Looking into the Eyes of Adversity

Written by: M. Mudassir Saeed on October 17, 2015.

I cant, it is impossible, said a foiled lieutenant, to Alexander. Begone, shouted the

conquering Macedonian, there is nothing impossible to him who will try. Indeed, nothing is
impossible before the resolute strength of the indomitable will. It is this will and tenacity of the
purpose alone that help men extract freedom from subservience, accomplishments from failures,
successes from misfortunes, and applauds from rebukes. While pondering over the victories and
the successes characteristics of the life-long struggles of great men and women of the human
race, the curiosity that arrests attention is of knowing the secret ingredient behind their
imposing triumphs. Paradoxical though it may seem, the fact is that there is but no secret
ingredient and that there exists but no royal road that leads towards illustrious achievements. The
path has always been the same and the old, well-trodden one; by way of hardships and obstinacy.
Life may throw an individual into the abysses of poverty and obscurity, but if the optimism
continues to prevail amidst a strong resolve to not to give up, the same rifts will serve the role of
the greatest teacher and will teach him how to seize upon whatever is at hand. Most of the
eminent scholars related to the knowledge of financial gains and losses, and of the activities of
commerce, and whose opinions to this day are considered an authority in their corresponding
disciplines, were, in fact, to the marginal extremes, from the humblest of the origins. They
learned in their early ages that it took one hundred cents to make a dollar.
A person may find harsh and unfavourable surroundings around him. Amidst these sorrows and
sufferings, he may wonder or find it difficult to conclude what good can come out of all such
trials and tribulations. He may find his friends parting off, his powers yielding to hardships and
his genius faltering by the side of labour. Such a hard encounter of experiencing everything
turning into dark and foreboding or running into dead ends is by every means mighty enough to
cast a person deep into dungeonsdungeons that are known for the elements that combine to
hedge up the way forever, and for sure. However, the same time if renders to the optimism of
human will and to the best of human judgements, will help one know and learn what Holland
puts as, We rise by the things that are under our feet; By what we have mastered of good or
gain.
It is the rock-ribbed hills and destitute deserts from where sprang the greatest commanders of
human race. The greatest benefactors and leaders rose not from the imposing palaces and
towering castles but from the homes unknown to luxuries and from the ranks crowded by the
desperate toils.

It is said of the great men and may also be incurred from the folds of history that they never
waited for opportunities; they created them. What was All India Muslim League more than a
political entity or body that is hesitant, dwindling and subservient never to accomplish anything
great or like a satellite, void of self-control, oscillating between one opinion and another, mired
by indecisiveness and with its loyalty strongly linked to a power out of its own whole, when
Muhammad Ali Jinnah joined it? At this juncture, political might of the Congress, the rival
political camp, is also worth noting that is dominating the environment so much so to the eclipse
of all other. But to confront these challenges at dual fronts, one from within the AIML that is
wavering and fragile and the Congress that is overwhelmingly assertive and the other from the
Colonialist imperial powers pitted pervasively to deny the locales of their right to selfdetermination, Muslims find in Muhammad Ali Jinnah a Quaid to whom opposing circumstance
means more strength, opposition for more power to resist and confronting one barrier signifies
into ability to overcome the next. Thoughts that wander, eyes that blanch, nerves that relax were
unknown to Jinnahs self-poised mind. Through rectitude and firmness of his personality, he led
his people up through the Indians belligerent minds, up through the Britains imperial rule, and
liberated them and made them stand on foundations supplied with permanent flow of
nationalistic aspirations.
The life of the legend Robert the Bruce furnishes for us one of the most remarkable insights; he
drew his victory not from the benevolence of others and also not from the distorted frightened
outlook of his adversary but out of some of the most terrifying experiences. Six times he tried to
save his land from the devastating advance of his enemy and six times his stand met with utter
embarrassment. But then fascinated by the obstinate determination of a spider which was trying
again and again to swing herself upon the slender thread to make her way towards the other edge
of the cave and finally succeeded, Robert arose, strived to unite his men, and offered his enemy a
last stand. The stroke was decisive; enemys army was perished, their ranks were severed forcing
the King of England to retreat thus marking the day with his gallantry at the end of the battle. His
majestic statue at the Bannockburn battlefield communicates us a simple yet much-celebrated
sense that the victories should be won and gifts should be discovered by everyone within ones
own soul.
See how the magnificent monuments and statues are formed; they are chiselled into grace and
beauty from weirdly-looking rocks through the operations of blasting, drilling, hammering and
squaringthe very processes that are otherwise, quintessentially, terribly awful. Who best can
suffer, said Milton, best can do at a time when he, himself, was overtaken by blindness,
sickness and desperate wants, however, remained unyielding and produced the best of his works.
The strongest and the most refined characters of mankind, in fact, evolved on the bed of a
stubborn soil and amidst the elements of a trying climate.
Isnt the story of Disraeli remarkable who because of his origin from a race most hated and most
persecuted in the then Britain was lampooned, mocked and ridiculed time and again? Aided by
his bitter experiences with the misfortunes, and strengthened by enough failures and defeats in
his bag, he suffered not even the least for he knew that from these ugly gashes often flowed the
perennial fountains of richest melodies. And the fountain did flow from the wide chasm of which
trickled down the Britain a quarter of century the sceptre of which was completely swayed by
this boythe Disraeli.

It is almost natural for anyone to confront barriers who endeavours to elevate himself from the
circumstances he is born to or was raised in. When you get into a tight place and everything
goes against you, till it seems as if you could not hold on a minute longer, said Harriet Beecher
Stowe, never give up, for thats just the place and time that the tidell turn. Charles Sumner
said, Three things are necessary to a strong character: First, backbone; second, backbone; third,
backbone as It is victory after victory with the soldier, asserts Orison Swett, lesson after
lesson with the scholar, blow after blow with the labourer, crop after crop with the farmer,
picture after picture with the painter, and mile after mile with the traveller that secures what all
so much desireSuccess.
All great men and women owe their chief accomplishments to this spirit of never giving up.
Otherwise, what was Jinnah other than the son of a merchant, Shakespeare than the descendant
of a wool stapler, Benjamin Franklin of a candle maker, and Horace than that of a scion of a
shopkeeper?