Help God and He Will Help Us
Al-Risala (English), September 1988, p. 9
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.
Help God and He Will Help Us
1988 9 September 9 Help God and He Will Help Us (444) The Palestinian question, as well as other problems affecting the Muslim community can be resolved only if the realization comes to the Muslims that they must once again take up their duty as a community. ‘Only if they struggle for God’s cause, will God give them divine succour’ (Quran 47:7).
When Palestine was partitioned in 1947, the world media proclaimed the readiness of all of the world’s 40 billion Muslims to recover the Holy Land from Israel. Today, forty years later, there is over double that number of Muslims in the world, yet the Palestinian issue has still to be resolved. The borders of Israel, instead of being pushed back, have expanded on every front, and Jewish influence extends far beyond them. The PLO, on the other hand, has been banished from the territory surrounding Israel and has thus lost all influence over current events in West Asia. This is in spite of innumerable Muslims having sacrificed their lives, and in spite of millions of petro dollars having been donated to the PLO cause.
Why is it that despite all this financial and human support, the Muslims have never succeeded in freeing the Holy Land? The real reason for this is that Muslims have not performed the most important of all the tasks set for them by God: they have not communicated the divine message to all nations of the world. This is not something which is supposed to be carried out as a matter of natural duty. Its performance must spring from the depths of every individual’s consciousness. It must be done for the sake of God and for the reward in the life after death. God has created a world system in which man, time and time again, must be put to the test, and we have only the short span of our lives on this earth in which to prove ourselves.
The Muslims’ real shortcoming has been to forget their true mission in life, and to fail to present themselves to others as God’s witnesses on earth. If the Muslim world is to have justice, then it must itself bear witness to the truth. If Muslims do not fulfill this role, then they lose their place in God’s scheme, and become relegated to the position of offenders in God’s eyes. How then can they expect Him to come to their assistance?
The Palestinian question, as well as other problems affecting the Muslim community can be resolved only if the realization comes to the Muslims that they must once again take up their duty as a community. ‘Only if they struggle for God’s cause, will God give them divine succour’ (Quran 47:7).
