courting disaster and cannot plead in their defence that they were
merely following the lead of people more intelligent and
knowledgeable than themselves:
And how many a community we have destroyed that exulted in but
misused the means of livelihood! And ponder over their dwellings,
which have not been inhabited after them save a little. And We, even
We, were the inheritors (28:58).
Again:
How many a city We have destroyed while it did wrong, so that it lieth
to this day in ruins, and how many deserted wells and lofty towers
(22:45).
The Qur'an says of them that "they have been made into legends"
(23:44). How ephemeral is earthly glory is shown by the ruins of the
great cities of the past:
Say: Travel in the earth and see what was the end of the guilty (27:69).
We are exhorted to study history, that we may avoid the path which
led others to ruin. We are also advised to travel around in the world
and carefully observe the life of contemporary nations. We will then
see that knowledge, power, wealth, none of these can save a nation
when it begins to pursue false values:
Have they not travelled in the land and have they hearts wherewith to
feel and ears wherewith to hear! For indeed it is not the eyes that grow
blind, but it is hearts, which are within the bosoms, that grow blind
(22:46).
The great lesson that the Qur'an teaches us is that individuals as well
as nations are the architects of their own fate. Their destiny lies in
their own hands. If they choose to defy the moral order, they bring
irretrievable ruin on themselves. If, on the other hand, they live in
harmony with the eternal moral order and pursue the absolute
values, an unlimited vista of progress lies before them. The Qur'an,
however, does not merely state this general truth. It lays down rules
of conduct for the individual as well as for the nation. The basic
principle is set down in the following verse:
He sends down water from heaven, and the brooks flow according to
their respective measures and the flood bears along a swelling foam.
And from the metals which they melt in the fire, seeking to cast
ornaments and necessaries, arises a scum like to it. Thus Allah coins
(the similitude of) the true and the false. Then as for the foam, it passes
away as scum upon the banks, while as for that which is beneficial to
mankind, it remains in the earth. Thus Allah coins the similitudes
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