is: the wheel of history cannot be put into reverse gear. This is no
simplematter. From this decisionmade by the Prophet we learn a law
of nature, i.e. the journey of history is always headed from the past
to the present and from the present to the future. It is not possible
to take a U-turn in history. It is beyond the genius of human beings
to conduct the journey of history from the future to the present and
from the present to the past. In the matter of the course history will
take, planning has to be done by accepting the status quo and not by
denying it.
The history of the Kaaba is a case in point. The Prophet of Islam
accepted this law of nature and did not attempt to re-build the
Kaaba on top of the base laid down byAbraham. Later, Abdullah ibn
Zubayr (d. 692 AD) demolished the walls of the Kaaba and re-built
it in alignment with the Abrahamic foundations, but immediately
after the death of Abdullah ibn Zubayr, Hajjaj ibn Yousuf As-Saqafi
(d. 714 AD) raised it and rebuilt it on its previous base. The Muslims
of the present day are totally unaware of this sunnah of the Prophet.
That is why they repeatedly go against it and, as a result, they further
add to their woes.
The Khilafat movement in the first quarter of the twentieth
century, the Palestine movement in the second half of the twentieth
century, the Kashmir movement in the twentieth century, and
all other such movements are a proof of this. The leaders of these
movements wanted to change the verdict of history, but it could
never be changed. And such unwise politics only aggravated the
situation of the Muslims.When the verdict of history is about to be
passed, you can at that moment influence the decision by adopting
a wise policy, but, once the decision has been made, any attempt to
change the decision is little better than committing suicide.
The Politics of the Impossible
The Muslim leaders of the present times have engaged in turbulent
politics wherever there is a sizable Muslim population. But all these
political agitations have proved to be totally futile. The common
reason for this is that all these Muslim leaders are engaged in the
politics of the impossible. That is, their campaigns are conducted in
the name of something which is totally unachievable. Such politics
cannot culminate in anything fruitful.
In present times this kind of politics can be seen in every
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The Dawn Over Kashmir
