By: Murtadha Maash
The renaissance, which depends on the axis of the Will and Reason, starts through the self movement of the individuals. This means that the group, by itself, has no collective Will that is formed jointly and collectively, but the collective Will is generated through individual Wills that honestly feel the living reality and undertake real change, thus spreading its waves into the society and creating a general trend towards the change.
This role was undertaken by the Profits to build civilizations and good nations, though they started with small and weak groups, but they were developed into a general social movement.
No strong and effective renaissance could be found without creating a common Will, which cannot be achieved without the individual Will that start in inciting worries, disseminating consciousness and moving the general social Will.
Thus, all nations are living and thriving when its individuals take control or having people and leaderships that have consciousness, wisdom and the Will to control the events and lead the nation.
But, the nations will collapse when the torch of movement, thoughts and creativeness dies among its people and elites, particularly when the elite indulges in the bitter status of the society and falls apart before the pressures of life and melt in the general social trend and surrenders to the destiny of history.
Great number of individuals and elites feel the difficulty of change process which cannot be attained with the crises of the present times and the complexities of the condition, thus, the feeling of the society is stronger than to be affected by individuals, elite or group.
When the elites collapse and lost in the waves of gains, commissions and private interests, the society will lose its active effects and will be controlled by idle intellectuals and minds, thus, the society is liable to fall in the laps of colonialism.
In Hadith, if the intellectual leader is corrupted the world is corrupted, because the leader is the active and dynamic force for the moral and religious ethics in the society, so if he collapses and deserted these values, the society will collapse and will lose its ethics, justifications and faith.
Imam Ali bin Abi Talib (Peace be upon him) said that "the hearts are elements, the best are more conscious… People are of three categories: A divine intellectual, or a learner to survive and the mobs who will follow each wind who were not enlightened with the torch of knowledge".
The main element in history is the series of continued general changes that will happen in the individual preparations, which are the main reason in events sequence. Thus, most of the people find difficulties in fully understanding the global norms and the previous elements.
The change movement in history and the renovation of nations are not connected with the movements of the collective people, because these movements are but unconscious reactions towards the external events, thus, they are quickly vanishing and forgotten by history, but keep behind the negative effects and damages that inflict the general social and cultural structure, such as al-Khawarij Movement.
The affected and passive collective group cannot create a thoughtful and wise movement because it moves according to its present interests, in addition to the pressures of the media and propaganda that will press and limit his thoughts in a manner that will not be able to think without the cheers of the masses and trends.
The totalitarian regimes were able to utilize this matter and control the masses to strike against the opposition and neglect the conscious rational movements.
But the civilization cannot be revived unless created in a number of people who will have new and independent mentality different from that prevailing at the masses. The people will gradually affect the masses, so we cannot get rid of chaos and anarchism without a wise thoughtful and ethical movement. Thus there is no ethics and reason but in the hands of the individuals.
In other words, any general civilizational change starts through changing the deteriorating psychological and social ethics and altering the forms of strict thoughts and moving the instinct reasoning method in thoughts and knowledge. All these are personal matters that could not be found in the group.
Again, in other words, the collective change cannot happen without the change in the psychology of the individuals, their thoughts and ethics.
The individual is the man that can think, create, and wants to disseminate his ideas on the society, while the society will gain these strong effects of the individuals and elites and starts moving actively.
Thus, the history is made by individuals who created deep effects in the human history, where their ideas are still moving, like Prophet Mohammed, Imam Ali bin Abi Talib and Imam Al-Hussein bin Ali (Peace upon them all) who created a real and big historical consciousness that still affecting millions of people along the history.
It is a conscious civilization based on wisdom, reason and Will before the lost mobs are affected by their narrow worldly interests and misleading governmental media.
The movement to renaissance starts through any one of us when he deeply and consciously feels of his real status and trying to create, within himself, a healthy understanding for life, as well as long-term vision away from narrow outlook of his personal interests.
It also starts when the Man has a prudent feeling that the real interest is the general one, as well as his religious and humanitarian responsibility, thus he can create, within himself and others, the real will for renovation and uprising.
We have to know that the history and the norms of God in our universe are made for objectives and reasons, where "The Will of God Cannot Be Changed).
In other words, the objectives and reasons will have the same effect if they were repeated in other places. The facts cannot be happening differently if the reasons are the same, so they will beget the same effects.
This matter should create, within us, the determination to find the renaissance movement though understanding the objectives and reasons of progress, as well as studying the histories of nations and civilization and understanding their developments to benefit from their objective elements of their moves.
God Almighty said in his Holy Qur'an that " For each of you We prescribed a clear spiritual Law and a manifest way in secular matters. And if Allah had enforced His will, He would have made you all one people, but He wishes to try you by that which He has given you. Vie, then, with one another in good works. To Allah shall you all return; then will He inform you of that wherein you have differed".
In a commandment to his son, al-Hassan, mentioned in Nahj al-Balagha Book, Imam Ali said "Revive your heart with good advice, see the histories of the past , remind of the fate of the previous ones and travel in their lands to see what they did, where reached and travelled".
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