From a personal to social life, it can be easily observed that changes play a dominant role in keeping a person's or a group's life influenced. It is the permanence of change that keeps the interest permanent; otherwise, monotony would easily overcome human beings.
The change is the nature of the nature and can easily be observed within the world around and within a human being himself/herself. It is not possible to avoid it; you can close your eyes, neglect the changes taking place, yet they have no mercy on what you do or what you believe; they keep on occurring.
On many occasions they even change you before you can realize that there is any change. Hence, changes are there in nature and cannot be neglected and they guarantee variety in human life, which is basically responsible for making human beings evolve and making their lives free of monotony.
The individuals and groups that realize that there are changes and they have to change themselves with the changes are basically the ones that become successful in their individual and collective lives. They are the ones who easily welcome the changes, try to understand their nature, analyze the demands that are set by those changes and change themselves and their thoughts and ideologies in accordance to those demands.
While the individuals and groups that keep their thoughts and ideologies fixed, persistent and not changing they are the ones who face stagnancy in their individual and social lives. They, soon, find themselves limping behind others in the race of life.
History is the witness to the claim that the societies that welcomed the changes and changed themselves accordingly earned themselves prosperity and modernization. The example of European society in this regard can be easily mentioned here. There was a time in European society when the people lived in Dark Ages, trapped within the snare of unchanging religious practices and beliefs. It had blind-folded itself towards the changing nature of society and had started considering its way of living as final and unworthy of change.
The ones, who would question the teachings of religion, were punished and there was no place for doubts and research. However, with the advent of scientific knowledge, the society took a leap forward. It started questioning and started changing itself. The golden rule was discovered that 'change is necessary' and the society started evolving from a pathetic condition to a modern and a better one. That period was basically the start of Renaissance in Europe.
In its essence Renaissance was a call for change. It was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Beginning in Italy, and spreading to the rest of Europe by the 16th century, its influence was felt in literature, philosophy, art, music, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry and it questioned the basic and firm beliefs that were thought to be fixed and permanent. In all, the Renaissance could be viewed as an attempt by intellectuals to study and improve as per the changing nature of society.
Today, the European society with all of its positive changes is the evolved form of the same society that once was entrapped in the murky confinements of Dark Ages. All the civilizations in the world need to understand that changes are vital in their history and they need to evolve as per the evolution, which guarantees 'the survival of the fittest'. In accordance to the law of evolution the fittest is the organism or to a broader extent a specie or even a group of living beings that can change itself in accordance to the changing nature of the society.
Take the example of dinosaurs; who can think that such huge animals with so much of might could extinct from the surface of earth so easily. The basic reason behind their extinction was nothing more than the law of evolution.
With the changing nature around them they refused to change, therefore, they could not guarantee their survival and got extinct. The same can happen to human societies and civilizations. The ones that do not change in accordance to the time are bound to extinct and become a part of history.
Islamic civilization, once, used to be very rich and much developed as compared to the other civilizations of its times. However, with the flowing tide of the changes, it could not keep pace and thus was out-raced. The thoughts and ideologies got stagnant and refused to change with the socio-political changes around, therefore, the history did not respect such an idea and it made it pay the price of its stubbornness.
It is unfortunate to note that some of the Islamic countries still value the same attitude. With modernization reaching to its peak and civilization evolving with every passing minute, they avoid looking into the eyes of change and avoid fulfilling the overgrowing requirements put forward by those changes.
Some may view changes as negative and may consider them a machination to alter traditions and basic principles of religion. Yes, it is possible that changes if not controlled and if not guided towards the appropriate destination may make a society go astray, but it does not mean to avoid changes completely. It cannot be avoided as it is the law of nature.
The water of a stream flowing on a particular path does not stop flowing if it faces a hindrance, it finds another way to flow, and if you want the water of the stream to reach at a particular place, you need to guide it; unblock its way towards the desired position. It will, then, automatically flow to that position.
We need to do the same. Unblock the way of changes, and guide them towards the desired destination. We need to equip ourselves with the attitude of facing the changes, understanding them and, at best, overcoming them, instead of closing our eyes towards them and neglecting them completely. They are there, they will be there; all we can do is to accept them with open hearts and arms.