THE CULTURE OF PEACE — Part III Teachings of Islam

on them. Instead, the only thing that he will do is to engage in an unconditional survey of his own life. He will discover his own mistakes, so that by rectifying them he can save himself from further problems. To blame and attack others for one’s own problems is like a sick man blaming his neighbour for his illness and then going about fighting with him. Suppose in a certain town the traffic rules require you to keep to the right. Now, if you start driving on the left, you are bound to have an accident. Some car or the other is bound to bump into yours. On the face of it, it would seem that this accident was caused by another car crashing into yours. But you certainly would not have the right to claim that it was not you, but rather, the driver of the other car, who was at fault, and that it was he who banged into your car and injured you. You will have to admit that the fault was yours—because you were driving on the wrong side of the road—and hence could not be the mistake of the other person, who was driving on the proper side. Whenever we face any misfortune, we should discover its cause inside our own selves, and not start searching for it outside ourselves. The same principle holds true in all aspects of our lives. Whenever you face any loss or misfortune in life, you ought to know in advance that whatever has transpired is because of your own wrongdoings. This is the right way to deal with life. If you think in this proper way, you will reform yourself and save your future. But if, on the contrary, you go about blaming others for your woes, you will only ruin your future. And, as for your past and your present—well, they have already been ruined! Anger is a Weakness The Quran (42: 37) refers to truthful people as those who ‘forgive when they are angry’. This does not mean only to forgive and forget. Rather, it means rising above the psyche of anger and then behaving accordingly. It means thinking in a manner free from anger despite being driven to anger. It means to respond to a situation without being affected by anger. Anger is a weakness, while not getting angry is a power in its own right.