‘A nation’s real strength rests in spirituality, not military might’

This is apropos a letter to the Editor titled ‘A nation’s real strength rests in spirituality, not military might’ by this writer carried by the newspaper yesterday.

Physical destruction remains painful, but its capacity to compel submission diminishes when the convictions sustaining resistance are stronger than fear.

The Jewish scholar’s observation becomes particularly significant in this context. The strength confronting an army is not merely the weapon carried by a fighter but the conviction residing within the person carrying it. A missile can be destroyed, an installation demolished and an army weakened, yet if the belief system producing courage and endurance survives, resistance can regenerate. The deeper contest therefore extends beyond weapons to the spiritual foundations sustaining collective purpose.

This introduces another dimension of confrontation. If spiritual conviction strengthens a population, weakening that conviction becomes another means of weakening resistance. Doubt may be directed towards fundamental beliefs; attachment to worship may be eroded; materialism may displace spiritual purpose; internal divisions may be encouraged; and succeeding generations may gradually become detached from the traditions through which religious identity is renewed. The battlefield then extends beyond territory into the mind, heart and spiritual consciousness of society.

Religious communities, however, are not without spiritual guardianship. Islam has its scholars, shaykhs, Sufi traditions and awliya, just as other religions possess their own spiritually accomplished personalities and inherited traditions of guidance. Within Islamic spiritual understanding, accomplished figures have historically strengthened belief, preserved sacred knowledge and exercised responsibility for communities entrusted to their care. Their role has often been to reinforce faith precisely when political, cultural or external pressures threatened to weaken it.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026