Discipline is essential for a better life, serving as a source of beauty and a guarantee of success. However, inflexible adherence to it can turn life into a prison where thought and creativity suffocate and die. Rules and regulations are established for the service and convenience of humans, not to enslave them. Therefore, wherever they become harmful to humans, they should be changed, suspended, or relaxed.
This is indeed the way of Allah Almighty. If He had willed, He could have made it obligatory for humans to carry out His commands under all circumstances. However, Allah is not just powerful, He is also wise. He alters His command according to the varying conditions of humans. If difficulties arise in performing regular prayers, shortening (Qasr) and combining prayers (Jam’) is permissible. Prayers can be offered while standing, walking, or riding. If fasting feels too burdensome, exemption from it is provided. Eating the forbidden under compulsion and saving one’s life by verbalizing disbelief is allowed. All this shows that individuals will not be sacrificed for the sake of rules; the rules will be altered for them.
People with great talent and capability are usually free-thinkers. Rigid enforcement of discipline harms their exceptional abilities. Such individuals often exhibit a kind of self-admiration, egoism, and sensitivity which, if not handled with care, can result in the waste of talent. It can be observed that departments where no compromise is made on discipline, despite having all facilities, fail to produce any good players, writers, or experts in various fields.
The inability to compromise on discipline is a sign of a narrow mind. Such a mind lacks the capacity and courage to think and act outside a set path. A devotee of routine and the norm sees repetitive work on the same path like a beast of burden carrying bricks as a matter of pride. These individuals are deemed successful administrators on paper, but under their management, no constructive or creative work can be accomplished. When such people attain a position of authority, it spells death for talent and creative intelligence.
Countless excellent players, scholars, researchers, and experts in various fields fall to waste due to the inflexible enforcement of discipline, despite being deserving of having the rules changed for them.
Rules and regulations are servants, not gods. They should be followed, not worshiped. If necessary, they will be changed for the sake of humans, but humans will not be sacrificed in their stead.