Sultans' preachers

Author's name: Ali Al-Wardi

I present to the Arab reader a frank and unabashed study of human nature. ... We have been afflicted with a group of Platonic thinkers whose way of thinking mimics that of preachers who are only good at declaring woe and damnation upon man for deviating from what they imagine to be lofty ideals, without pausing for a moment to determine how much of those ideals is appropriate for human nature. These thinkers have habitually attributed the cause of our social disintegration to our bad morals. In doing so, they consider reform an easy matter. Once we reform our morals and cleanse our hearts of the filth of envy, selfishness, and lust, they claim, we will become happy and prosperous and restore the glory of our ancestors. They consider the human soul to be like a garment that can be washed with soap and water, removing any impurities that have become tainted. Therefore, you see them shouting at the top of their lungs: “Refine your morals, O people, and purify your hearts!” When they find people unmoved by their logic, they unleash a torrent of vitriolic sermons, heaping woe and damnation on their heads. I believe this is the most foolish and malicious viewpoint regarding social reform. If we continue for hundreds of years as our ancestors did, shouting at people and urging them to change their natures, we will never achieve any meaningful results. Perhaps by doing so, we are harming our society without realizing it. We may be preoccupied with this and delude ourselves into believing that we are on the path to reform, when in reality, we are standing still or even regressing. Human nature cannot be reformed by mere preaching. Like other phenomena in the universe, it operates according to certain laws. It is impossible to influence anything without first studying its inherent qualities. The ancients envisioned man as a free, rational, and self-determining being. In their view, he follows the path he chooses based on logic and abstract reasoning. For this reason, they preached a lot, believing that by doing so, they could change people's behavior and improve their morals. They have been doing this for hundreds of years. Meanwhile, people are so engrossed in their usual activities that they are unmoved by the sermon until it is delivered to them. We see them weeping in a sermon session, then leaving it as vile as they entered it. Our thinkers today have followed the method of their ancient ancestors, and there is no difference in this between those who have acquired a modern or ancient culture. Almost all of them are trying to change human nature through words.