The secret is within us
In this blessed month of fasting and piety, we must remember that we are responsible for our future. This is the principle of the reasonable approach, which is inspired by the fact that human beings are endowed with dignity and creative intelligence, as our founding references mean. There is reason to live up to this status. Being confident does not mean naively approaching the world or denying difficulties. It is honoring life and dialoguing to contribute to the common good.
The desire to overcome challenges, find solutions to problems and succeed is a natural impulse. It allowed civilizations to arise and evolve. Our world throughout history has overcome great challenges, because men and women never lost hope, knowing that in the heart of difficulties, risks and trials emerges that which saves.
The continued diffusion of new concepts, such as that of the open, are possible on the basis of the conviction that to want is to be able. The dismay of young people in the face of academic failures, unemployment, the rise of intolerance, the distortion of our reality, the incomprehension between East and West and the scientific gap, are challenges which should lead us to take initiatives, seek out and create appropriate avenues to contribute to overcoming difficulties.
Through the effort of interpretation and knowledge, we can participate in building and developing a peaceful society, especially since our civilizational heritage has proven itself. We must draw both from our references and from all universal sources. Knowledge has no borders. The path of the Prophet requires remaining confident and vigilant, this is the definition of faith, iman, aman, faith and confidence are from the same root.
Just as Salam (peace) and Islam are linked, because it is not enough to believe, but to establish relationships of trust and peace in society and to work to elevate the human condition. Making the world prosper, engaging in permanent innovation, the search for knowledge, to improve our condition is a Muslim injunction: “Do not forget your part in this world, and excel, seek excellence. »
Reconsidering difficulties, maintaining confidence in the future and inventing knowledge, constitutes the path of those who with dignity renounce neither happiness nor the common good. Our sources tell us that nothing is given in advance, but nothing is impossible. Given the harshness of life, the misunderstandings, the scale of the problems and the complexity of the world, our vocation as human beings requires us to surpass ourselves. Emir Abdelkader said nothing is more dramatic than not exercising ijtihad and human intelligence.
Throughout the world, we are experiencing a crisis, but at the same time awareness, achievements, a spirit of entrepreneurship, prodigious, exponential scientific progress and signs of hope are emerging. The reasons that allow me to remain confident in participating in the reinvention of a new civilization are edifying.
The citizen of the Muslim faith can set an example, while avoiding rigorism and reflexes of closure. The responsible optimist does not underestimate the harsh reality, he takes into account the trials of life and the conditions and steps to succeed. His mark is that he never despairs of humanity and even more projects himself as leadership. There is ethics and wisdom so as not to shy away from our responsibilities.
Responding with thoughtful optimism to the world in which we live, in terms of strategic vision, means continuing to seek the common good, the just and the beautiful. Far from being a choice, it is the first duty. It is not a question of a bright tomorrow, of utopia, nor of paradise on earth, but of bringing together the conditions of a civilization which elevates the human condition. This implies knowledge that evolves in a climate of freedom, admitting once and for all that no one has a monopoly on the truth and that diversity is a wealth.
Our mission is to educate in the culture of respect for pluralism, of irresistible and vigilant hope, turned towards the future, drawing lessons from the past and constantly pushing the limits of knowledge. Middle way, the golden mean, neither pessimism, nor illusion, but assuming our responsibilities, through concrete commitment. This posture implies acceptance of debate, innovative ideas, renewal and creativity, which promote progress and living together. There is no alternative to this perspective.
Optimism is the Muslim's companion to promote the inner peace of the heart, and the social peace of the City. It is the condition of civilization. There is no question of expecting less.
In our time, beyond ignorance, uncertainties, the marginalization of religion and the crisis of humanism, the reasons for the world to be confident are real: the persistence of attachment to ethical, spiritual, freedom through the digital and virtual era, the increase in life expectancy, the sharing of knowledge, arts and cultures, the participation of women in collective life and the aspiration of citizens and peoples to the rule of law.
Despite all the crises and the rise of doomed extremes; ten thousand years after the appearance of the first civilization, a promising future appears.
The beneficiaries will be the determined, creative, open to dialogue and sharing, who will mark the civilization of tomorrow with their label. The civilization of the future will not belong to the extremes, but to those who have confidence in themselves and in others who are different, who are determined to share and anticipate tomorrow, this spiritual conviction of living together must inhabit us. This is what we need most, in the face of major challenges.
We are faced in this 21st century with an intermediate situation between war and peace, between barbarism and civilization, between regression and progress, it depends on us to tip the balance to the right side, and guide the march of the world in the right direction. All of us, believers or non-believers, cannot simply find a job and escape from material problems, because it is about giving ourselves meaning, bringing about a civilization, progress is total where it is not.
While knowing that the “revolution” and the “golden age” belong to history, people aspire to civilization. For us citizens of the Muslim faith, we can participate in bringing about this new world, a just, peaceful city, respectful of otherness and the common good. With thoughtful and vigilant optimism, the elites have a duty to get involved, to contribute through self-criticism and constructive criticism, to updating what has become fragile: the relationship of trust between the citizens themselves. It is at the heart of the difficulty that what sheds light arises.
There remains a future, of a liberated, peaceful, emerging society, of living together, if we teach that we must guard against defeatism and populism which are so harmful. What our elders have contributed to history, what our works, however imperfect they may be, and those of rising generations, will fertilize the world to come. No believer, no humanist, no progressive, can be pessimistic, because enlightened faith and daring reason are an inexhaustible source.
Approaches arising from the idea of humanity left to its own devices, or from the law of chaotic chance do not exist in our religion and culture: “placing his hope in the mercy of his Lord, Say: “Are they equal, those who know and those who do not know?”, beings endowed with intelligence are able to reflect on it. »
Both on an individual and collective level, the secret is within us. The more confident we are, despite all the trials, and that we give priority to knowledge, dialogue and sharing, on the basis of patient effort, of exemplarity, the more we will contribute to the advent of a new civilization fraternal.