According to B.Tuchman, “history is the unfolding
of miscalculation.” In other words, history usually
develops in a manner quite contrary to people’s
expectations. While events are unfolding, observers
may pass judgement on the course they are taking;
but the course of history defies all prediction, and in
the end things turn out quite differently from what
people had initially expected.
To take an example from Islamic history, in the year
6 AH the Treaty of Hudaybiyah was signed
between the Prophet Muhammad and the Quraysh
of Mecca. At that time the Quraysh were one in
thinking that the Muslims had signed their own
writ of destruction, for they accepted peace on
terms which were clearly favourable to the
Quraysh. Yet afterwards it transpired that this
apparent defeat contained the seeds of a great
victory for the Muslims. The same thing has
happened time and time again throughout history.
In 1945, when atom bombs were dropped on the
cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, it
seemed to the Americans as if Japan would lie in
ruins for several decades to come. Yet this was not
to be: now, just forty years after the event, Japan
stands at the pinnacle of her economic strength, the
leading industrial power in the world.
This goes to show that it is not man who fashions
his own history; in truth, it is God who fashions
human history in accordance with His own will. It
is not people or events who control history, it is
God. History may take place before our eyes, in the
material world, but the course it takes is determined
from the super-natural world which lies beyond our
vision and perception.
Those who have been written off as spent forces can
take solace from this fact of history. Experience
shows that sparks erupt from volcanoes that have
lain inactive for years. In this world the very
annihilation and destruction of something means
that it is ready to arise and take its place as a new
power on earth; a force which is spent turns into a
living force.
One should never lose hope because of the dismal
course events appear to be taking. When the pages
of history turn, events may turn out to have been
leading in a direction quite contrary to all our
expectations.
--Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
( Ref - The Moral Vision)
