An Identical Fate
Al-Risala (English), November 1989, p. 26
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.
An Identical Fate
1989 11 November 26 An Identical Fate (364) The suicides of Marx’s daughter and her husband, and Lenin’s final death wish bespeak the sad truth of human existence. They underline the reality of life: that in this world, wealth and poverty, power and its absence are all irrelevant to God’s will. The wealthy, powerful individual must, in the last analysis, face the same problem of helplessness, which besets the poorest of men. In the eyes of God, there is absolutely no difference between them.
Karl Marx’s daughter, Laura, and his son-in-law, Paul Lafargue, committed suicide together in 1911. The sole reason for this extreme step was poverty. ‘Laura’s father could not come to their assistance because – great socialist thinker that he was – he had used up all his wealth in propagating his ideas. Sick of financial hardship, Paul and Laura put an end to their lives.
After Karl Marx’s death, his socialist ideology began to spread throughout Russia, eventually setting in motion the socialist revolution. The first prime minister of the first socialist state was Vladimir Lenin. The most powerful ruler of his time, he wielded absolute power over his vast country. But there came a time when, for a long period, prior to his death on January 21, 1924, he was a victim of paralysis. He could neither walk nor speak properly and was confined to his room. Ultimately, in sheer desperation, he wrote to Joseph Stalin to provide him with potassium cyanide (a deadly poison that kills instantly) so that he could put an end to his life. The correspondence between Stalin and Lenin which testifies to how sick Lenin had become of life was discovered among the personal possessions of the well-known novelist, Alexander Bele. (Times of India, April 23, 1989, p. 16).
The suicides of Marx’s daughter and her husband, and Lenin’s final death wish bespeak the sad truth of human existence. They underline the reality of life: that in this world, wealth and poverty, power and its absence are all irrelevant to God’s will. ‘The wealthy, powerful individual must, in the last analysis, face the same problem of helplessness which besets the poorest of men. In the eyes of God, there is absolutely no difference between them.
