The Moral Vision
The Making and Breaking of History
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THE MAKING AND BREAKING OF
HISTORY
According to B.Tuchman, “history is the unfolding
of miscalculation.” In other words, history usually
develops in a manner quite contrary to people’s
expectations. While events are unfolding, observers
may pass judgement on the course they are taking;
but the course of history defies all prediction, and in
the end things turn out quite differently from what
people had initially expected.
To take an example from Islamic history, in the year
6 AH the Treaty of Hudaybiyah was signed
between the Prophet Muhammad and the Quraysh
of Mecca. At that time the Quraysh were one in
thinking that the Muslims had signed their own
writ of destruction, for they accepted peace on
terms which were clearly favourable to the
Quraysh. Yet afterwards it transpired that this
apparent defeat contained the seeds of a great
victory for the Muslims. The same thing has
happened time and time again throughout history.
In 1945, when atom bombs were dropped on the
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, it
