31 January, 2026
I define a life stroke as a significant achievement in life. It may not be as substantial as a masterstroke, but it does have a considerable impact. Most people who create masterstrokes start with life strokes early in life. They keep adding life strokes to the canvass of their lives, increasing their impact, leverage, and strategic dimension. The higher the strategic dimension, the longer in the future the activity impacts. A high-leverage intervention or activity takes very little input and produces disproportionately high output.
I had given the example of four people in my previous life lesson about masterstrokes. Let us look at their early life strokes! Alija Izetbegovic, whose masterstroke was to help his nation survive the brutal war and ethnic cleansing as the president of Bosnia, started early. In 1941 he helped found a Muslim youth movement called ‘Young Muslims,‘ which struggled for Muslim identity and rights during the challenging and destructive years of the Second World War and spread out to cover most of the towns of Bosnia.
After WW2, the Communist Party led by Marshal Josip Tito took over Yugoslavia, and the persecution of Islam began: Islamic Endowments were nationalized; sharia courts were abolished; religious education was banned, and the Islamic veil was prohibited. Young Muslims went underground and kept up the struggle till March 1946, when along with other leaders, Izetbegovic was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison. Establishing Young Muslims was the first life stroke of Izetbegovic, and it set the foundation for his greatest masterstroke, which was the salvation and liberation of Bosnia. Richard Holbrooke, a former US ambassador to the UN and the chief architect of the Dayton Peace Accords, which put an end to the war in Bosnia, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times: “Bosnia would not exist today if not for Alija Izetbegovic. It was his tenacity, his determination, and his courage that kept it going under the relentless bombardment of the Serbs. But by the time we reached Dayton in November 1995, Milosevic knew he had lost most of what he sought. Milosevic even said that because Izetbegovic refused to abandon Sarajevo during the siege, he had won the right to a united city.”
Do you know the age of Izetbegovic at his first life stroke? He was merely 16 years of age. His age at the time of his sentencing to three years in prison was only 21!
The rule is simple: start early, my friends. One of the masterstrokes of Mufti Taqi Usmani is his Asaan Tafseer ul Quran, which he is currently writing. His age now is 79. He has written 143 books in Urdu, Arabic, and English. One of his earliest books, ‗Zabt-e-Aulad ki Aqli aur Shara‘ee Haisiat‘ (Birth Control: a rational and Shariah Discourse), was published in 1961. Taqi Usmani Saheb was 18 at that time.
The masterstroke of Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani was the passage of the Objectives Resolution on March 7, 1949, firmly placing the foundations of the constitution of Pakistan on the Quran and Sunnah. He was 62 at that time. In 1910 Shaikh ul Hind Maulana Mahmud ul Hassan established Jamiat ul Ansar, a political entity of Dar ul Uloom Deoband to counter British colonial rule. It had a considerable impact on the political character of the Muslims of India, leading to India‘s and Pakistan‘s independence in 1947. The first conference of the Jamiat ul Ansar was held in Muradabad in 1911, where a young man, 24 years of age, was invited to speak. The gathering was large and attracted thousands of Ulema and modern-educated Muslims. It was indeed a great honor. This young man read a brilliant and penetrating essay that established why Islam is the best way of life through the Quran, Sunnah, and profound logic. The essay spoke of the existence of Allah (SWT) and His (SWT) unity (Tauheed), Prophethood, and signs of Prophethood. Witnesses recalled that the speech mesmerized the audience.
The essay was later published in a book titled ‗Islam‘ and remains one of the impactful literary works of the young man. Can you guess who this young man was? Yes, it was Maulana Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, and this essay and the speech are one of the most powerful life strokes in his early years. The seeds of the depth of understanding of political Islam reflected in the Objectives Resolution and its elegant and masterly articulation were sown 38 years ago in Muradabad at the Jamiat ul Ansar conference.
Today Indus Hospital and Health Network run 17 hospitals around Pakistan with an annual budget of Rs. 45 billion (compared to Rs. 44.6 billion, the health budget for Balochistan for 2023), providing excellent health care to over 500,000 patients monthly. This is the masterstroke of Dr. Abdul Bari Khan, the founder of Indus Hospital. Dr. Bari joined Dow Medical College in 1979. Dr. Bari became active with the Patient Welfare Association (PWA), a charitable association run by students for the welfare of poor patients. When patients needed blood, the tradition was to have professional blood donors give blood.
In 1981, professional blood donors went on strike. Lives were lost. Dr. Bari and his friends took up this challenge and set up the first voluntary blood donor program in Karachi in 1982, which has grown and is active today. Here was his first life stroke. His age at that time: 21 years. There is no age for life strokes and then masterstrokes. The earlier you start, the better off you are, but it is never too late. Think for yourself and your children. A life stroke can be generated through an intermediate vision, but a masterstroke must come from an ultimate vision.
The earlier we work on our life strokes, the better off we are. Sometimes, masterstrokes may not be visions that you initiate, but your supporting someone else‘s masterstroke may also become your masterstroke.