Towards the Truth

Khalid ibn al-Walid who was born in Makkah was initially an opponent of the Prophet of Islam and participated in several wars against him. Shortly before the conquest of Makkah (8 A.H), he came to Madinah and accepted Islam. While narrating the story of his acceptance of Islam, he said that before having accepted Islam, he had been engaged in activities against Islam, but he felt again and again that he was not at the right place, being the Prophet’s rival. It weighed on his mind that he was not doing the right thing (Al-Bidaya wan Nihaya, vol. 4, p. 272).

This incident tells us of a psychological reality. God has created everyone with a particular nature, the nature desired by the Creator. As such, everyone who is not on the right path of God, at some point or the other, is overwhelmed by this feeling that the path he has taken is not his true path, that he was born for something else. This feeling is a warning given by nature. This feeling gives a person the opportunity to revise his stand and discover the right path for himself. But an individual is not always alerted by this warning and he continues to keep to the wrong path until he dies.

This feeling, in fact, is like a starting point in human life. This starting point gives a person the opportunity to set right the direction of his journey so that he may proceed towards the real destination. But the domination of desires, material interest, social biases and family pressures come in his path and he again goes back to the previous path, even after being warned by nature.

Everyone is engaged in such activities about which one’s heart continuously tells him that he was not at the right place. There are many people who lead their lives in this state and die in the same state. Nevertheless, there are some who succeed in emerging from this intellectual morass and take to the right path demanded by their nature.