Forty Years Later

Forty Years Later

1990 9 September 10-11 Forty Years Later (641) Nicolae Ceausescu, the communist leader of Romania, was appointed Minister for Agriculture in 1948, finally becoming Romania’s President in 1967. He thereupon took all possible steps to consolidate and perpetuate his power, one of these being to make his wife, Elena, Vice President and give all other key posts to his relatives.

Ceausescu crushed all his opponents by force, then he engaged the well-known Romanian poet, Andreau Paumescu to compose a new Romanian anthem in which he (Ceausescu) was described as the most beloved son of the Romanian nation. The words of this anthem were recited all over Romania on different occasions. To make matters worse, the entire resources of the country were being devoted to the enrichment and aggrandizement of this one individual. This was not at all to the liking of the Romanians and, in December, 1989, public antipathy for him erupted like so much molten lava. The army joined with the public in revolting against him, but the confrontation between them and the very large, strong police force which Ceausescu had raised to protect himself, proved costly in terms of human life. Seventy thousand people were killed.

Ceausescu always had a helicopter at his disposal, which was ready to fly at any moment from the roof of his vast palace. When it became clear that he could not save his throne, he fled in this helicopter. When he began to fear that it would be shot down, he had it land near a bunker in which he hid himself. However, he was captured at this point and was later shot dead along with his wife Elena, on December 25, 1989, on Christmas Day. The radio announcer at Bucharest, giving the news of the death of this Stalinist socialist and dire enemy of religion, exclaimed, “Oh, what wonderful news. The Anti-Christ died on Christmas Day!” Neither the heavens nor the earth had given him refuge.

This and other incidents of a similar nature occured in 1989. It seemed that the fortresses so cruelly set up against religion by evil-minded people were being demolished by God one after another.

In the U.S.S.R., religion had officially been eradicated. But social pressures so built up against such stringency that the socialist government of the Soviet Union was forced to announce the reinstatement of religious freedom. The President of the Soviet Union, Michael Gorbachev himself visited the Vatican to meet the Pope. In East Germany, too, religion had been totally wiped out, but, finally, it turned into a great flood and broke open the Berlin wall. This was in the same class of events as Ceausescu being shot dead in spite of all the elaborate arrangements he had made for his escape.

In this way, opportunities to spread the divine message are being directly opened up by God. The most important task therefore for Muslims at the present time is to arrange for books in simple, but scientific Ianguage on the Qur’an, Hadith and Seerah in all the languages of the world and to spread the world of God through them in each and every country.

In recent times Muslims have made strenuous efforts to promote the cause of Islam. But most of their activities have been politically oriented. Now the need of the hour is to make them daw’ah-oriented. The man of today is not interested in politicized religion. What he seeks is spiritual religion. He wants his inner urge to find God to be fulfilled. If today Islam is presented to modern man in a simple and natural form, he will recognize it as that which he had eternally sought, driven by his own inner urges.

God has provided all the necessary resources. Now it is the duty of Muslims to arise, and to spread the word of Islam to every town, village and hamlet, to every man, woman and child.