Allah said in Surat Al ‘Imran, v.196-7: {“Do not let the free reign of the disbelievers in the lands fool you. It’s a brief enjoyment, then their destination is Hell, and what a terrible place of rest.”}
These two verses are what I most often think of when I’m flipping through world news coming out of the Muslim lands under attack. These are perhaps the most soothing & reassuring verses in the Qur’an that apply to the reality of the world around us. You can open the newspaper each day in a single week and find one story after another of a drone strike by the CIA in Pakistan, a new Jewish settlement in Palestine, an extension of American occupation of Afghanistan, and so forth, and not help a slight feeling of despair creeping into your mind: ‘When will it all end? When will the tables turn on our oppressors?’ The clear realities both explicitly and implicitly established in these verses put the big picture into context, as if Allah revealed them specifically to us today:
First, Allah informs us that He will allow His enemies to have free reign on Earth at the expense of the believers. This is significant because it means that when things go bad for you in life in general, it isn’t haphazard. Rather, Allah is allowing it to be this way in order to condition you and increase your toughness. Likewise, the free reign of the disbelievers over the Muslims, while we may be averse to such a reality, is meant to toughen the Ummah so that when the tables do turn, it will have had experience in surviving difficulty & hardship.
Second, Allah instructs us to not be fooled by this reality, and we can avoid this by keeping in mind always that this free reign will be brief, and that regardless, they will end up in the Hellfire, which is eternal. The Prophet (عليه الصلاة والسلام) said that Allah will take the wealthiest, most luxury-ridden man who lived and dip him once into Hell, then ask him: ‘Did you enjoy anything at all in your life?’ And the man will answer ‘No,’ because that one dip into hell was so horrific that it caused him to instantly forget that pleasure even exists.
Likewise, any tyrannical person, group, or nation that bedazzles the world with power & influence while perpetrating oppression & disbelief will face a similar fact, and that’s just the way it is. This is a certain truth that no period of prosperity in this life can avert. Another benefit here is that by mentioning the destination of Hell, Allah is emphasizing the importance of our place in the Hereafter in comparison to what might occur in this brief life.
Finally, there is a relevant point not explicitly laid out in these verses, but is clearly established in a hadith reported by al-Bukhari in which the Prophet said: “It is incumbent upon Allah that He doesn’t elevate anything in this world except that He then lowers it.” In other words, what goes up must come down. Here, we should turn to a very interesting book that was recently published titled ‘Why the West Rules – For Now: The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future.’ In it, the author, Ian Morris, makes two basic arguments: first, that civilizations throughout history have risen and fallen due to reasons none could control, and secondly, that the 200+ yr dominance of the West will soon come to an end.
He begins after the last Ice Age, around 12,000 years ago, with the first signs of agriculture and large scale organized societies. He describes how one civilization after another spread outward from two geographic origins due to their abundance of domesticable plants & animals: western Eurasia, and the area between the Yangzi and Yellow rivers in what is now China. Morris notes that the West had a 2,000-year headstart in development over the East, but by 1,000BC, this lead had shrunk when both East & West were on the same level. Afterwards with the collapse of the Roman Empire, the East had the lead, for the Roman Empire represented the pinnacle of Western Social development. This continued in the 7th century as Europe entered the Dark Ages and the Sui Dynasty united China, facilitating the dominance of the East for the next 1,000 years. This lead lasted until the mid-18th century, when the West’s military technology developed by its constant wars brought it to the same level as the East. Then, this changed in the late 18th century with the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the West. British engineers took advantage of the country’s vast coal reserves to develop steam-powered ships, trains, and factory machines. This allowed Britain to maintain both economic & military dominance on the world scene for the next hundred years (until the 20th century), laying the grounds for the American dominance of the world today.
The point here is that the book illustrates how, over the course of 10,000 years, one civilization after another came to power only to eventually fall apart due to uncontrollable circumstances in the world, and each one’s time in the spotlight was brief relative to the span of history.
The author then concludes the book by attempting to answer the question implied in the title: the West rules now, but for how much longer? His answer is that if Eastern & Western development rates continue as they are, Western dominance will end by the beginning of the next century, and Allah Knows best.
طارق مهنا
Tariq Mehanna
Plymouth Correctional Facility
Isolation Unit - Cell #108 |
