A LESSON FOR LEADERS

A LESSON FOR LEADERS

1988 3 March 20 A LESSON FOR LEADERS (356) There is no one in the world who displays greater power than one who answers stridency with calmness, ruffianly behaviour with sobriety, who, faced with contumacy, makes a gift of gentleness and love in return.

On one occasion in Damascus, the first Umayyad Caliph, Amir Muawiyah, distributed some sheets, one of which was given to an elderly Damascan who numbered among the Ansar. Dissatisfied with the particular sheet he had been given, he became angry and shouted, “By God, I will hit Muawiyah on the head with this sheet!”

Muawiyah at that time was Caliph of a colossal Muslim empire, but he did not become angry at what the old man had said. Instead, he sent for him and, uncovering his own head, he said: “Go ahead and carry out your oath but remember, one old man should take pity on another.” The Ansari, ashamed of himself, asked the Caliph’s forgiveness and quietly went away.” (Ad-Dawah, 12 Jamadi al Awwal, 1407 AH).

If, in response to the old man’s outburst, Muawiyah had become infuriated and reacted vengefully, the matter would have escalated, increasing friction on both sides and the seeds of dissension would have been sown throughout society. But Muawiyah deliberately avoided displaying any negative reaction and, answering anger with coolness, bowed to his would-be opponent, thus forestalling the development of negative tendencies in society as a whole.

Muawiyah might well have acted quite differently. His line of thinking could have been, “If I adopt a forgiving stance, my authority over the people will be compromised and it will become difficult to keep order in governing them”. But this would have been a highly superficial assessment of the situation, for never in the entire course of history has anarchy resulted from the adoption of a forgiving attitude on the part of a ruler. It might easily be assumed that disorder would ensue, but, in fact, events take quite the contrary course.

There is no one in the world who displays greater power than one who answers stridency with calmness, ruffianly behaviour with sobriety, who, faced with contumacy, makes a gift of gentleness and love in return.