Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | ST Weekly Blog | Nov 9, 2020
“The big cats often turn into man-eaters when they are too old to hunt and trap wild animals. But nine times out of ten, they do so because a poacher has wounded them.” (The Times of India, 21 May 1984)
A tiger is not a man-eater by nature, but as an enemy-eater he is the most merciless of animals. A huntsman who fails to kill a tiger and leaves him injured and in agony becomes the ‘enemy’. And so anything in human shape is likewise the enemy and our normally pacific tiger, who formerly stole quietly away at man’s approach, is now a fully-fledged man-eater. A tiger, once having been injured, will unhesitatingly deliver a death blow to avenge the wrong done to him.
This law of nature applies equally to individuals as well as nations. If you cannot annihilate your enemy, do not go so far even as to injure him, because a wounded enemy is more hostile and more dangerous than ever.
When an enemy is attacked without due preparation, it is like digging one’s own grave. The impatient, the superficial in thought, unable to engage in a silent, persistent struggle, attack their enemy only to scar him, thus turning him into the worst of scourges.
Before one deplores the cruelty of an enemy, one should take due note of the amount of provocation he has suffered.