The facts we have discussed here are based on the history of Islam, and I am neither the first person to initiate this discussion nor am I the last person to under take such a discussion.
This action which has been performed does not necessitate the assertion that many persons have already spoken on this subject and it is not a new topic which should be worthy of being propounded, regardless of the fact that consistency and firmness of truth is a matter which is related with continuation, repetition and reference.
Another point which deserves consideration is that we should take lesson from history as it is linked with thorough thinking in respect of all historical topics and is also linked with commentary, regulation, amplification, explanation and research in it, and the shortage of the investigators and narrators has nothing to do with it. And possibly in this sense an original subject may not be existing and again there may be original matters about which there may be difference of opinion, and there may be many capable and powerful brains which may be able to find out something valuable with their power of initiative from past record.
Anyhow nothing is more in need of revision, narration and presentation into the modern language than history. History has always been one of the causes of our backwardness and is one of the factors which has prevented our advancement and has driven us back.
This has been due the fact that we have always perceived history with a reactionary spirit and have been unable to treat the ailments, because the hardships of history have affected us, and there has been no justification for the supremacy of history except its remoteness, intricacies and ambiguity. Moreover, history has also been subordinate to commercial and political explanation. Hence, if we are able to extricare history from these bonds it will become a factor of our progress and advancement in the same proportion in which it has so far been the cause of our backwardness.
History is a collection of the experiments of life. In this collection honest and pious persons have attained success and the sinful and deviated persons have remained unsuccessful and helpless. And again history shows that many sinners have succeeded and many honest and worthy persons have remained deprived and oppressed.
When we look ar history from this point of view we find comfort and profit from it, and in the mearitime doors which show an evolutionary brilliant future are opened before us. However, if we look at history as it is With its merits and demerits nd remain unmoved and stagnant considering ourselves bound in the same manner in which the past people considered themselves to be bound, it will be as good as condemning ourselves as great sinners who should retrograde for centuries, and this is what we are doing at present.
In this treatise our main object has been to explain the most important events of the early days of Islam and the greatest factors which have been at work in connection with the developments which have taken place from the day of Siffin till the present times. There has been no motive other than sincerity and search for truth and the party spirit which is so common these days has been avoided at all costs.