Forcing The Gates
There can be no approbation strong enough for the demonic act of the cartoons caricaturing our beloved Prophet (Peace Be upon Him (PBUH)). The muslim reaction is only a reflection of the deep-rooted suspicions that other religions have ganged up in a well-thought out conspiracy, the disrespect for our Prophet (PBUH) meant as a deliberate provocation. An idiot of an Italian Minister wore the despicable cartoon on a T-Shirt, very correctly (and swiftly) the Italian PM and his cabinet sacked him. Before enraged protestors could overwhelm and burn the Italian Consulate in Ben Ghazi, Libyan internal security forces killed eleven (including some foreigners among the Libyans).
The Jealousy Factor
While talent is certainly suspect in our society, merit being a disqualifier instead of being a catalyst for success, the other issue that continues to bedevil us is jealousy. This negative attribute proliferates in South Asia and causes more anguish to society than any other factor. An inordinate amount of time is spent being consumed by jealousy and guided by it in our actions towards fellow human beings. A modus operandi is to launch a concerted character assassination campaign. This becomes a real tragedy when a perfectly talented individual goes astray due to extraneous reasons and drowns himself in his own imagined sorrows, wasting his God given gifts in a destructive mode instead of using it for constructive purposes. Such people can criticise, can never recommend. This originates from a basic flaw in character. Such persons are damned indeed, unfortunately their venom is usually targeted against those individuals who have been of tremendous moral and material support to them over the years. These people are the first objects of their unremitting wrath. In case the individuals of their wrath succeed in life, each triumph tears into them like a jagged knife, adding to their frustration. Hazrat Omar when once asked as to why a particular person was abusing him replied that he was surprised because he had not done him any favours. Muslims cherish this example because it acts as an example and encouragement to those who help their fellow beings without expecting or accepting reward, indeed expecting approbation. Unfortunately those outside the pale of Islam (or Christianity or Judaism) and committed to its destruction will never understand the moral of this story.
In many of the instances, history is repeated though it may not be a prosaic as “Kane and Abel”. The germs of jealousy are usually imbedded during the comradeship of youth. People who grow up together usually grow apart as they grow in years because of differing perceptions, career patterns and the varying vicissitudes of destiny. Youthful exuberance and mutual loyalty is eventually lost as the darker side of one’s character imposes on these qualities. Van Gogh’s Self-Portrait is very expressive, there cannot be another fitting description of those consumed by jealousy. Those afflicted by this spend their waking moments planning the downfall of the objects of their hatred, forgetting that it is God Who guides the destiny of the whole Universe, man proposes, God disposes. Life, liberty and fortune are in His hands, man cannot change the destiny of anyone least of all his own. Individuals who have no control over themselves are hardly capable of guiding the fortunes (or misfortunes) of others. But it is difficult for those people to understand who do not believe in God and are outside the pale of Islam, indeed are working assiduously and surreptitiously for its destruction.