- Author:
- Sayed Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
- Pages:
- 272
- Price:
- Free
- Country of publication:
- Lebanon
- Publication date:
- 2011
- Book file:
About the book:
Life is a series of successive crises, and the Lord of mankind rotates the days among mankind; He tests them with the shifts of dominion relating to people, and with the love of wealth, prestige and domination. So a person swings from defeat to victory, from strength to weakness, from poverty to wealth, from favor to estrangement, and the reverse. Thus the state of a person's life does not remain settled at a single pace; his days are varied and dissimilar: a day for him and a day against him, a day that pleases him and a day that harms him.
No one among people has been excepted from this equation, since creation began and since history has narrated to us its biographies, its epics, its adventures, its wonders, its glorious deeds and all its transformations. Even the prophets of Allah were encompassed by this historical law: among them there came to be those of firm resolve (ulu al-ʿazm) and among them those below that; among them there came to be the Chosen One (al-Safi), among them the plaintive and forbearing one, among them the one who was spoken to (al-Kalim), among them the Intimate Friend (al-Khalil), and the Beloved (al-Habib). The transformations of a human being over his lifetime—from infancy to boyhood to youth, middle age and old age—are an expression of his conventional (iʿtibari) life on the horizon of meaning and matter; for this is the nature of man: “It is Allah who created you from [a state of] weakness, then He gave you power after weakness. Then, after power, He ordained weakness and old age: He creates whatever He wishes, and He is the All-knowing, the All-powerful.” (Qurʾan 30:54)
And the Exalted said: “And whomever We give a long life, We cause him to regress in creation. Then, will they not exercise their reason?” (Qurʾan 36:68)
And the Almighty said: “If wounds afflict you, like wounds have already afflicted those people; and We make such vicissitudes rotate among mankind, so that Allah may ascertain those who have faith, and that He may take martyrs from among you, and Allah does not like the wrongdoers.” (Qurʾan 3:140)
In the face of this divine law in creation, the most important role a person performs has become to make his preparations and strive hard toward possessing strength—not in order to lord it over others, own people's necks or control their resources, but in order to overcome challenges and harness capabilities for the benefit of humankind. As a result of the imbalance of the scale in a person, he may add crises to the reality of crisis; therefore the power of thought had to move in the direction of treating crises and turning them into gains.
The Almighty said: “‘O John!’ [We said,] ‘Hold on with power to the Book!’ And We gave him judgement while still a child” (Qurʾan 19:12)
And He, majestic is His affair, said: “We wrote for him in the tablets advice concerning all things and an elaboration of all things, [and We said], ‘Hold on to them with power, and bid your people to hold on to the best of [what is in] them…’” (Qurʾan 7:145)
What is presented in this book is confronting the crisis-ridden reality with the power of thought, and dismantling the crisis-making mentality that nests in minds. It has included various treatments: in politics and its conflicts, in culture and its ambiguities, in society and its shifting hues, and in development and its challenges.
I point out that in all the treatments—even those that discuss an issue specific to a particular country—we have been keen that the treatment be carried out by looking at the origins of the crisis, treating its roots and explaining its repercussions. What brings these treatments together—whether the cultural ones, the practical and performance-related ones, the behavioral ones or otherwise—is intellectual treatment, which goes back to the roots of ideas without becoming absorbed in the world of persons. I have pointed to this methodology in this book under the title (The Cultural Lens and the Problems of Society and Politics), and this book as a whole is an application of that methodology. So although I have dealt in it with some sensitive and delicate problems, the methodology of treatment will not carry the same sensitivity, because it looks toward treatment and emerging from the reality of crisis; it must serve this goal and strengthen the spirit and will of goodness.
It is worth noting that these articles were published in the Arab press at widely spaced intervals. I ask Allah for success and right guidance.
Mahmoud Al-Mosawi
Bahrain / Bani Jamra
16/3/2010
