Opinion

Its time Muslims wake up and think if all they do is “purely for Allah’s sake” or to settle scores with their friends and foes.


“The Qibla Cola path of Muslim and Third World resistance appears to have collapsed with the news that the British company selling the world’s only ‘ethical cola that cared’ has collapsed without warning. Qibla Cola has ceased trading 30 months after its much hyped launch as the fizz that “liberates the taste” of non-white, post-imperial, vaguely anti-Western drinkers everywhere. Its collapse comes on the cusp of a planned, promised expansion to India, which it regarded as a big and prized liberalized, multi-religious market. Qibla, which was planning soon to launch Qibla Cola India was considered the ultimate paradox, a radical multi-national with boycott politics as its bottom-line and the intensity of protest consumerism as its balance sheet projection. News filtered in that the company had failed to meet sales forecasts and been put in the hands of receivers. Qibla Cola was targeted at India too because it was not aimed at Muslims alone, but at all drinkers in the Third World to “liberate the taste buds and gain freedom from Western exploitation.” It was manifestly not the first ‘protest cola’ because it follows in the fizzy tracks of France’s Mecca Cola, Iran’s Zamzam Cola and Turkey’s Cola Turka…”


This piece of news when I recently read in a leading mainstream newspaper of India, left me baffled and thinking. What lessons could we learn from such failures?


Let us look in the past and in the present. What most of us do when things do not go the way we want to, be in our personal, business or in the organisations and institutions, is to blame others.


This problem is at its very core of human nature to blame other people; it is fundamental to try to escape accountability and we will go to any extreme of rationalization and justification to explain why they are not.


The first thing when we encounter failure is to blame others. We could blame the Jewish lobby, Bush, Government and last but not the least, the Muslims for not patronising and the list could go on and on.


When we blame, we become irresponsible and do not take any action. The consequence of this, is that we become victims, live a life of survival with no power and self-respect.


The Divine Law is that we are alone responsible and accountable for our own life- good or bad, successful or unsuccessful, happy or sad, fair or unfair. The first step is to acknowledge and accept accountability for our failures. Why this is so important is because if we do not accept accountability, we will wrongly diagnose the problem and if we wrongly diagnose, we will treat it wrongly. If we treat it wrongly, things won’t get better or change. If we resist or deny this law, we will be stuck in the world of fantasy (illusion). Our flight from responsibility will prevent us from taking control of our life and we are guaranteed to have no progress, success or victory. We shift our focus from reality.


Every moment you are accountable. If your marriage is on the rocks, you are accountable, if your business is bad, you are accountable, if you are not happy, you are accountable.


The moment we take on responsibility and accountability we begin to live as an accountable person and this will put us in the driver’s seat, rather than back in the passenger seat. The immediate impact of this will cause us to look in the right place, not a million wrong ones, for the solutions to our problems or failures.


Imagine losing your keys in the car and looking under the lamp post. No matter how thoroughly, no matter how hard, or how long and sincere you look, you will never find those keys under the lamp post, because they aren’t there. Likewise, when we set out to find the causes to our problems in other people, we will never find them, because they aren’t there. They are in us. In today’s competitive world, accepting accountability alone can make a difference.


Next thing to look for our failures is the intentions behind our actions. What I could see in this failure is, the intention behind setting up the Protest Cola was only to bash the West Cola. Pitching Qibla Cola, Mecca Cola, or ZamZam Cola with the intention to avenge the West Cola is in itself against the Universal Divine Law. The whole process is done as a reaction based on revenge. Using religious symbols or words to arouse sentimental emotions of one community against the other to sell is short lived as the gas in the soda bottle. This is universally seen, heard, felt in most of the Muslim world. It is ‘us’ versus ‘they’. Islam or God is not the monopoly of a particular group, sect, race or community, He and His laws are Universal and those who surrender to His Divine law are successful. Service to humanity is service to God.


Look, how deep revenge is in our homes, business, politics, organisations and institutions. I could quote so many examples of failures. It is an epidemic behaviour with majority of Muslims. We could find politicians standing for elections not to win but to see his rival does not win. Many publications have been brought out against the other. Many businesses are set up in rivalry to defeat the other. Institutions are set up to settle scores.


The Universal Divine Law supports any action rendered to serve humanity. The result is not based on actions, but on intentions. If you are facing failures do not look outside but look within and check your intentions. Alter your intentions, the results will alter. The place you come from, the place you go. Most important thing is to keep the intentions alive.


High time, we look for more such Divine laws in the Qur’an and implement them in our personal life. Today, what is needed is to change ourselves rather than to change others. We need a new perception to look within and be connected to the Divine in Heaven. If every individual connects himself with the Divine then the whole world will transform.


The Universal Divine Law is what you give you get back. Let us give love and peace and Insha Allah we shall get back love and peace.


Verily never will Allah change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves..”( 13:11)


Its time, Muslims wake up and think if all they do is “purely for Allah’s sake” or to settle scores with their friends and foes!


(The writer, A.W. Sadathullah Khan can be reached at islamicvoice@touchtelindia.net)