Moderate Islam Global

In both personal and communal life, we see a practical application of the Quranic revelation that good and bad days alternate (94:5-6). In fact, joy and sorrow in your personal life follow each other in a cyclic order like the day and night.

However, with a difference from the day and night, the duration of bad and good times is not always the same for all persons. In all fairness, God has designed good and bad experiences for every one so that being in each station (good or bad) of life you can prove your worth. For example, in a platform of richness, you can pass godly test by spending in charity for the needy and in poverty you can succeed by keeping patience and staying away from illegal earning and destructive jealousy toward the rich. In this way, the quality of your performance during both good and bad times will help decide your place in the Afterlife.

The cyclic changes of good and bad days in individual life more or less apply to the society or nation as well. However, the difference is that the plight of individuals change in short waves of time measured in months or years.

But for a nation or community the conditions change in course of decades or centuries. This means larger the entities, longer the transition period. Now let us look at the developments that took place in the western world over the last millennium. Beginning of the millennium, the Mongols, the swift-footed horsemen from the Central Asia conquered at lightning speed not only a good part of Asia but also of Europe including the 20th century mighty power Russia. The vast empire quickly fell apart after the death of Kublai Khan and his successors.

At about the same time, the Byzantine Empire (the eastern part of the Roman Empire) was enjoying golden days since the fall of western Rome to Germany in 476 A.D. But in 1452, the Ottoman Turks surprised the world by capturing Byzantine capital Constantinople and bringing a substantial part of Europe under its control. Side by side, Spain in the 16th century rose as a dominant power particularly with naval supremacy in Europe which was further enhanced by the Columbus's exploration of the American colonies.

Next, the European leadership passed on to England after Spanish battleships sent against England was destroyed mainly by natural calamity known as Protestant Storm. After that England gave focus on naval supremacy and backed by the Scientific Revolution, it became a pioneer in the Industrial Revolution that helped it build vast imperialist empire worldwide through inventions like firearm, steam engine, modern ships etc. After the World War II (1939-45), USA emerged as the leading global economic power but continued to share political leadership with USSR until the latter's collapse in the early 1990's. Now USA is shining in its glory of being the only superpower of the world, both economically and politically. We don't know when, how and what changes will come next under divine order. But we wish that God saves the humanity from extremity of bad times like another World War. A careful analysis of the above suggests that the divinely declared policy of cyclic changes between good and bad times is in operation at both individual and social levels.

Islamic Thoughts

Good & Bad Days Alternate In Cyclic Order.