Welcome back to a special edition of the Strategic Sunnah newsletter where we’ll explain the masterpiece of military strategy: The Art of War.
Written 2,500 years ago by Sun Tzu, a celebrated Chinese general, The Art of War is a concise read yet full of strategy and wisdom still relevant to this day. This series will show you how to apply the lessons in your life so you can:
Plan strategically
Prevent conflicts before they arise
Resolve conflicts when they do arise
Turn problems into solutions
Be proactive instead of reactive
Act with patience, courage and wisdom
Part 2—Waging War
Sun Tzu said: In the operations of war, where there are in the field:
A thousand swift chariots,
as many heavy chariots,
Notice how he doesn’t begin the chapter on waging war with how to fight…
He begins with going over the cost of war. Because actual fighting, or rushing to a fight, is easy when you’re angry, rattled and provoked.
Reactive people who rush into conflict pay a heavy price. In war, it’s the unnecessary cost of life and resources. The one who plans and calculates, as discussed in the previous chapter, is not only better prepared… he also pays the lesser cost.
So there are calculations to inform sound planning and there is taking inventory of manpower and resources—before rushing into battle.
Are you quick to conflict or do you weigh the costs first when faced with challenges in your life? Do you gather all the resources you need before risking confrontation?
and a hundred thousand mail-clad soldiers,
with provisions enough to carry them a thousand li,
the expenditure at home and at the front,
including entertainment of guests,
A li in Sun Tzu’s time would be a quarter of a mile today. He suggests carrying enough provisions for hundreds of thousands of fighting men and their horses over a distance of 250 miles. This should drive home the astronomical costs of war.
He also mentions expenditure at home as well as the front. How do you prepare for such a campaign without having a strong economy at home? Just the food production alone would require a dedicated army of citizens working diligently to meet the needs of war.
What about breeding the horses, feeding them, shoeing them? Who sharpens the swords for a hundred thousand men? Who makes the swords? Who mines the iron?
And in the age we live in, have we even thought about the cost of modern weapons, transport and munitions?
Economy always precedes war—if you want to win, that is. So why do we seek war before we have economy? If you’ve been paying attention, this is the underlying theme of this newsletter.
Sun Tzu mentions makes another interesting consideration—entertaining guests.
This is about the importance of outside advisors and experts. People who know the enemy. Experts who know the land and the advantages and disadvantages it hides. Political allies. Industry leaders. Defectors…
Are you ready to pay the price for vital information that could mean the difference without victory or defeat?
When faced with conflict in your own life, are you ready to cover the cost before diving into a fight? What about the emotional cost? When starting a new venture, can you rely on and even pay for expert advice? Will you invest in yourself by hiring a coach or enrolling on a course?
small items such as glue and paint,
and sums spent on chariots and armor,
will reach the total of a thousand ounces of gold per day.
Such is the cost of raising an army of 100,000 men.
Are you willing to pay the cost?
If not, can you find a better alternative? The wise leader seeks to resolve conflict before making his people suffer the costs of war.
It also means cutting corners and taking half measures will undoubtedly lead to defeat. This is the reality ignored by those who call for conflict without being prepared. Or worse… calling others to fight for them.
It can also be said victory is for the one who is willing to pay the most.
But if you can’t pay the price, don’t let your ego, emotions or ideology push you—or fellow Muslims—to conflict.
When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped.
If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength.
Again, if the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.
If you do end up fighting—aim to win as quickly as possible.
Prolonging conflict only adds to the cost. The cost of resources and of lives. The cost of war does not end when you start fighting… in actual fact it continues and even increases when the fight ensues.
Worse than this is the toll it will take on your men and the damage it will do to your equipment. The longer the fight, the worse it will get—and the more you risk defeat.
The same is true in personal conflicts. You might be well prepared and have moral backing for your stake in the fight. But the longer you engage the less justified your fight becomes.
You will start to look like the one to blame. You will start to make mistakes and take strategic risks as you tire both physically and mentally.
What about the relationships you risk destroying by prolonging a conflict? What happens when you take too long to resolve an issue with a customer? What will the other customers think? If you don’t swiftly resolve an issue with a child, will your other children respect you or end up resenting you?
Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity.
And when you prolong the war and weaken your men and resources you become an easy target for others waiting in the shadows.
Don’t commit so much of your precious resources to one battle, exhausting your men and losing their trust, just to end up an easy target for others. While you were spending on a prolonged war, they were building their resources. And if they were deterred from attacking you after seeing your preparation and readiness for war, your weakened state will entice them to pounce on you like vultures.
Likewise, if you exhaust yourself and your resources by letting your ego prolong a personal or professional conflict, those waiting in the shadows for you to fail will jump at the opportunity to profit from your weakened state. They will steal your customers. Broadcast your failures. Destroy your reputation.
It’s worse when you consider many of your enemies would have otherwise been unable to defeat you had you not depleted yourself by prolonging conflict.
Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.
It doesn’t matter how good you are at fighting. If you aren’t prepared—you will lose.
This is the wisdom behind talking about the costs of war in the chapter of waging war. It’s not about your fighting abilities. It’s about economy.
And if you don’t expect conflict or are able to resolve conflict before it starts… you must still prepare so that you don’t find yourself surrounded by vultures when it’s too late to gather resources.
As mentioned, being well prepared is a deterrent from outside attack. Always show you are prepared even when you aren’t—all war is deception.
If you aren’t ready for personal conflict, show that you are to deter opponents.
Thus, though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been seen associated with long delays.
There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on.
Even the one who rushes to war can be victorious if he is able to end the battle swiftly. But the one who prolongs a war, no matter how prepared beforehand, is likely to lose.
Even if he wins the battle, the economic losses at home will be heavy. And there is the psychological trauma of a nation losing so many men to conflict. Not just in death but in carrying the injuries and trauma of war.
Trauma from conflict is just as prevalent in your personal battles. You must ask yourself if it will be worth the cost when you emerge at the other end of a conflict.
Sun Tzu is urging the reader to see the relationship between the moral cost of war with the economics of war. The who understands the moral cost will make moral decisions with the Nation’s resources.
It’s the corrupt leader—and the corrupt heart as individuals—we must avoid.
The skillful soldier does not raise a second levy, neither are his supply-wagons loaded more than twice.
Bring war material with you from home, but forage on the enemy.
Thus the army will have food enough for its needs.
Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army to be maintained by contributions from a distance.
Contributing to maintain an army at a distance causes the people to be impoverished.
This means don’t raise an army twice and don’t resupply your army multiple times.
Instead, take resources from the enemy as you progress. This doesn’t mean plunder the enemy’s lands. This is not sanctioned in Islam nor was it endorsed by Sun Tzu.
What it means is when planning for war, take into account the war booty you will gain for your calculations. Go where there is a strategic advantage both in the fight and after.
For example, marching your army between sources of water.
You must include the gathering of resources in your war strategy. You simply cannot rely solely on transporting resources from home.
It also means making allies along the way, as we’ll see..
On the other hand, the proximity of an army causes prices to go up;
and high prices cause the people's wealth to be drained away.
When their wealth is drained away, the peasantry will be afflicted by heavy taxes.
Sun Tzu never advocated looting the people, as we see done by many armies throughout history. He considers purchasing necessities from the people in the land.
But this comes at a heavy price. Goods will cost more the father away from home you are. And who will pay for it other than the citizens back home who will be inflicted with increased taxes?
Think about the Moral Law of Muslim conquests. Were they not to end the oppression over the people of that land? And don’t our rules of warfare tell us not to plunder, uproot trees or destroy land?
And everywhere the Muslims went they established trade.
So the moral leader must strategize ways to establish trade relations as his army advances—not more oppression. And this goes hand in hand with reserving the resources of the Nation instead of wasting them in war.
The wise leader enriches his people and the people he conquers in wartime. The immoral leader squanders his people’s wealth and steals the wealth of the people he conquers.
This is called “win-win” in personal development. You must try to resolve conflicts in a way that makes both sides benefit. And it’s not simply about making compromises… it stems from having a strong Moral Law—the unifying, moral purpose—that brings both sides together.
What can you gain from the other side to make it worth your while or to recover some of your losses? What can you offer the other side or those around them so that you can bring them to recognise your Moral Law?
Avoid conflict—and thereby save lives and resources—by propagating your Moral Law through other means, such as trade. The same can be done in your personal life by seeking mutual benefit between you and your would-be opponent.
How many of your personal conflicts could’ve been resolved this way?
With this loss of resources and exhaustion of strength, the homes of the people will be stripped bare, and seven-tenths of their wealth will be dissipated;
while government expenses for broken chariots, worn-out horses, breast-plates and helmets, bows and arrows, spears and shields, protective mantles, draught-oxen and heavy wagons,
will amount to six-tenths of its total reserves.
Put simply, the true cost of war is more than half of the Nation’s wealth. And the poor suffer the largest proportion of these costs.
Can you then rush to war knowing you have used up more than half the Nation’s wealth? Would you not then take into consideration the advice laid out in this chapter?
It also means you don’t, in reality, have the means for a prolong war, let alone fighting a second one.
Can you weigh up the costs of conflict in your life, considering all that has been mentioned, and honestly say every conflict is worth fighting? Or do you see the benefit of resolving conflict before they even begin and, if forced to confrontation, of ending conflict as soon as possible?
Hence a wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy.
One cartload of the enemy's provisions is equivalent to twenty of one's own, and likewise a single picul of his provender is equivalent to twenty from one's own store.
Sun Tzu is reiterating his point by illustrating the cost of relying on the Nation’s wealth alone. It costs multiples more to transport goods than it does to acquire the same goods from where your army is stationed.
This is one of the secrets to understanding the bloated nature of modern conflicts and the monetary and political corruption allowing some to profit from war.
You can think about how much energy is it costing you to fight an opponent versus what it costs them. This is particularly true in online debates.
The amount of energy needed to refute nonsense is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it. (See Brandolini’s Law)
Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must be roused to anger;
that there may be advantage from defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards.
Therefore in chariot fighting, when ten or more chariots have been taken, those should be rewarded who took the first.
Our own flags should be substituted for those of the enemy,
and the chariots mingled and used in conjunction with ours. The captured soldiers should be kindly treated and kept.
This is called, using the conquered foe to augment one's own strength.
Sun Tzu finally addresses actual combat by highlighting the cheap motivator of fighting men: rousing anger.
He reminds us how seemingly cheap it is to rush to war without preparation or thorough consideration of the true costs.
But he suggests a more moral and much more effective way: incentivize your fighting men with rewards. Incidentally, this is also a cost of war!
This is further reason for why you should win the people of the conquered land over. The distribution of war booty is important but you can also reward your army with the opportunities of a new land.
He also mentions one of the most important aspects of warfare: morale.
We must seek to decrease the enemy’s morale while increasing ours. Much of it was covered in the first chapter. But you can use tactics in the battle itself such as using the enemy’s weapons against them, replacing their flags with your own and by treating the captured soldiers with kindness—as was the way of the Islamic conquests.
This is the true meaning of defeating the enemy.
Not seeking their total destruction or humiliating them—you will produce a new generation of enemies.
But by winning them over to your Moral Law.
So true victory doesn’t come from the anger we rouse in ourselves that gives us strength to fight conflicts…
It is the consideration of all costs, economic, human and moral costs—before, during and after conflict.
In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.
Thus it may be known that the leader of armies is the arbiter of the people's fate, the man on whom it depends whether the nation shall be in peace or in peril.
War brings immense costs both in terms of lives lost and in the weakening of the Nation.
The aim of the wartime leader, then, should be to reduce the cost of war as much as possible. And this is done by resolving conflict as swiftly as possible—even before blood is shed if you’re able.
Prolonged conflict only weakens you further. It allows other enemies to gather strength and demoralises your people.
Avoid conflict if you are able.
If not, aim to resolve it quickly.
If someone wishes you harm, don’t merely seek retaliation… seek a resolution.
If possible, seek a resolution that allows both sides to win.
If not, seek one that at least allows the people to win that they may favour you.
Use kindness, honesty and good intentions to spread your Moral Law.
In doing so, you will win the hearts of the people and avoid future conflicts.
This series is a commentary on Sun Tzu’s The Art of War for Muslim Betterment. If you found this beneficial please share this with just one more Muslim. Subscribe if you haven’t already so you don’t miss the next part.
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