The Moral Vision
Unlocking the Gates to Success
~ 68 ~
How many latter-day Muslims find themselves in
this sorry predicament, faced as they are with one
impasse after another, finding areas which they
urgently need to enter, difficult of access, nay,
impenetrable, because the way is barred by locks to
which they have the wrong keys. This modern age
has changed the locks to life’s doors, but we still
carry the same old keys around with us, hopefully
fitting them here and there, staring in
incomprehension when locks do not snap open for
us, and then frittering away our energies in
senseless rage. We curse first of all the lock-makers,
then the environment. But it is all to no avail,
because you just cannot unlock new locks with old
keys.
Our leaders, in their frustration, have thought fit to
identify certain “enemies of Islam” and to trace all
their woes to them—as if they were the sole
purveyors of these impregnable locks. But in this
world of God, there is no attitude more insensate
than this. Here, if we feel deprived and thwarted, it
is because we are already suffering the punishments
for our own negligence and shortcomings. In this
world, most of our afflictions are due to our failure
