ASK MAULANA

It is true that the conquest of Makkah is generally referred to in terms of fath, but in fact it was an ideological fath rather than a political fath. Fath means one group surrendering before another group. The Makkans had not surrendered to any particular group, rather they had surrendered to Islam, which was the voice of their nature. The surrender of Makkah was an ideological one. There is no difference between the Islamization of Madinah and that of Makkah. Both were cases of acceptance of Islam by choice. o Wise Approach Every person is between two things—his desires and the external situation. Simply by running after one’s desires one cannot achieve one’s goals. One must know the external situation, the external circumstances and the external opportunities. You can achieve your personal target only by taking into consideration the external factors. It is this realistic approach that is the wise approach. Learning from Cow The cow indeed shows us what God requires of us in this world. We may take in ‘grass’; but we must give out ‘milk.’ Even when people wrong us, we are required to convert that wrong into a right. When beset by adversity, we are required to turn it to good account.