Bismillah.
Our thoughts are apt to roam while exploring different things, yet thereafter such thoughts tend to be forgotten easily. Therefore preserving one’s thoughts should take priority over everything else in order to prevent them from escaping the mind.
- ibn al-Jawzi
After transitioning from general, to first consul, to consul for life, to emperor, and fighting the coalition for years while ruling over France and chunks of conquered cities in Europe, the coalition finally defeated Napoleon, and sent him to exile (for the second time) to St. Helena.
With hundreds of British soldiers and two ships constantly on parole to prevent him from fleeing exile (again), the dreams of ruling over the whole of Europe—and possibly the world—crumbled right before his eyes. He had tasted power, loyalty and victory from an early age, so a crushing defeat and utter helplessness in his early fifties would’ve been a source of unspeakable grief.
Napoleon had no guns, horses or an army, but ever ambitious, he had to fight a final fight, which needed nothing more than an admirer willing to preserve the defeated emperor’s legacy through books. Emmanuel de Las Cases allowed the world to see life through the eyes of Napoleon, not as the war-hungry power-intoxicated self-proclaimed emperor, but as a man who went from Napoleon the nobody to Napoleon the greatest general the world had ever seen. Such tales could only be told to the common man as fables, but Napoleon gave the world an example to cite, and the ambitious, hope.
He was wise enough to know that, at this point, all he could do, was tell his story from his perspective, to leave a legacy he’d be proud of, to leave traces, not as Napoleon the self-proclaimed emperor who’d lost, but as Napoleon, the wonder. And what better way was there, he thought, to leave a story behind, than through writing?
Teaching through the pen, is the greatest gift and favor He the Exalted has given His slaves, since through it, sciences become eternal, realities are established, words of advice are known, testimonies are preserved, the accounts of dealings between people are precisely kept, and the news of the past is recorded for those who remain and who will come later. Had it not been for writing, news from certain period of time would be cut off from other times, traditions would be obliterated, rulings would be confused, and the latter generations would not know the ways and methods of the predecessors.
- ibn al-Qayyim RH
Our thoughts, stories and ideas die with us, except the ones that have been preserved with ink. History belongs to the writers.
So read, read, read, but don’t forget to write.
Assalaamu alaikum.
Jazakillah khairan. Funny enough I have been thinking of starting a blog & this piece just further inspired me to follow my dreams! May Allah bless you abundantly.
What an amazing and an inspiring write up 👏🏼
Thank you so much Dr ✨
Allah ya kara basira . Ameen