QURANIC WISDOM

The Hijrath or migration was not merely leaving of one place for another, rather it involved a re-planning of the prophetic mission. the course of history. Here we have an example of focusing on the relevant aspect and ignoring the irrelevant aspect. As a result, after the Hudaibiya Treaty was signed peace prevailed in Arabia. Before this, there had been a situation of war between the Makkans and the Muslims, both sides anticipating war to break out any time. When it became known all over Arabia that the two groups had mutually agreed on peace and would not fight for a period of ten years, movement of people from both sides became common. Shihab al-Zuhri (d. 741 CE), an early authority on Islam, has explained why people embraced Islam in large numbers after the Hudaibiya Treaty. The reason for this was the greatly increased interaction between the Muslims and the Makkans. Before the treaty, there had been no interaction at all between the two groups, however, the Hudaibiya Treaty broke the barrier between the two sides, leading to more and more interaction between people. This interaction led to exchange of thoughts and ideas and thus made people knowledgeable about Islam. Hence the numbers of Muslims rose rapidly. In this way, in his twenty-three year prophetic mission the Prophet always separated the relevant from the irrelevant in the situations he was faced with. In the present times, Muslims are totally unaware of this wisdom. Muslims today are engaged in fighting, wielding guns and committing suicide bombing. They do not know that in every situation there are relevant aspects alongside irrelevant aspects. Success comes with sorting out the two. For example, Muslims today have complaints against the West. Whether the complaint is right or wrong, it must be acknowledged that the West has made many positive contributions—freedom, openness, print and electronic media, means of communication and so on. If there are certain complaints against the West, they should be taken as irrelevant. The relevant fact is that in today’s age, there has been an opportunity explosion. Modern civilization has opened up an age of opportunities. Since Muslims are engaged in confrontation, they cannot recognize these opportunities. The Supporting Role of Modern Civilization I have discovered after a study of Prophet’s life that wisdom is the ability to sort out the relevant from the irrelevant. Due to lack of prophetic wisdom, Muslims have been making numerous sacrifices but have not