Science must be coupled with gratefulness, not arrogance

The short advice from the boulder was funny in at least two ways. First, how would a Croat feel when walking past here? Mostar being a 50-50 town of Bosniaks and Croats, tensions will logically be very much retained. The other thing is that apparently the Bosniaks are losing (or giving up) more and more cultural influence here; their struggle in 1993 might have ended with victory, but I doubt this one is in any way similar. With every inch of infiltration from the Croat's western-like culture, Islam is slowly losing its grasp, unless serious measurements are taken.

Unfortunately however, this is not an uncommon situation in the Muslim world today. These forces have succeeded in entering into many cultures and 'private' lives, despite the countries declaring themselves Islamic. Alcoholism, sexualism, hedonism, and materialism are the commonly spoken ones. More dangerously though, but at the same time receiving less immediate attention, is atheism, which takes root more subtly. It started when materialism and hedonism were augmented by the study of the 'faultless', 'omniscient' secular sciences, with God totally ignored and shunned. Day after day more and more people decided that their lives revolve around this transient world, remembering God less with every earthly achievement. Soon after they became blind to any significance of God's presence, and later doubting its sheer existence. This, when aided by the shameless arrogance they have subconsciously bred for so long, proved fatal to their faiths. If they regress to this stage, the pristine words of "There is no god but God" will be cut short to "There is no god (at all)". As Murad Wilfried Hofman rightly said in his diary, the strength of Islam is insidiously sapped by the subtle and pervasive influence of Western technological civilisation. Now, why would we worship science but not the Creator of science??

Pressing a few yards further, we finally reached the much-dubbed Stari Most. It was suspended quite high above the river, with unmistakable concavity. Exclusively for this bridge, I would prefer to use the verb 'climb' to the usual 'cross'. In fact its floor was embedded with numerous stepping bars to prevent us hikers from slipping down. I could only appreciate it so much after knowing that this was a rebuilt version of the multi-decade old bridge, brought down and sunk into the river by the vicious, beastly enemies of 1993. Don't forget, as they say. Don't forget, said another boulder sitting very quietly at the other end of the bridge.

The view we had of Stari Most and Rijeka Neretva was an almost complete one- soothing to the eyes, astonishing to the minds. Building the picture from the bridge and then on a lower ground, we were absolutely amazed. It was impeccably in every way picturesque. Truly, one can never fully imagine the detrimental blows it received 16 years ago. Today here it stood proudly, continuously glorifying Allah in its own way, incomprehensible to our limited senses.