Al-Risala (English), May-June 2000

For a human being, failure is not failure at all, for it only serves to make one into a more profound, thoughtful person. Obstacles present no hindrance, for they open up new avenues of intellectual advance. Setbacks do not stunt one’s growth, for even if one is crushed into many small pieces, each piece in its own right has the capacity to form the building blocks of an entirely new being. Such are the never-ending possibilities which God has created for man in this world, but it is only one who is alive to these possibilities who can benefit from them, gathering and marshalling his resources after some shattering setback. When he tastes defeat, he does not lose heart, but prepares himself to issue a new challenge. He builds anew his shipwrecked boat, and aboard it sets out once again on his voyage through life. □ Source: Al-Risala Urdu, September 1986, p. 9. The Goal of Virtue Zayd Ibn Muhalhil, famed for his poetry, his horse racing and his swordsmanship, was born in Najd, sometime before the birth of the Prophet. He came to be known as Zayd al Khayl, the word Khayl, in Arabic being used to signify both ‘horse’ and ‘horseman.’ A fiery poem composed by him lavished praise on the horseman and the wielder of the sword, and cited his tribe as leader of the people and the chief of his tribe as the leader in any war waged by expert swordsmen. But all this was before his conversion to Islam. Zayed al Khayl came to Madinah after the Prophet had emigrated to that city. While there he visited the Prophet and embraced the faith. The Prophet disapproving of his name changed it from Zayd al