Flowers for the Women Wearing Veils - Volume II — Page 124
124 worth that of a piece of cork which floats down the river. His ancestors a re like the majestic boulders , which when struck with the ocean’s waves , those high and lofty waves, the sight of which make a person fear that they might flood the world. I t is these waves , which slam against these boulders , i. e. his ancestors , and they [the waves] scatter into small bits. The waves become mere froth and this froth lays at the feet of the rocks or disappear s in to thin air as bubbles. Then the glory of his forefathers become clear to him. When he looks at himself, he sees that he is no more than a [piece of] cork bobbing a bout in a tiny, little stream which is of no great importance. Sometimes he hits against one boulder and sometimes another, at times he drifts to the right and other times to the left. Sometimes he is caught up and concealed by piles of debris and some times with in filthy foam or froth. And witnessing its quivering and trembling state, that person turns his face away and says, “What a disgraceful thing is this. ” The one who runs away from his past is indeed a coward; the one who does not even have the courage to put his own face next to that of his forefather ’ s in the mirror of truth. A truly c ourageous and resolute person will walk over to the mirror the m self and pick it up. They would look into the mirror and make a lasting decision about their future. The person would say , “If my forefathers were a great boulder , then I shall become a boulder too. If they were a storm, then I shall be an even greater storm. If they rose like waves in the oceans, then I shall rise even higher. ” You know that if a girl attains high grades in class she does not keep them a secret , rather she tells everyone. Rev ealing your grades is equivalent to showing your face; she reveals her inner self. The girl who has lower grades tends to hide them. Avoiding the study of history is an indication of cowardliness. In essence, it is indicative of the fact that this person i s well aware of his own repu gnant appearance , as well as the radiant beauty of his forefathers. Knowing both facts, such an individual is unable to muster the courage to see the se two faces together in one mirror. So far, I have only talked of the importance of this subject in a very general way. If you take the religious angle , then history itself can tell a Muslim how a ma n rose from the desert and collected the numerous particles of steel around him through his magnetism. Then his influence spread in a particular area in a relatively short span of time and thereafter, in the entire country. Eventually his community spread to every corner of the earth. At one place the Holy Qur’an has referred to Muslims as Brah