We have already sent down to you verses making things clear, an illustration from (the story of) people who passed away before you, and an admonition for those who fear (Allah). (Quran 24: 34).
During a discussion of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, R. Briffault, in his book, The Making of Humanity, made some thought-provoking observations, which we will do well to ponder over:
“A society based on false principles inevitably disintegrates. What really happens is that the phase of society, the order of things in which disregard of right is habitual and accepted, inevitably deteriorates and perishes. However much the individual may temporarily benefit by inequity, the social organization of which he is a part and the very class which enjoys the fruits of that inequity, suffer inevitable deterioration through its operation. They are un-adapted to the facts of their environment. The wages of sin is death by the inevitable operation of natural selections: And for a nation, it’s cessation.”
The Quran has, repeatedly directed our attention to the phenomena of nations that flourished in the past, but which went into ruin because of their way of life, the goals they pursued, the values around which their culture was organized, their actions and the consequences of those actions. By looking back at them we can avoid pitfalls. That is why the Quran exhorts us to go round the world and see for ourselves “the fate of those who defied God”. History has judged them, as it will, in time, judge us. The prognosis is within our grasp.
The blame for what Nigeria has become therefore falls on you and me. Our wickedness and iniquities stinks to high heavens; pulling down everyone and everything to become rich. We import substandard products, fake drugs and expired baby food unfit for human consumption, container loads of dangerous addictive drugs, arms and ammunition when we are not at war, and we have the nerve and temerity to complain about leadership?
Is it the leadership that perpetrates the hooliganism on Oshodi bridge, drive recklessly on the wrong side on a one-way street, and kidnaps its fellow citizens?
We even steal from widows, orphans, and refugees. We take the food of IDPs and sell it for profit. A conscienceless people: nothing is sacred. From the construction of substandard roads and buildings, all for profit at the expense of human life; an invaluable item which all our profit and contract sum cannot buy.
Sadly, the perpetration of iniquities is all inclusive: They are Christians, Muslims, husbands, wives and sadly youths. We pervert justice and enthrone injustice and inequality. Slave traders pale into insignificance in comparison to what we do to ourselves: No surprise, after all, we sold our people to the Whiteman for looking glass and gin. We are wickedness personified. We fast and starve ourselves believing that we are bribing God; we pray and go into trance, speaking in a strange language called ‘tonguing’, hold deliverance services and vigils during which we call upon the ‘Holy Ghost’, invoking the sacred name of God in vain. Our problem today is beyond prayer and fasting. We need a moral rebirth and behavioral reformation.
For the downtrodden and the righteous few, there is solace in the words of the Bible:”For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 4:1-3)
The Quran inspires unquestioning faith in its pronouncement when it says: Do they not travel through the earth and see what was the End of those before them? They were more numerous than these and superior in strength and in the traces (they have left) in the land: Yet all that they accomplished was of no profit to them. For when their apostles came to them with Clear Signs, they exulted in such knowledge (and skill) as they had; but that very (Wrath) at which they were wont to scoff hemmed them in. (Quran 40: 82-83).
How many were the populations We utterly destroyed because of their iniquities, setting up in their places other peoples? Yet, when they felt Our Punishment (coming), behold, they (tried to) flee from it. Flee not, but return to the good things of this life which were given you, and to your homes, in order that ye may be called to account. And that cry of theirs ceased not, till We made them as a field that is mown, as ashes silent and quenched. (Quran 21:11-14).
A nation which takes to destructive ways is invariably granted a respite, long or short. It is saved if it retraces its step and turns back to the right path before reaching the point of no return.
“To every People is a term appointed: When their term is reached, not an hour
can they cause delay, nor (an hour) can they advance (it in anticipation). (Quran 7:34),
The limit beyond which a nation cannot pass without being irretrievably lost is determined by Divine Law: In the Quran we read about the misguided leaders and rulers of the past like Pharaoh (political power), Haman (Religious hierarchy) and Qaroon (Economic control). They paid the price for disregarding the universal moral order. The Quran also cites the example of Aad and Thamud; both were rich and powerful nations, highly intelligent and keen observers (Quran 29:38); but their scales of values were wrong.
If a nation suffers, it has brought the suffering on itself. It cannot blame it on any outside agency. Success or failure are the eventual consequences of our good or bad conduct. The Quran makes this clear: God does not do injustice to anyone. It is the people who do injustice to themselves; See Quran 11:101.
The “demise of nations” is a recurrent theme in the Quran. The Quran says that a nation begins to decline when it pursues wealth and takes to hoard money it should have spent for the general good. The rich, instead of helping the poor and the needy, amass wealth for themselves. The inevitable consequence was that the nation began to deteriorate. See (Quran 47:38).
The meaning is clear. If a nation refuses to work for the development of its people and for the establishment of Divine Order and pursues the ignoble end of self-aggrandizement, it will be supplanted by another nation carrying more weight in the balance of humanity.
The Quran rightly exhorts us to study history:
Do they not travel through the earth, and see what was the end of those before
them? They were superior to them in strength: They tilled the soil and populated it in greater numbers than these have done: There came to them their apostles with Clear (Signs), (which they rejected to their own destruction): It was not Allah who wronged them, but they wronged their own souls. (Quran 30:9).
The Quran says that it is the duty of the Mustabsirin, the intellectuals and the leaders of thought, to discover the right path and persuade the people to follow it. When these men do not discharge their duty properly, the nation slides into injustice and tyranny and heads for ruin. The leaders of thought are bound to keep a watchful eye on the nation and to warn when it goes wrong. The leaders are to blame if the nation pursues false values.
If a nation begins to decay, the process usually starts at the top. The upper stratum of society first becomes corrupt and the corruption percolates downwards. Is it strange that men of high intelligence should be the first to be corrupted? It is because they cannot resist the temptation to use their intelligence to further their own interests.
And verily, We had empowered them with that wherewith We have not empowered you, and had assigned them ears and eyes and mind; but their ears and eyes and mind availed them naught, since they rejected the laws revealed by Allah : and what they used to mock befell them (Quran 46:26).
The masses too, as they allowed themselves to be misled by their leaders, are not quite blameless. Though it is true that common people do not have the intelligence and knowledge that their leaders possess. As free responsible beings, however, it is their duty to think for themselves and reign in their leaders when they go wrong. If they fail to do this, they too cannot escape punishment. Resilience under a condition of misrule is tantamount to docility and it’s a crime. However, in Hell the common people will hold their leaders responsible for the fate that has befallen them:
Oh! If thou couldst see when the wrongdoers are brought before their Rabb, how they cast the blame one to another; how those who were weaker (the followers) say unto those who were proud (the leaders): “but for you, we would have been believers” (Quran 34:31).
In conclusion, it is pertinent to say that corruption starts at the upper layer of society and spreads downwards. Common men, by shirking their duty to think independently, become accomplices in the crimes of their leaders. Had they rebelled, the leaders might have been brought to their senses and checked themselves. Their willing obedience to errant leaders is in itself a crime and they have to expiate it.
May we not fall into ruin. That is why we have to make a hard choice and pursue change so that we may avoid the path which led others into ruin.
The great lesson that the Quran teaches us is that individuals as well as nations are the architects of their own fate. Their destiny lies in their own hands.
“Ih dinas-siratal mustaqeem”; guide us unto the straight path. (Quran 1:6)
Barka Juma’at and a happy weekend!