advanced nation. The relation of leader and follower is established
between the great nation and other nations. The leader nation
commands and the follower nations submissively obey. If the great
nation is pursuing false ideals and values, the nations which have
accepted its leadership likewise do so. Such passive submission to
another nation paralyses the mental powers of the members of the
weaker nations. They lose the capacity for independent thinking.
They succumb to the glamour of the leader nation and are blind to
its defects and faults. They mould their life on its model and think
and feel as it does. What it considers to be right is right for them.
They follow blindly in the steps of the great nation and finally fall
with it into the same abyss of degradation. This has happened time
and again in history. At the present time, people of the East are
bewitched by the glamour of the Western civilisation. They do not
view it with a critical eye. They are ardent admirers of both its good
and bad qualities. They too worship the false gods of material
prosperity and technological power. They are heading for disaster.
When disaster befalls them both, they will blame each other:
Every time a nation entereth (the Hell) it curseth its sister (nation) till
when they have all been made to follow one another thither, the latter
of them shall say of the former of them: "Our Rabb! these led us astray
so give them double torment of the fire" (7:38).
And God will say:
For each one there is double (torment) but ye do not know (7:38).
The reason is obvious. God has granted "eyes and ears" (knowledge
and understanding) to all men. It is their duty to make full use of
them. They should give careful thought to the consequences of any
course of action which others advise them to follow. As rational and
free beings, they are responsible for their acts. They cannot shift the
responsibility to the shoulders of another. They must think, decide
and choose for themselves. If they allow others, however superior
to them in intellectual knowledge these may be, to think, decide and
choose for them, they are abdicating their right of free choice. They
have to suffer the consequences of their acts whether they
performed them after due deliberation or in unthinking imitation
of those whom they admired. If they had pondered on the Divine
Revelation and had reflected on the fate of erring nations in the
past, they would not have been dazzled by the temporary success of
a nation acting in open defiance of the moral order. They are
Rise and Fall of Nations 278