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When he saw them again, he inquired about the failure of their work. “What is with your date
palms?” he asked. They explained to the Prophet that they had stopped trying their method of
pollination after receiving his advice. In return he said, “You know best the affairs of your worldly
life.”
When the divine stands apart from his creation, and religion is conjoint with, but not identical to,
life, we open up to the possibility of responsibility. It is from within this position that we can design a
different political system that gives religion its sphere of activity that will separate out those areas in
which all humankind is expected to intervene by using his or her mind and his or her physical energy.
Very simply put, there is within the basic tradition of Islam the concept that the divine helps he who
helps himself.
If there is a battle of ideas within Islam, then this is the key battle. It is the battle for taking
responsibility directly for the problems we complain about. It is a battle less of ideas than it is a
battle of coherent ideas. As we discuss ideas, it is also vital that we shout out loudly to each other
what the consequences of our beliefs are. If the consequences of our beliefs are that we end up in a
failed state with our throats being cut by the self-appointed who deem themselves more pious than the
rest of us, then we need to know about it. Most Muslims, I suspect, would reject this power-crazed
bloodshed if they could. Thus, consequences and implications are vitally important in mapping out
new possibilities for the Muslim world. It is our coherence of vision and the clarity of our analysis
that will be vital to the future of the Muslim world. We need to understand that piety will take us far,
but relying entirely on Allah to provide for us, to solve our problems, to feed and educate and clothe
our children, is to take Allah for granted. The only way we can raise the status of the Muslim world is
by doing what all other peoples in the world do: educate ourselves, work hard, and find the answers
to life’s difficult questions.
Islam Is the Answer, because Islam calls upon us to take responsibility for our own lives.