Islam - Its Meaning for Modern Man — Page 361
361 Thou pleasest; Thou exaltest whomsoever Thou pleasest and Thou abasest whomsoever Thou pleasest. In Thy hand is all good. Thou surely hast power to do all things. Thou makest the night pass into the day, and makest the day pass into the night. Thou bringest forth the living from the dead, and bringest forth the dead from the living; and Thou bestowest upon whomsoever Thou pleasest without measure” (3:27 ⎯ 28). We must, therefore, turn to Him, to Him alone, the True, the Living, the One God, and humbly beseech Him to make our night pass into day, and to bring us forth alive out of death. This imperative confronts all mankind, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. There are over seven hundred million Muslims today, but they will be the first to recognise that the last few centuries have been for them a period of decline from which they are only just beginning to emerge. The decline has been particularly noticeable in the sphere of moral and spiritual values. It started with the progressive neglect of the guidance expounded in the Quran, and was intensified by an increasing proneness toward juristic hair-splitting and legal fictions, a rigid insistence upon fanciful interpretations of the latter and a cynical disregard of the life-giving spirit (25:31). Since the turn of the century, however, there have been encouraging signs of the revival of Islamic values and of a rebirth of the true Islamic spirit. The