THE ART OF NON-PROVOCATION Character Above Every Insult

created the land? Who established the biological possibility of labour? Who placed raw materials in the earth? Who created the natural laws without which enterprise could produce nothing? Once the question is carried to its logical conclusion, human contribution appears important but limited. The Quran states: “Surely, God is the Provider, the Lord of all power, the Strong” (51:58). This does not deny the role of human effort. Islam does not teach that a person should sit idle and wait for sustenance to descend from the sky. The farmer must cultivate his land. The worker must work. The businessman must organize his enterprise. The scientist must conduct research. Human beings have been given the responsibility to make use of the opportunities placed within creation. But utilizing an opportunity is different from creating it. Man’s role is to participate in the system of provision; God’s role is that of the ultimate Provider. Failure to understand this distinction produces a particular kind of intellectual arrogance. A person receives his salary and thinks that his employer sustains him. A businessman makes a profit and believes that his commercial ability alone produced his wealth. A prosperous society begins to imagine that technology has made it independent of nature. Then a drought, pandemic, natural disaster or disruption of supply chains suddenly exposes the fragility of this assumption. A supermarket with empty shelves teaches a lesson that shelves filled with food can easily conceal. The abundance surrounding us depends upon innumerable conditions remaining favourable simultaneously. A disturbance in only a few of them can affect millions of lives. This should make us realize how much of what we call ordinary life actually depends upon arrangements beyond human control. The mistake of modern man is not that he uses money or participates in the market. Both are necessary parts of civilization. His mistake A thoughtful person sees things differently. When food reaches his table, he sees not merely a commercial commodity but the final product of a vast chain of divine facilitation. When he drinks water, he remembers the planetary system that delivered it.