The Real Task Facing Us

The Real Task Facing Us

1989 9 September 3-4 The Real Task Facing Us (427) A community, once vanquished, can rise again only through self-reform and self-rectification. Demand and protest movements, – no matter if they are legion – can ever come to its rescue.

Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), an Arab philosopher of history, historian, and sociologist, was the greatest social scientist of Islam and indeed the outstanding figure in the social sciences between Aristotle and Machiavelli. He developed one of the world’s most significant philosophies of history and wrote a definitive history of Muslim North Africa. The 20th-century English historian Arnold Toynbee has, described his philosophy as “a philosophy of history which is undoubtedly the greatest work of its kind that has ever yet been created by any mind in any time or place.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9:148).

In his introduction to his famous work in history, Ibn Khaldun discussed the philosophy of history at great length. This preface became very popular and was published separately in several languages. Many of the points it makes are of relevance even today, particularly its reference to Chapter 23, which “discusses how a vanquished people are always strongly predisposed towards imitating the victors in all matters, in their way of living, dress, religion, habits, etc.”

Whenever a community is vanquished, the conqueror’s influence upon it is a self-instigating process, requiring little or no direct effort on the part of the conqueror himself. If, on seeing such influence at work, the leaders of the defeated community held the dominant nation responsible, arid started protesting against it, they would simply be squandering precious time and energy. According to Ibn Khaldun, this process takes place on its own, and is far from being the result of enemy plotting or oppression.

In truth, when such a situation prevails, the real task for the subjugated nation is to raise itself once again: little is to be gained from registering protests against the victor. The life of the dominant nation means the death of the vanquished nation. The rise of one means the eclipse of the other. This being so, making efforts to reveal the plotting and evil intentions of others only serves to show how much the situation is out of one’s control. The truly capable leader is one who, ignoring all designs on the part of the enemy, gives his entire attention to the internal reconstruction of his community. Only in this way, will its problems be solved, enabling it to rise once again.

A community, once vanquished, can rise again only through self-reform and self-rectification. Demand and protest movements, – no matter if they are legion – can ever come to its rescue.