Islam's Reformers .pdf

self-reliance.”We learned too much from such bloody and fervent lessonsof self-reliance in the First World War. We saw how greattroubles we got ourselves into. Self-reliance may also result insuch crazy attacks. If tawakkul in Allah had been preferred toself-reliance during the war, none of the subtle points, whichwere more reasonable and more legal than those actions,would have been neglected, because, in putting one’s trust inAllah it is necessary to follow the Divine Rules, which make oneesteem every subtle point. Islam commands both to work and tohave tawakkul. Those who idle and say that they have tawakkulare the defective people who do not perform one of these twoduties. Islam disapproves such people, for they perform one ofthe two commands of Islam and neglect the other. Reformerswho slander them are as defective as they are, because they,too, abandon one of the duties and emphasize only the otherduty. In fact, their fault is graver than that of those who do notwork, since we human beings, after working as hard as we can,are in need of putting our trust in Allâhu ta’âlâ and expecting thereward of our work from Allâhu ta’âlâ; we further need to have asecond tawakkul so that we shall not forget Allâhu ta’âlâ butexpect His help while utilizing in working the power which issaid by reformers to be in us and is given to us by Allâhu ta’âlâsince the real, inexhaustible, unconquerable power can beattained by not forgetting Him. Despite the âyats, “If Allâhuta’âlâ helps you, no one can overcome you. If He does nothelp you, no one can help you. Then, Muslims should trustin Allâhu ta’âlâ!” and “O My Beloved Prophet! Tell them,‘Unless Allâhu ta’âlâ wills, I am not able to be of any use orharm to myself,’ ” and many other âyats, does it befitreformers who claim to help the religion to abrogate tawakkuland look for something named “self-reliance”? They cannot say,“Seeing that tawakkul is misunderstood, we demand this,” forself-reliance is to trust only in oneself and is quite contrary totawakkul and spoils one’s tawakkul. Moreover, it gives way toegoism and self-esteem. Self-reliance contradicts theknowledge of logic, too, for it shows inability to find somebodyelse to trust in, and unless the one who trusts and the otherwho is trusted do not exist, the word ‘trust’ does not have anymeaning. Explaining the vicious circle in logic, it is said, “Onething must need itself.” In literature, self-reliance is dealt with- 39 -