Personality building was done in Makkah
Why this order of endurance and passivity in Makkah? It was because the objective was to train and prepare such personalities as could bear in the future the burden of the Islamic society. It was the intention to cleanse and purify their conduct and character, personality, acts and morals by subjecting them to ordeals of severe work and practical training and discipline. The only work during these thirteen years was to reform their character, belief and actions and to mould them in the pattern of most polished and civilized mode of living. It was to bestow upon them the wealth of best relationship with Allah and to inculcate in them the sense of accountability and responsibility in the presence of Exalted Allah.

What kind of personalities emerged after the process of personality building?
After doing this work for thirteen years in Makkah, a new phase of life commenced in Madinah where an Islamic State came into existence and the Islamic laws and punishments (Hudood) were also enforced. All the provisions necessary for an Islamic State were made. As these persons had gone through a severe training course, none ever thought that their objective was only to attain power and authority. This was in spite of the fact that all necessary provisions and facilities had been made available to them at this stage. Despite this power and authority they had maintained their relationship with Exalted Allah and they were occupied with the work and Holy wars. Their conduct and character may be judged from an anecdote recorded in history that during the war at Yarmuk, a non-Muslim soldier thus spoke to his officer, commenting on the Noble Companions (ra) engaged in that war:

They are unique persons ()i.e. during the nights they are devoted monks (devoted worshippers) and during the days they are best archers, swordsmen and
Fighters.

In short the Noble Companions (ra) adhered in their lives to two attributes-honest work and exertion and close contact and relationship with Allah. These two attributes are inevitable for the life of a Muslim. If you separate one from the other you cannot display a true picture of Islam.

We have leaned in one direction
As we are all aware, by now the Noble Companions (ra) had launched very dignified campaigns, had commenced Holy wars and were devoting their lives to establish the supremacy of Islam over the entire world. In spite all these honorific duties and engagements it never occurred to them that it was no longer necessary for them to offer the Tahajjud prayers, to weep before Allah in humility and submissiveness and to establish cordial relationship with Him and to turn to Him in repentance. No Companion (ra) ever thought on these lines. They followed the path of struggle and exertion, while preserving their basic attributes of devotion and sincere faith in Islam and Allah.

As regards ourselves, when we started work to attain political power, we rejected secularism and declared politics to be a part of Islam. We laid so much stress on this that we overlooked the other sides of the issue. We totally ignored the theory or at least in practice, the need of turning to Exalted Allah, establishing relationship with Him and bowing down to Him in submissiveness and humbleness. Instead, we committed the blunder of harbouring the notion that as we were engaged upon a very sublime work it was no longer necessary for us to occupy ourselves with devotional duties on the personal and individual levels.

We neglected to reform individuals
As already mentioned, we laid too much emphasis on collectivism. As a result, we began to be neglectful, in theory or in practice the injunctions which Exalted Allah has issued for the sake of individual members of the society. That is why in these times movements to awaken the Ummah to enforce the Islamic Sharee'ah are commenced with great sincerity and enthusiasm but they fall through, because the other side of the issue is overlooked. The Holy Qur’an an has stated in clear words:

يَاأَيُّهَاالَّذِينَآمَنُواإِنتَنصُرُوااللَّهَيَنصُرْكُمْوَيُثَبِّتْأَقْدَامَكُمْ

If you help Allah, He will help you and will make your foot-holds firm (47:7)

In this verse Exalted Allah has conditioned His help, victory and steadfastness on the word. if you help Allah).

Allah's help descends when man establishes a firm relationship with Allah. If that relationship becomes weak man loses his title to Allah's help.

What emerges from the core of the heart gets into the depth of the heart.
The Islamic teachings prescribed for individuals are intended to prepare every individual to put in sincere and pious efforts to ameliorate his social life. These teachings include worship, good character, and purity and soundness of the heart. If a man gets up to reform the society without complying with these teachings and if he himself has riot received adequate training in them his efforts will not bear the desired fruit and it will become frustrated. If a man's character, conduct and morals are not good and up to the mark and he gets up to work for reforming the society, his words of advice will have no weight and effect. On the other hand, if there is a man who has first improved and reformed his own private life, personal conduct and character and then launches his campaign to reform others, his words will penetrate through the ears into the depth of the hearts. If we start this work of reform without having first reformed our own lives, we cannot put up a brave resistance against oppositions and mischiefs. Instead, we shall surrender ourselves and will not display high moral or lofty character. As a result we fall an easy prey to the temptation of status and later on leave behind the real objective and become interested only in taking credits somehow. All our activities revolve round this desire only. This, in turn, leads us to take wrong decisions and we fail to reach the desired destination.

First of all try to think of your own reform.
On this issue there is a verse of the Holy Qur'an as well as a Hadith of the Holy Prophet (saws) about which we generally remain in dark. The verse is as follows:

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ عَلَيْكُمْ أَنفُسَكُمْ لاَ يَضُرُّكُم مَّن ضَلَّ إِذَا اهْتَدَيْتُمْ إِلَى اللّهِ مَرْجِعُكُمْ جَمِيعاً فَيُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ

O you who believe! you should take care of your
own souls. If you become rightly guided he who
goes astray cannot harm you. To Allah shall you
all return; and then He will inform you of what
you used to do (in the world), (5:105)

It occurs in the narratives that when this verse was revealed, a Companion (ra) put a question to the Holy Prophet (saws) saying: O Messenger of Allah, this verse is telling us that we should take care to reform our own selves. If others are going astray their straying will do us no harm. Should we then give up enforcing the right ARABIC and forbidding the wrong ARABIC ? Thus should we stop preaching the Deen? The Holy Prophet (saws) replied: No this is not so, continue preaching Deen. Thereafter he (Saws) mentioned this Hadith:

When you see four vices prevailing in the society; love of wealth being pursued, every man hankering after money, lusts and desires being followed, the world and its charms being preferred, the people neglecting their Hereafter, every man having some opinion, being proud of his opinion and every man thinking that he is all-wise and rejecting others advice then be careful. In such a situation take care to reform yourselves and do not follow the general public.

How should we behave in a spoilt society?
Some Ulama have interpreted this Hadilh by saying that a time will come when the advice of one man to another man will have no effect. So at such a time the command of enforcing the right and forbidding the wrong and the duty of Preaching Deen will lose their force and become ineffective. At such a time a man should sit in his house, rehearse Allah's names and try to reform himself and he should do nothing else. Some other Ulama have interpreted this Hadith differently. According to them this Hadith is referring to a time when corruption will surround the society on all sides and everyone will become so deeply concerned with his own affairs that he will not lend ears to what others say. At such a time man should take care of himself and ignore the affairs of the public. It does not, however, mean that the injunction implied ARABIC (enforcing the right) and ARABIC (forbidding the wrong) should be abandoned altogether. At such a time more attention should be paid to the reform and correction of individuals rather than the society as a whole. This is because; society is nothing more than a group of these individuals. If the individuals do not react favourably to reform, the society can never be reformed. On the other hand, if the individuals are reformed Society automatically reforms. Therefore, the way of dispelling this corruption is the way of reforming the individuals by means of individual and collective struggles and efforts. This will lead to the building of personalities and this process of personality building will increase automatically the number of righteous persons bearing good moral conduct and character. This, in turn, will result in doing away with the corruption and vices of the society. According to other commentators, this Hadith is not concealing the injunction of propagating and preaching Deen but is suggesting an automatic process for the same end.

An important cause of our failure
I was telling you that in my opinion a major cause of our failure is that in trying to bring a reform among the society as a whole we have ignored the reform of the individual members of this society. Ignoring the reform of the individuals implies that we have totally ignored the requirement including worship, relationship with Allah, purification of character and action upon all the Islamic teachings. So, unless we come back to these teachings, our movements and our efforts will not be crowns with success. Imam Malik (rah) has observed:

The reform of the later generations of this
Ummah will take place in the same way as
reformed its earlier generations.

In other words, no new formula can be invented for reform of this Ummah. Reform of the Ummah during the time of the Noble Companions (Ra) came through the reform of the individuals and the same course will have to be taken even now.