Many years ago a dynamic Sufi activist named Nurrideen had a good idea.He wanted to build a Muslim commune in New Mexico.He managed to raise a substantial amount of money from rich Arabs in Saudi and the Gulf states who liked his idea.He worked with architectural plans from the famous Egyptian architect Hassan Fathi and built a multi-million dollar complex with local adobe materials.It was truly beautiful.I visited it early on in its inception and it was indeed impressive.
When people came to ask our sheikh of the time-Sheikh Nazim about it, he gave a somewhat cryptic answer.He said”Yes,this is a good idea,but it is not a perfect one.” I understood immediately what he meant.This was a good idea in the mind of Nurrideen but not a Divine inspiration-i.e. not really the will of God.
The project began well with Muslim converts flocking to the Centre in small numbers to live and have their children educated in a “true Muslim environment”.It wasn’t long however,before problems began to emerge.The environment was not propitious for recruiting.The locals were mostly Mexican and they had little interest in the project.The people who would naturally have been attracted to the project were from all over America but had no roots in New Mexico and no way ,often,to earn their living. The Arabic and Islamic teachers had to be imported from the East and there were often inter-cultural problems that had to be addressed.
Eventually the project failed.People started drifting away.The Saudis found out that most of the people there were Sufis and pulled their funding.Now the centre is only used for summer retreats.It was a good idea ,not a Perfect one!
How many times, in our own lives,do we have good ideas that are not Perfect ones?This is a cause of enormous sufferings.May Allah guide us to avoid these self-made plans!