The Prescribed Obstacles
When Alexander The Great military campaign against the Persian Empire seemed unstoppable by the latter, the Persian Emperor made an offer that he would partition his empire and gave up all lands west of Euphrates to Alexander, plus ransom payment of 10,000 talents for the release each of his family members previously taken as prisoners of war by the Greeks soldiers. It was an offer that gave Alexendar about a half of the Persian empire and a lot of wealth too.
The offer was made when Alexander was in the midst to take the Persian naval base of Tyre. Tyre was, during the time, an island a mile and half off presently Lebanon coast, heavily fortified by high walls and military installations. No one at that time could expect that a military base of such strength could be taken by any enemy’s army. The long siege to take Tyre had actually left the Greeks on the verge of growing frustation and morale collapse.
Imagine, it was during this time Darius made the tempting offer. In the eyes of many Alexander’s troops, it would be an utter stupidity to turn down such offer. They estimated that it would take another few long difficult years to conquer such wide regions by military means, not to mention the loss of lives that would be incurred along the way.
Parmenio, the top military advisor for Alexander was famously quoted advising Alexander, “I would accept, were I Alexander!” .
Alexander smiled and replied, “I would too, were I Parmenio!”.
Not even his top and most trusted advisor could alter his own calculation when it came to such an important decision to make.
Alexander, being a great leader with strong ambition and confidence, turned down the emperor’s offer. He knew it too well that an emperor who made such an offer was not worth negotiating. The emperor of such quality had actually lost all the courages and legitimacy to remain as an emperor. He ordered his troops to make huge land bridge crossing the straits separating the Tyre island, and eventually, after long, hard and bloody battle, took the the famous castle. Tens of thousands of Tyrian men perished, while the children and women were sold as slaves. Up to present day, Tyre is no longer an island. The connecting huge land bridge Alexander made to defeat Tyrians became permanent land to this day.
Not long afterward, Alexander’s troops practically ran down the might of all the Persian Empire, took significant portion of North Africa and marched further to the eastern parts of Asia. For the record, Alexander did not turn down all negotiation offers. He simply knew when to negotiate and when not to negotiate.
The above narration of the great leadership should make its way into our party’s high achelons.
After all, we claim to struggle for Islam. In fact, we are indeed struggling for Islam. We have been indoctrinated all these while that there is no cutting corner in this struggle. We should never be afraid of all kinds of difficulties and should also never be tempted to short cuts. All the difficulties, complexities and complications that we would be facing are nothing but “the prescribed obstacles” we have been repeatedly told since long ago.
One of the major concerns facing our party now is, quite a significant numbers among our activists do think, after series of unpleasent incidents and bitter experiences, that the Pakatan coalition is ideologically untenable in the long run. Perhaps, it was the same opinion and feeling the Greeks soldiers had when they were putting Tyre on long difficult siege. They thought, why not just stop the war and took half of Persian Empire without loosing any more comrades. That sounded logical, though, especially when the offer was unmistakably at hand. It probably takes an “Alexander-like” courage and determination to defy this line of reasoning. Unfortunately, this quality is either an absolute absence or a clear rarity in our organization.
I had a talk with one of our activist the other day who is also a councilor for a Local Council in Pakatan-controlled state. He was obviously furious, and I could easily see that even if he didn’t tell me. He was telling the goings of the many councilors meeting he attended. As he put it, the Pakatan councilors seemed to share less and less common things day by day. It became so difficult to reach consensus on many issues, and many decisions had to be put on vote. Disturbingly enough, the voting pattern almost always went along the religious line – “Islamic” councilors versus “non-Islamic” councilors – regardless of their political or organizational affiliations. It is even more hurting to note that some Muslim councilors are not necessarily belonging to “Islamic” bloc when it comes to voting in the Local Council meeting.
According to him, he had to bag home bitter lost most of the time in the voting sessions, including on issues he held dearly to his own principles.
“How long can this continue?” he asked me. I was lost for answer myself.
But, someone must at least shed some lights to this question. We expect our leaders to give firm direction, the same way Alexander made firm and well calculated decision to his people who gave their lives and fortunes for him. We certainly don’t expect our top leaders to quarrel in public and demonize each others at this difficult time. This only adds salts to injury.
We had certainly endured many difficulties before, and we sailed through them rather proudly. This time, I opine, is a different kind of difficulty we are not used to. Perhaps, our understanding of the “prescribed obstacles” we have been repeatedly told before are not yet complete. We don’t seem prepared enough to handle this kind of difficulties.
It is the difficulties to work with our Pakatan partners to run state government machineries and the difficulties to stomach things we detested in the past, in the spirit of political partnership and in the name of tahaluf siyasi, which are now being endured by many our comrades. Maybe, not many among us are placed to be in this difficult position, but those who are, truly feel strongly about it. I don’t know how to call and categorize this kind of difficulties. It certainly drains your spiritual energy to a new low. I could see, even those “battle-hardened lieutenants” among us a badly battered by this. They are not merely bloggers who write fancy things on the web, but dedicated and experienced party activists. May Allah be with them and strengten them.
As the old saying puts it, man has got to do what man has got to do. Our party has no option but to complete the mission, and the mission ought to be carried out while we are on the same ship with our partners. Even if the ship we’re all in is destined to sink, we should never be the one blamed for causing the demise. And even if the ship must sink, we shall do the most we can before it goes down. We are taught to plant seeds even when we already know the earth has reached its very last day, were not we?
Let’s not forget and be reminded again that we should not expect soft sailing in our struggle to uphold Islam. These difficulties, no matter how alien it was to us in the past, are part and parcel with our journey towards mardhatillah, Allah permits. But, our party leaders should never take this for granted. After all, we are all humans with limitations. “How long can this continue?” – I may borrow my friend’s question.
May Allah guide us all.
The offer was made when Alexander was in the midst to take the Persian naval base of Tyre. Tyre was, during the time, an island a mile and half off presently Lebanon coast, heavily fortified by high walls and military installations. No one at that time could expect that a military base of such strength could be taken by any enemy’s army. The long siege to take Tyre had actually left the Greeks on the verge of growing frustation and morale collapse.
Imagine, it was during this time Darius made the tempting offer. In the eyes of many Alexander’s troops, it would be an utter stupidity to turn down such offer. They estimated that it would take another few long difficult years to conquer such wide regions by military means, not to mention the loss of lives that would be incurred along the way.
Parmenio, the top military advisor for Alexander was famously quoted advising Alexander, “I would accept, were I Alexander!” .
Alexander smiled and replied, “I would too, were I Parmenio!”.
Not even his top and most trusted advisor could alter his own calculation when it came to such an important decision to make.
Alexander, being a great leader with strong ambition and confidence, turned down the emperor’s offer. He knew it too well that an emperor who made such an offer was not worth negotiating. The emperor of such quality had actually lost all the courages and legitimacy to remain as an emperor. He ordered his troops to make huge land bridge crossing the straits separating the Tyre island, and eventually, after long, hard and bloody battle, took the the famous castle. Tens of thousands of Tyrian men perished, while the children and women were sold as slaves. Up to present day, Tyre is no longer an island. The connecting huge land bridge Alexander made to defeat Tyrians became permanent land to this day.
Not long afterward, Alexander’s troops practically ran down the might of all the Persian Empire, took significant portion of North Africa and marched further to the eastern parts of Asia. For the record, Alexander did not turn down all negotiation offers. He simply knew when to negotiate and when not to negotiate.
The above narration of the great leadership should make its way into our party’s high achelons.
After all, we claim to struggle for Islam. In fact, we are indeed struggling for Islam. We have been indoctrinated all these while that there is no cutting corner in this struggle. We should never be afraid of all kinds of difficulties and should also never be tempted to short cuts. All the difficulties, complexities and complications that we would be facing are nothing but “the prescribed obstacles” we have been repeatedly told since long ago.
One of the major concerns facing our party now is, quite a significant numbers among our activists do think, after series of unpleasent incidents and bitter experiences, that the Pakatan coalition is ideologically untenable in the long run. Perhaps, it was the same opinion and feeling the Greeks soldiers had when they were putting Tyre on long difficult siege. They thought, why not just stop the war and took half of Persian Empire without loosing any more comrades. That sounded logical, though, especially when the offer was unmistakably at hand. It probably takes an “Alexander-like” courage and determination to defy this line of reasoning. Unfortunately, this quality is either an absolute absence or a clear rarity in our organization.
I had a talk with one of our activist the other day who is also a councilor for a Local Council in Pakatan-controlled state. He was obviously furious, and I could easily see that even if he didn’t tell me. He was telling the goings of the many councilors meeting he attended. As he put it, the Pakatan councilors seemed to share less and less common things day by day. It became so difficult to reach consensus on many issues, and many decisions had to be put on vote. Disturbingly enough, the voting pattern almost always went along the religious line – “Islamic” councilors versus “non-Islamic” councilors – regardless of their political or organizational affiliations. It is even more hurting to note that some Muslim councilors are not necessarily belonging to “Islamic” bloc when it comes to voting in the Local Council meeting.
According to him, he had to bag home bitter lost most of the time in the voting sessions, including on issues he held dearly to his own principles.
“How long can this continue?” he asked me. I was lost for answer myself.
But, someone must at least shed some lights to this question. We expect our leaders to give firm direction, the same way Alexander made firm and well calculated decision to his people who gave their lives and fortunes for him. We certainly don’t expect our top leaders to quarrel in public and demonize each others at this difficult time. This only adds salts to injury.
We had certainly endured many difficulties before, and we sailed through them rather proudly. This time, I opine, is a different kind of difficulty we are not used to. Perhaps, our understanding of the “prescribed obstacles” we have been repeatedly told before are not yet complete. We don’t seem prepared enough to handle this kind of difficulties.
It is the difficulties to work with our Pakatan partners to run state government machineries and the difficulties to stomach things we detested in the past, in the spirit of political partnership and in the name of tahaluf siyasi, which are now being endured by many our comrades. Maybe, not many among us are placed to be in this difficult position, but those who are, truly feel strongly about it. I don’t know how to call and categorize this kind of difficulties. It certainly drains your spiritual energy to a new low. I could see, even those “battle-hardened lieutenants” among us a badly battered by this. They are not merely bloggers who write fancy things on the web, but dedicated and experienced party activists. May Allah be with them and strengten them.
As the old saying puts it, man has got to do what man has got to do. Our party has no option but to complete the mission, and the mission ought to be carried out while we are on the same ship with our partners. Even if the ship we’re all in is destined to sink, we should never be the one blamed for causing the demise. And even if the ship must sink, we shall do the most we can before it goes down. We are taught to plant seeds even when we already know the earth has reached its very last day, were not we?
Let’s not forget and be reminded again that we should not expect soft sailing in our struggle to uphold Islam. These difficulties, no matter how alien it was to us in the past, are part and parcel with our journey towards mardhatillah, Allah permits. But, our party leaders should never take this for granted. After all, we are all humans with limitations. “How long can this continue?” – I may borrow my friend’s question.
May Allah guide us all.
posted by Jamna at
12:10 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home