THE mosques in the country should be seen overflowing with people tonight as they would be praying long into the night in huge number in keeping with the Islamic religious tradition in the expectation that the ones in prayers who would truly make a plea for forgiveness of their sins and for good luck in their activities in the following year, may have their wishes divinely approved. This night of significance in the Islamic calendar called Shab-e-Barat meaning the night when a person's destiny is written for the year, is an occasion of fervent religious observance in Bangladesh where some 90 per cent of its 150 million people adhere to the faith of Islam.
There are things beyond the control of humans that affect their daily life. Birth, growth, death and all other phases of human existence are, no doubt, controlled and influenced by the concepts of fate or destiny and the same are then understood to be in line with the wishes of the Almighty Creator. Incidents that profoundly affect the lives of individuals and nations are believed to be the works of the All Poweful ; the same is described as 'fate' or predetermined events or developments that may determine considerably the present and future of individuals and states. Thus, orthodox religious thinking stresses the significance of the powerlessness of humans in the scheme of divinity.
But the Holy Koran also emphasised that humans are also responsible in large measure for the shaping of their lives, what they would accomplish for themselves and their families and the country. A verse in the Holy Koran underlines that a people cannot be assured of Allah's help notwithstanding that they are the followers of Islam. They must toil hard to change their life for the better and, in that case only, they may hope to be blessed also by divine assistance in their efforts.
The scientific outlook is that nothing happens without some form of initiative. This scientific outlook is also an integral part of Islam though some traditional Islamists are prone to overemphasising the inevitability or supremacy of a predetermined destiny. But the reality is that just like the individual person, a community or nation will collectively transform their material existence for the better only if they are spirited enough and not pathetically resigned to a concept of fate over which they have no control. Clearly, such a mentality of humans shaping their own fate and destiny by dint of their enterprising abilities is fully consistent with the relevant Koranic verses.
The rise of many nations in the course of history as well as their fall respectively were objectively analysed by historians to be the outcome of reliance on the work ethic and its opposite. The lessons of economic development of countries in the last century provide clear examples in this regard. Nations such as Japan and South Korea in Asia turned into fully developed or semi-developed countries respectively in this period. Many factors were involved in the spectacular successes of the Japanese people in the last century. But the greatest of their qualities appears to be their industriousness, their unceasing efforts at different levels to bring about forward moving changes for the betterment of life and living in their country.
Shab-e-Barat is an occasion for Bangladeshis to remind them about the inalienable duty to turn to Almighty Allah most humbly and seek His forgiveness for their lapses and His assistance for all their strivings. But the same also need to be backed up by hard work and good planning at the individual and the national level from the realisation that a better future is an outcome that depends so much on their own endeavours.
A section of the Islamic clergy in Bangladesh is always found sermonizing about the after life and people of the country in very great number seem to be very fond of what they say. The mortal life is of no importance to these clerics. Mortal life is but very brief compared to the after life which is endless. Therefore, man's entire journey in this fleeting moment in time called mortal life should be spent only on preparation for the after life which would be everlasting. Success of a person, therefore, depends on how he or she has followed religious injunctions scrupulously to be granted a smooth passage to heaven after death.
No doubt, this emphasis on after life, plus the inevitability of destiny in whatever one does, breeds a sort of withdrawl mentality of many people in our country from confronting and overcoming the challenges of mortal life. The thinking of these people can go something like this : what good it is to try and work so hard to build something for one's own in the physical sense, for the community or the country because everything comes to an end with death and none of these accomplishments will be weighed and taken into account after death in granting passage to heaven. Only one's piousness or how many times one has prayed regularly every day, fasted or remembered the name of the Creator by fingering through prayer beads, would ultimately decide the fate of the individual after death. So, in their reckoning it is pointless to labour so much to achieve anything of value in this world while it makes supreme sense to concentrate on becoming the fittest person for Divine rewards in the after life.
Millions and millions of people in this country also believe in the power of religious sorcery, the healing power of talisman given by holy men, that praying and appealing before the shrines of deceased holymen will lead to fulfillment of this or that aspiration, etc. Many of them also swear that that they get instant benefits from such practices.
All of these things, discussed above, and more, go to create the perception of the typical Bangladeshi as a person soaked in fatalism, harbouring distorted views of his or her religion and obsessed with the preparation for after life . A Japanese friend of mine commented some years ago that I remember to this day. "We also want to be morally upright and practice religion, but we are not so keen about these things like you. If we were and stressed more on these rather than hard work and good planning, then Japan would not come to the stage where it has today, " he said.
I had no difficulty in understanding the purport of his comment. What he wanted to mean was that he was not disrespectful about our religious commitment, but he thought that we were perhaps overdoing it with some confused notions and it was a major factor for our national retardation in every sense.
It is pertinent to ask whether Islam really approves of the sort of mentality that many Bangladeshis seem to be burdened with. First of all, the Holy Koran sets clear guidelines for the believers. They are to give proper attention to their religious duties but not by giving up or reducing their engagement in earthly affairs. A verse in the Holy Koran commands the believers to spread out into the fields of work the moment prayer is over. Another verse exhorts them that Almighty Allah does not change the fate of a people if they themselves do not try their best to this end. The message of this verse is very clear : Muslim peoples are commanded by the Almighty to toil hard at different works during their mortal life with the vision to improve their lot in every respect. If Allah had a different intention that we should be averse to working and striving , that we should submit pathetically to a pre-determined destiny and remain engaged in chanting all the time the name of our Creator and do little else, then such a verse would not be revealed in the Holy Koran. That it was revealed urging Muslims to adopt the work ethic as the mechanism in the main for self improvement and national improvement establishes that it is the desire of the Almighty that Muslims should shape their destinies with hard work and good planning and that they ought to be strong in every way to protect themselves and their faith. The best interests of a people or a country are not promoted or protected in any way-- and it also includes their faith-- if they lag behind in science and technology, are crippled by a fatalistic attitude and not motivated by the right work ethic of toiling hard in different ways under truly planned guidance.
What man cannot do if he is determined to solve the problems of his life or remove the threat to his existence ? Individually and collectively, humans are capable of moving mountain to crown their individual life with great success and glories. Bill Gates and the Wright Brothers opened a new horizon for mankind with their great inventions based on the great spirit of human enterprise. Of course, they were intellectually God gifted. But the main lubricant of their success was the willingness to work tenaciously to achieve their goals. The success stories of mankind suggest that first there must be a target, a dream. Then, the human aspirant should work intelligently with enough motivation to attain it step by step. In most cases, what is considered as a dream at the outset materializes ultimately into reality with such planned and ceaseless efforts.
Ancient man was frightened and subdued by the forces of nature. They even worshipped different expressions of nature as gods to please them. But modern man, today, has courageously tamed nature. The Dutch people are a shining example of this and there are others. Holland is a low lying country below sea level. Its disadvantage in this sphere is even worse than Bangladesh. But through marvels of engineering and very great national endeavour, they could tame the sea and reclaim vast stretches of land safely and permanently for their use. But we ,in Bangladesh, are drifting aimlessly into the future knowing fully well that our physical existence-- only a few metres above the sea level-- could be threatened by global warming and the consequent rise of the seas.
Japan was bombed and devastated into rubble in the course of the Second World War. The country is also known also for its geographical vulnerabilities and scanty possession of natural resources. But relying on the enterprising nature of its people and their willingness to work extraordinarily long for themselves, their companies and the country, the Japanese people could overcome the woes to their existence and have today the second biggest and strongest economy in the world.
Many examples are there to show that man reserves in his own hand considerably the powers to shape his future for the better-- individually or collectively-- by his own devotion to the work ethic or to suffer the opposite from indolence, fatalism and superstition. There is a serious need for Bangladeshis as a whole to learn from these examples and adopt a more realistic and purposeful philosophy of life.
Fate and divinity notwithstanding
Enayet Rasul | Published: August 16, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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