Be Like Adam's Son: The End of the Age of Heroes

Can the Gulf war be good enough for us to realize that the age of heroics is over, the age of imposing solutions from above? Will we put an end to our young men's offering themselves as prey to the gods of violence and compulsion, while our adults keep mum about it! Do we not have a better alternative? Why do not we take them by hand to a more fruitful way? The way of uprightness is waiting for us, to learn and to impart to the poor crowds. I do realize that we have noble purposes, but the means to them are quite beyond our comprehension. We want to see Palestine liberated, we want to see the Arabs united, and we want to bring back some confidence among Muslims. I do not dispute all that. But we definitely are miserably unable to find the right means to our targets.

We are in this world, are we not? And we need to understand why the Europeans can go ahead with their unity, while we cannot. We need to understand, and we can understand. Let it be clear to everyone that we are not doubting anybody's intentions, but we somehow have not learned the calculation of profits and losses. Is there any doubt that Arabs will profit a lot if they unite? And unite without anybody's losing anything!

We have the example of the European Union, people who chose the right way and succeeded, and we have the example of the Soviet Union, people who chose the wrong way of compulsion and failed. It will be an excellent thing if we deal with the verses of the Qur'an as we deal with other texts, as for example when we read, "Those against whom the Word of your Lord has been verified would not believe – even if every Sign was brought to them, until they see for themselves the Penalty grievous." (10:96-97) It would do us much good to think of the divine Writ in terms of conscious analysis, quantitatively and qualitatively, or maybe with reference to dollars. It must come to be generally perceived that faith pays in very real terms. There is the unveiling of the facts of the way of mature thinking, and there is the boldness to adopt it and act by its dictates, as it takes temerity to follow this little-trodden road. Is it not hard to call on people to follow the example of the European Union, when the Europeans have long been our traditional enemies?