One of Aesop’s Fables tell
a story of an old man who was troubled because his sons were always quarrelling.
He was afraid that the family would be quite broken up when he died. So one day
he called his sons together, and showed them a bundle of sticks, and asked them
to break them for him. They tired in turn, but though they were strong, all of
them failed. Then he untied the bundle and told them to break each stick by
itself. This they did easily. In this way he taught them that union is
strength. If they held together as one family, they would be strong; but if
they quarrelled and separated, they would be weak.
Take a football or
hockey team. If the members of the team play together and help each other, they
will form a strong team. But if they are split up into parties, when they play
in a match some will play badly or lazily, because they are jealous of the
others, and the team will lose the match.
Sometimes a school or a
college is spoilt because the members of the staff, or the committee, are
divided; and while they are quarrelling, the work is neglected, and the college
or school goes down. Often a whole town suffers, because those looking after
the streets, buildings, hospitals, and water-supply, spend their time in
calling each other names.
The same is true in war.
Large army, whose officers hates each other and do not work together, has been
beaten by a smaller tidied army. That is why the great French general,
Napoleon, used to’ say, “Divide and Conquer. “He own some of his great
victories by attacking one of his enemies when alone before the others could
come up to help, or he would weaken a whole nation by dividing it up into
quarrelling parties.
A united nation, a
united family, a united society of any kind, is strong. United they stand,
divided they fall. Their motto must be, “One heart, one way.” The same is true
is every field. If all the Muslims in the world are united, they are bound to
make progress. They can also become a super power by unity. Muslims all over
the world only need unity.