Islam Rediscovered
6. The Creation Plan of God
~ 77 ~
was only when force was used that they were
prevailed upon to re-enter the Islamic fold.
Subsequently, in almost every period, unfavourable
developments repeatedly proved to be hindrances
to the formation of the ideal society. During the
times of Umar, the second Caliph, a secret lobby in
Madinah, working towards the extirpation of Islam,
finally succeeded in having the Caliph assassinated.
Afterwards the age of open opposition set in. The
third Caliph, likewise, was publicly murdered. The
reign of Ali, the fourth Caliph, was marked by civil
war in which thousands of precious lives were lost
and the Caliph himself was martyred.
Given the state of affairs, thinkers and philosophers
have always expressed pessimistic views about
human history, holding it to be an ongoing tragedy:
events have shown that, in this world, the building
of the ideal human society is well-nigh impossible.
The reason for this pessimistic view of history does
not lie in history itself, but in our flawed approach
to the subject. Our criterion to study history is not
the correct one, for it has been formulated by
human beings. The only valid criterion, in the light
