REFORMING A COMMUNITY

Soon, others, too, began to imitate them. Among these were numerous Muslim thinkers, who began interpreting Islam, too, as a socio-political system. For instance, there are certain commands that have been mentioned in the Quran in the intransitive sense, but these people wrongly interpreted them in the transitive sense. These commands in the Quran were meant for a person to practice in his individual life. But some Muslims scholars described these commands in terms of imposition on others by force. Converting intransitive Quranic injunctions into transitive injunctions led to the emergence of various evils in the Muslim community. As a result the mentality of political extremism took root among the Muslim community. People began to clash with political authorities in the hope of enforcing the system that they desired. Consequently, the Muslim ummah was badly fractured, leading to radicalization. In line with the law of nature, this political extremism proved to be completely useless and pointless. It had no positive result whatsoever. The consequent frustration that was generated among people took a terrible form—of suicide-bombing, based in the belief that even if one could not subjugate one’s supposed enemies, they could be harmed, even if it meant losing one’s own life. Reforming a community is a very sensitive matter. In this work there is always the possibility that people may veer to some extreme or the other, and then, instead of reform, their work will only lead to further harm. o Result of Negativity When negative thoughts come in from one door, intellectual development exits from another.