliest beggar or the poorest outcast of society.
From this we should learn the lesson of humility before God. No power on earth can keep us alive if it is God’s will that we die. No power on earth can interpose between us and Our Maker on the day of judgement. No memorials erected by human beings will alter one whit our onward course towards heaven or hell. No human intercession will cause the slightest wavering in the judgement of our Divine Creator.
