The victory of Akbar over Rajput Kings, the successful defiance by Shivaji of the might of the Mughal empire, the crushing of the 1857 rebellion against foreign rule in India, the heroic saga of Stalingrad, the humiliating defeat of Mussolini and Hitler, etc., are judged as happy triumphs or sad defeats, not in terms of the racial or religious affiliations or the interests and aspirations of the protagonists, but in terms of their historical role in promoting universal values. Likewise, the martyrdom of a Socrates, Bruno, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, or the sufferings of a Galileo, Priestley, Freud, Karl Jaspers, purify and inspire the universal man, no less deeply than the martyrdom of a Husain or Sarmad or the sufferings of Hambal or of Abul Kalam Azad.

The universal man explains the vicissitudes of the human family, not as the wages of sin or as the favors of an anthropomorphic God, or as the trials and travails of a chosen people, who have betrayed their Lord but who are destined to conquer the non-believers at a time of God's own choosing; the universal man tries to understand the ups and downs of the human family, as a doctor tries to understand human health and disease, free from praise or blame, pride or prejudice, anger or hate. The historian who has humanistic sympathy and cares for historical veracity explains the vicissitudes of the human family in terms of universal social dynamics, which does not preclude his faith in God or in any particular Divine revelation.

Faith in the oneness of God does not necessarily imply 'one God, one church, i.e., cultural monism; faith in one God implies man's unity in diversity and diversity in unity. History teaches us not to feel hurt or displeased at the pluralism of language, religion and culture, but to view them all as the flowering of man's creative responses to the mystery of being. When the historian-philosopher truly and deeply realizes this he shares, partly, if not wholly, the joy of the mystic at the contemplation of the unity of all being.

(6) Mystical Dimension of History

Historical contemplation, thus, has a hidden kinship with mysticism.  The awareness of the oneness of the human family, and the transience of the characters and events of the human story, add a fresh dimension to man's response to the human condition down the ages.

The decline of great men and empires, the defeat of ambitions, the eclipse of power and glory, the withering away of luxury, the silent eloquence of imposing ruins, the decay of culture and death of creativity, on the one hand, and on the other, the rise to power and greatness of the once lowly, the vindication of the once oppressed and despised, the transfer of power and culture from 'master races' to 'barbarian hordes', the growth of despised and vulgar dialects into the language of learning and culture, the rise of new ideas and values, the emergence of new vistas and horizons, the spectacle of fresh conquests, the entry of new heroes on the centre stag of action from the back-benches of humanity, in short, the contemplation of the transience of life and the ever changing wheels of power and cultural glory, lead the historian-philosopher to perhaps the greatest liberating truth man can contemplate—everything perishes save the countenance of the Lord.

(7) The Antinomy of History

In the final analysis (as far as empirical history is concerned), power turns antinomically into weakness and weakness into power, knowledge into ignorance and ignorance into knowledge, light into darkness and darkness into light. It is precisely this dualistic process of history, or the antinomical structure of man's life, that constitutes his existential freedom to choose how to respond to his own unique historical situation. He may will to change the darkness in him and around him into light, as far as lies in his power, in the given situation, or he may allow whatever dim light may be present to be swallowed into the enveloping darkness, within and without.

Realizing that the light, which active and dedicated souls help to create in history, with their 'blood, sweat and tears', shines for but a few fleeting moments in the vastness of time and space, before being blown out in dark and stormy nights of the soul, the historian, nevertheless, does not give the counsel of despair to himself or others, since history tells him that the light, which was extinguished in Babylonia did shine again in Athens, Nalanda and Taxila, Baghdad and Cordova, Padua and Paris, Oxford and Cambridge, Konigsberg and Heidelberg, Petersburg and Harvard, Benares, Aligarh and Shantiniketan.

Should the historian have an existential faith that nature and history move in some direction that partakes of good even if there be no verifiable goal as such, he can very well cherish the hope that ultimately light would prevail over darkness. The historian need not despair at the many noble failures to set right a world, ever out of joint. In the final analysis, the active existential pursuit of good leaves man with little energy or inclination to debate intellectual proofs whether God has created man or man has created God.  ****