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FROM MAULANAS DESK
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, born in 1925, in
Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, is an Islamic spiritual
scholar who is well-versed in both classical Islamic
learning and modern disciplines. The mission of his life
has been the establishment of worldwide peace. He has
received the Padma Bhushan, the Demiurgus Peace
International Award and Sayyidina Imam Al Hassan
Peace award for promoting peace in Muslim societies.
He has been called ’Islam’s spiritual ambassador to the
world’ and is recognized as one of its most influential
Muslims
. His books have been translated into sixteen
languages and are part of university curricula in six
countries. He is the founder of the Centre for Peace
and Spirituality based in New Delhi.
THIS IS NOT THE TIME
A YOUNG man from Delhi had to get to Mumbai to appear for an
interview for a job abroad. He had booked a berth on a train.
On the day of his departure, he left his home for the railway
station in a rickshaw. It so happened that some boys threw stones at
the rickshaw.
At this, the young man’s friend, who was accompanying him, lost his
temper. He wanted to get off the rickshaw, catch hold of the boys
and teach them a lesson for their misbehaviour. But the young man
stopped him.
“Where do we have the time for this?” he asked, as the rickshaw
moved ahead.
What the young man wanted to say was, “I have to reach the station
at once and catch the train. Then, after getting to Mumbai, I have to
appear for the interview. In such a situation, where do I have the time
to get stuck with these boys? I’d rather exercise patience in the face of
their misbehaviour so that I do not miss my interview in Mumbai.”
People have this sort of seriousness about their worldly affairs. But
true believers have an even greater seriousness than this about the
Hereafter. One who is serious about worldly affairs simply does not have any time whatsoever to get involved in irrelevant things, like the
man heading for the interview.
In the same way, one who is serious about the Hereafter does not
want to get involved at all, in issues that will divert him from his goal
of the Hereafter.
A passenger who wants to travel from Delhi to Amritsar, in the northwest,
will not head in the direction of Kolkata, to the south-east.
Likewise, a person who is journeying towards the Hereafter will not
want to head off in a direction that will take him far away from his
chosen destination.
If we consider ourselves as travellers in this world, we can derive
inspiration from the above-mentioned example of the young man.
But if we think of ourselves as travellers who are journeying
towards the Hereafter, we can find inspiration in the example of the
Companions of the Prophet who did not let worldly things divert them
from their mission.
If we follow neither path — being concerned with neither sort of journey
— then we will be simply wandering about, without any destination
whatsoever.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Don’t disturb
the mind
Missing an opportunity
is not a problem.
The real problem is that
your mind gets so disturbed that
you fail to recognize some viable alternative course.
SCIENCE AND THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
No Contradiction
THERE is much confusion about Einstein's religious beliefs, in
particular about his views on the existence of God. Some think
that Einstein was an atheist. Others have a different opinion. An
analysis of the various statements made by Einstein about his views
will show that Einstein was not an atheist, and was in doubt about the
existence of God.
In 1997, Skeptic, a science magazine, published for the first time a
series of letters that Einstein exchanged in 1945 with an officer in the
US Navy named Guy Raner Jr, on the existence of God. Raner wanted
to know if it was true that Einstein converted from atheism to theism
on being confronted by a Jesuit priest with the following argument: A
design requires a designer, and since the universe has a design, it must
have a designer. Einstein wrote back that he had never spoken to a
Jesuit priest in his life, but that from the viewpoint of such a person, he
was and would always be an atheist. He added that it was misleading
and childish to use anthropomorphic concepts in dealing with things
outside the human sphere and that all we could do was to admire, in
humility, the beautiful harmony of the structure of this world as far as
we can grasp it.
A design requires a designer, and since the universe
has a design, it must have a designer.
Raner replied, asking for clarification of Einstein’s position, “Are you,
from the viewpoint of the dictionary, an atheist, one who disbelieves in
the existence of a God or a Supreme Being”?
To this, Einstein replied, “I have repeatedly said that in my opinion
the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an
agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional
atheist, whose fervour is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from
the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an
attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual
understanding of nature and of our own being.”
The view that Einstein holds about the existence of God is the same
that almost all scientists hold. They consider themselves agnostics — neither acknowledging the existence of God nor denying it.
The subject of scientific study is the material world. The material world
is the creation of the Creator. Scientific study is, therefore, the study
of God’s creation. A scientist can deny the existence of a Creator, but
it is impossible for him to deny the signs of the Creator in His creation.
In truth, the physical world contains many incredible realities that are
beyond material comprehension. For example, meaningful design,
intelligence, purposeful planning, etc. These properties in the physical
world are an indirect affirmation of the existence of God.
The subject of scientific study is the material world. The
material world is the creation of the Creator. Scientific
study is, therefore, the study of God’s creation.
To justify this opinion, one method that we can use is to evaluate
whether or not scientific discoveries are in conformity with the concept
of the existence of God. This method of establishing a viewpoint can be
called ‘verificationism’.
Another argument we can use can be called ‘the principle of
compatibility’. This means that if a premise which in itself is not
demonstrable is compatible with existing known and demonstrable
discoveries, we can accept it as true. If this method is applied to
the concept of the existence of God, then the existence of God
becomes established.
Acknowledgement of Science
Scientific studies have shown that there exists a high order of
intelligence and planning in the universe. There is incredible harmony
in the universe. These facts have been acknowledged by many world
renowned scientists, such as Sir James Jeans, Arthur Eddington, Albert
Einstein, David Foster, Fred Hoyle, etc. It has been established that the
essence of the universe is ‘intelligence’. In the words of a scientist:
Molecular biology has conclusively proved that the ‘matter’ of
organic life, our very flesh, really is mind-stuff.
In 1927, a Belgian scientist, Georges Lemaitre, proposed the concept
of the Big Bang. Further research on his proposal resulted in what is
now widely accepted as the model of the universe. In 1965, cosmic
background radiation—ripples of microwave radiation found every- where in space with no discernible source—was attributed to the Big
Bang. This radiation was the remnant of the Big Bang. On observing
this radiation, Joel Primack, an American scientist, observed: 'the ripples
are no less than the handwriting of God'.
George Fitzgerald Smoot is an American astrophysicist and cosmologist,
who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006 for his work on the Cosmic
Background Explorer. In 1992, when he announced the discovery of
ripples in the heat radiation still arriving from the Big Bang, he said it
was 'like seeing the face of God'.
Theory of Everything
Although Albert Einstein was born in a Jewish family, after scientific
study he had become doubtful about the existence of God. A year
before his death in 1954, he wrote a letter to a Jewish philosopher, Eric
B. Gutkind, where he said:
The word God was nothing more than the expression
and product of human weaknesses.
What Einstein refers to as ‘human weakness’ is not really a weakness
but a characteristic feature of man. This characteristic feature has
been aptly described in the following words: ‘Man is an explanationseeking
animal.’ This characteristic feature of man is the foundation
of all progress. On the basis of this feature, man seeks out an
explanation for all things, thereby reaching the great discoveries that
make all developments in civilization possible. If it were not for this
feature in man, human civilization would have remained in a state of
total ignorance.
Science has not proved the existence of God directly, but
it would be true to say that Science has accumulated
the data to prove the existence of God.
It is said that Einstein spent the last thirty years of his life in a quest to
find a scientific answer, but he was not successful. This quest was to
find a Unified Field Theory. This was an extremely important scientific
quest and is still the subject of scientific research. It is now better
known as the Theory of Everything.
What is the Theory of Everything? It is a unified theory that would supposedly give a scientific explanation to all the forces in nature.
The 'Theory of Everything' is actually a theory that purports to
explain everything.
In 1998, CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research,
launched a project to build the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a high
energy particle accelerator that would enable scientists to study subatomic
particles. These particles were the basis of the fundamental
laws of physics. Their study would help, so it was felt, in establishing
a Theory of Everything. The LHC was built in collaboration with over
10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries, as well as
hundreds of universities and laboratories, and at a cost over hundred
million dollars. It lies in a tunnel 27 kilometres in circumference,
metres beneath the surface of the earth on the Franco-Swiss border
near Geneva, Switzerland.
A scientist can deny the existence of a Creator,
but it is impossible for him to deny the
signs of the Creator in His creation.
Almost a century has now passed in the search for this Theory of
Everything, or, rather, an explanation of everything, but yet scientists
have not succeeded in this. Any scientific formula can never be an
answer to such a question.
Missing Link
On the issue of belief in God and Science, a more appropriate statement
could be as follows: Although the God that religion presents as a
matter of faith is not a subject of scientific study, scientific discoveries
are indirectly an academic affirmation of this belief. Science has not
proved the existence of God directly, but it would be true to say that
Science has accumulated the data to prove the existence of God.
In the standard model of Science, there is a missing link. The scientific
model explains the ‘action’, but it does not show the ‘actor’. On the other
hand, in the model of the universe that the Quran proposes, both the
‘action’ and the ‘actor’ are present. In other words, the Quran explains
the cause as well as the causative factor. Where Science acknowledges
the ‘action’ (intelligence), then, by extrapolation, there can be no reason
for Science not to accept the ‘actor’ (mind).
MUSLIM WORLDVIEW
An Islamic Perspective
ISLAMIC jurisprudence, or fiqh, was framed mostly during the
Abbasid caliphate. Some of the terms coined by the jurists by way
of inference from the Quran and Hadith are Dar ul-Islam (Abode of
Islam) Dar ul-Kufr (Abode of disbelief) and Dar ul-Harb (Abode of War)
The jurists who devised these terms during the Abbasid period were
given the status of mujtahid (one who exercises Ijtihad or independent
reasoning in the light of the Quran and Hadith to understand religious
matters) in later times, and so these terms were never questioned over
the last one thousand years. However, upon perusing this matter, it
becomes clear that these terms created by the jurists were against the
spirit of Islam.
God sees and deals with all human beings in the
same light. The Quran refutes notions of God’s
'favoured people' in the strongest of terms.
The terms they devised did not exist in the Quran or Hadith. They
invented these terms on their own by exercising their right of ijtihad
There are many conditions that have to be met before making ijtihad,
and ijtihad is only considered valid if it fulfills all the required conditions.
Religious scholars have said that the ijtihad of a jurist can be right or
wrong, because a human being is liable to make errors in judgment,
and a mujtahid is no exception to this.
Ijtihad is a principle of Shariah (Islamic law). There is general acceptance
among the religious scholars, the ulema, that the source of this principle
of ijtihad in the Shariah is a Hadith narrated by Muaz ibn Jabal, a senior
companion of the Prophet and recorded by a number of traditionists,
like Abu Dawood, At-Tirmizi, An-Nasai, Ibn Majah and Imam Ahmad.
The Hadith is as follows:
Muaz ibn Jabal said that when the Prophet sent him to Yemen
as governor, he asked him how he would decide matters. Muaz
replied that he would decide in accordance with the Book of
God. Then the Prophet asked him what he would do in case he
did not find the required guidance in the Quran. Muaz replied
that he would seek guidance in the Hadith. The Prophet asked
him what he would do if he failed to find guidance regarding the matter in the Hadith as well. Muaz replied that in that situation
he would exercise his judgment to the best of his ability. The
Prophet then placed his hand on his chest and said, “May God
be praised, for granting this ability to Muaz".
This Hadith is regarded as the fundamental source of the principle of
Ijtihad. When we examine this Hadith, we learn exactly when a Muslim is
allowed to do ijtihad in Islam—he or she is permitted to do so only when
no guidance is available for that particular situation in the Quran and
Hadith. If guidance is available in the matter at hand in the Quran then
any ijtihad will be invalid. For example, it is established from the Quran
that fasting has been fixed for the month of Ramadan. It is, therefore,
not permissible for anyone to do ijtihad and fix some other time of the
year for fasting. The same applies to the number of obligatory prayers.
No one is allowed to do ijtihad to increase or decrease the number of
obligatory prayers, the number of obligatory fasting days or to change
the month of fasting, and so on.
Through this principle, we find clear guidance in the Quran and Hadith
regarding the use of such terms as Dar ul-Islam, Dar ul-Kufr and Dar ulHarb.
It is not proper for any scholar or jurist to devise new terms on
his own by means of ijtihad in the face of available guidance.
The sight of a human being should remind us of the
Creator who has created all human beings. It should
remind us of God’s miraculous powers to grant life.
Thus, it must bring us to God-realization.
To elaborate, the situations that the jurists use the term Dar ul-Kufr
for, were the same set of situations that the Prophet faced for the
period of thirteen years that he lived in Makkah after receiving
prophethood. So, according to the jurists, Makkah, from the beginning
of the Prophet’s prophethood to the Hijrah, had, in principle, the status
of Dar ul-Kufr. Yet, we do not find a single reference in the Quran and
Hadith to show that the term Dar ul-Kufr was ever applied to the town
of Makkah before the Prophet’s migration from there.
After the migration of the Prophet, the Makkans openly opposed him.
Following the Hijrah, the Muslims and the Makkans were at war, and
this was a situation similar to the one for which the jurists devised the
term Dar ul-Harb. Yet, we know that no such term has been used in the Quran and Hadith for this specific situation.
Following the Hijrah, a state was established in Madinah under the
leadership of the Prophet. To describe a situation such as this, later
jurists devised the term Dar ul-Islam. But neither the Quran nor the
Hadith uses the term Dar ul-Islam for the Madinah of the Prophet’s
time. In fact, the Quran uses Dar us-Salaam for Paradise (
is no bit of land on this earth for which the terms Dar ul-Islam or Dar
ul- Iman (Abode of faith) are used in the Quran. Islam does not allow
the use of terms such as Dar ul-Islam, Dar ul-Kufr, and Dar ul-Harb, etc.
for such situations. Devising such terms by the Abbasid period jurists
amounted to transgressing their bounds. They exercised ijtihad in a
matter where they were not authorized by the Shariah.
The coining of such terms by the jurists was an error in judgment. A
student of Islam should reject this ijtihad. In the terminology of the
Shariah, it is an invention (bid‘a) and must be rejected. It is clearly
mentioned in the Hadith that regardless of who does so, introducing
anything new into Islam is not permissible.
Muslims find great appeal in the 'community-oriented
approach', but such things are short-sighted, narrowminded
and closeted representations of reality that
have no appeal for anyone else.
The coining of such terms as Dar ul-Islam, Dar ul-Kufr and Dar ul-Harb is
an extremely serious matter. It relates to the Muslim world-view. It is
responsible for inculcating the mentality of 'the chosen people' among
Muslims. It is the sign of the decline of a nation.
We learn from the Quran that God does not divide human society
on the basis of such demarcations as Dar ul-Islam, Dar ul-Kufr and
Dar ul-Harb. God sees and deals with all human beings in the same
light. The Quran refutes notions of God’s 'favoured people' in the
strongest of terms.,/p>
The Quran tells us that in the eyes of God, everyone’s worth is
determined by their personal actions or character, rather than by
their belonging to a particular race or community (THE QURAN 53:39).
One verse of the Quran in this regard will suffice for this purpose:
The believers, the Jews, the Christians and the Sabeans all
those who believe in God and the Last day and do good deeds
will be rewarded by their Lord; they shall have no fear,
nor shall they grieve.
THE QURAN 2: 62
Muslims, Christians, Jews and all others are equal in the eyes of God.
God will judge people based upon their deeds, rather than upon their
belonging to a particular community.
Determining the status of other groups in relation to Muslims is a
sectarian viewpoint, which is contrary to the universal approach of
Islam. It goes against the creation plan of God. God has made this
world for all human beings, and not just for Muslims.
Some Hadith reports have been similarly misread (in order to promote
a wrong sense of Muslim supremacy). Once, when the Prophet of Islam
was in Madinah, a funeral procession passed by. On seeing it, the
Prophet stood up. His Companions said to him that it was the funeral
of a Jew, indicating that, therefore, there was no need to stand up. The
Prophet replied by asking them if the person was not a human being.
This incident has been recorded by Al-Bukhari.
This act of the Prophet of Islam clearly shows that every human
being is worthy of respect and honour, regardless of his religion. This
Hadith clearly shows that the way of Islam is to regard everyone as
one regards oneself. The sight of a human being should remind us of
the Creator who has created all human beings. It should remind us of
God’s miraculous powers to grant life. Thus, it must bring us to Godrealization.
This tradition clearly tells us of the practice of the Prophet of Islam
regarding respect for all people. It is strange that none of the
commentators of the Hadith have taken the main lesson from this.
On the contrary, in their commentaries, they have interpreted it, for
example, by saying that standing for the funeral of a non-Muslim is not
obligatory, or that the Prophet stood only because he was reminded
of death, or that the Prophet stood out of respect for the angels who
accompanied the dead body, or that the Prophet did not want the
funeral passing above his head, or even that the Prophet did stand
before the funeral of a Jew but that this command has been abrogated
and that Muslims are no longer required to do so.
There is no doubt at all that such interpretations are invalid. But
explanations and commentaries of this nature continue even today.
Books, magazines, journals, radio, television and the internet—all
these resources have, directly or indirectly, been used to perpetuate
this mindset. Muslims find great appeal in the 'community-oriented
approach', but such things are short-sighted, narrow-minded and
closeted representations of reality that have no appeal for anyone else.
For example, a TV channel called QTV (Quran TV) has become very
popular among the Muslim masses. Although this channel carries the
name of the Quran, it only serves to placate the Muslim community.
Khushwant Singh, the famous journalist, wrote a column called
‘Spreading Islamophobia’ in the Hindustan Times a decade ago.
Here is an excerpt from what he wrote:
About the most disturbing phenomenon of the past decade is
the widening divide between the Islamic and non-Islamic world
[…] I looked forward to the Pakistani Channel, QTV (Quran TV), to
take the lead in this direction. I made it a point to tune in every
afternoon to see and hear how it was going about its mission. I
was sorely disappointed. I expected that it would address itself
to non-Muslim audiences among which wrong notions about
Islam persist. I found it focused entirely on Muslims, to assure
them that their faith was better than any other and that anyone
who disagrees is an ignoramus […]
What Khushwant Singh says here applies to almost every Muslim writer
and speaker. This mindset is responsible for Muslims having completely
forgotten their goal of dawah.
Fiqh or Muslim jurisprudence consists of the details of commands
and laws, and hundreds of books about fiqh have been written over
the years by Muslim scholars; yet, none of them contain chapters on
dawah. The books of all other Muslim writers, including al-Ghazali, Ibn
Taiymiya, Shah Waliullah, Jamaluddin Afghani, Mohammad Iqbal, etc.
are similarly bereft of chapters on dawah.
Due to this unnatural way of thinking, the Muslim ummah, once
intellectually stagnant, is now in regress. The responsibility for this
intellectual tragedy falls especially on the sectarian juristic concept
of Dar ul-Kufr.
Another one of these dangerous concepts is that Muslims are God’s
vicegerents on earth, and that it is their binding duty to impose upon
the world the laws of the Shariah on behalf of God.
This concept has come to dominate Muslim thought. Many other things
are explained and interpreted in the light of this concept. For instance,
there is a Hadith of the Prophet which says that the word of God would
enter every home in the world. This was interpreted as a concept of
Caliphate in the sense that the rule of Islam would be established all
over the world. This is illogical and baseless. The Hadith refers to the
'word of Islam’, not the ‘rule of Islam’. It is obvious that, according to
this Hadith, the word of Islam, or its message, will reach all homes, but
this is far from Muslim rule being established all over the world!
This (mis)interpretation is not an explanation, but, rather, a politicization
of this Hadith report. Muslims have begun to take great pride in
saying that Islam is a complete system. This may seem like a beautiful
definition of Islam, but it is a later addition (bid‘a), and has nothing to
do with the original Islam. Nowhere in the Quran and Hadith do we find
anything to suggest that Islam is a total system.
This concept of ‘total Islam’, if perpetuated, will leave present-day
Muslims with two dangerous, futile and evil choices. In order to adhere
to their version of ‘total Islam’, they must declare war against the entire
world, because until they conquer all of it, they cannot uphold their
supposed version of Islam. Or, they can continue to regard Islam as
a ‘total system’ but compromise with the world, because they are too
hypocritically enamoured with material benefits to commit themselves
sincerely to their own professed ideals.
Isolated Living
Individual or isolated living deprives one
of interactive learning, greater experience and the
opportunity to learn lessons. It is like living in a cocoon.
THE FINAL DESTINATION
Our Unawareness
MT. Everest is the highest peak in the world. It is 29,
or 8848 metres high. One of the first people to try to ascend
this peak was a British man called Maurice Wilson. This was in
1934. But what he thought would be the climax of his life turned out to
be an enormous anti-climax.
Maurice had been a soldier in the First World War. He was so keen
on climbing the highest peak in the world that for this sake he gave
up his successful
family business He
spent all his money
on buying a secondhand
aircraft, which
he flew, over a
distance of some
6000 miles, from
England to India, and
landed at Purnea,
in Bihar. He did not
get permission to
fly further on, and
so he sold it. After
this, he set off on his
journey to Mt. Everest through Darjeeling and Tibet.
Finally, all that he had left with him was a small tent, some rice, a
camera and a few other things. He began his ascent of the mountain,
and managed to climb till a height of around 19000 feet. The 21st of
April 1934 was to be his 36th birthday, and he hoped to celebrate
that day atop Mt. Everest. A few days prior to that, he had written in
his diary:
Only 13,000 feet more to go. I have the distinct feeling
that I’ll reach the summit on April 21.
But shortly after writing these lines with such evident confidence, a
fierce Himalayan storm broke out. The severe weather conditions
put an end to his plans of going further up the mountain, and he was
compelled to go down. And so, he descended to a lower level. But after
this, it was not in his fate to be able to move up the mountain again. No one really knows what happened to him then, but a year later, when
Tenzing Norgay was heading up Mt. Everest, he found Maurice Wilson’s
corpse, and, with it, his diary, the last entry in which was the sentence
quoted above.
Maurice had planned to take a picture of himself atop Mt. Everest with
his camera. His camera, he had hoped, would capture his moment of
victory. But his time came before that could happen.
There was no Maurice Wilson left whose victory his camera could
show to the world! This, in a sense, is the same story of all of us.
Everyone thinks that he is advancing towards the peak of success,
whereas the reality is just the opposite. In actual fact, everyone is
heading towards a destination where there will be no one to welcome
him other than Death.
People are all advancing in the direction of the unknown
‘tomorrow’, and yet they think that they are building a
‘successful’ world in the known ‘today’.
In this world, some people nurse the desire only for worldly success,
but they have not even set off on the journey to their dream-world
when Death grabs them. Others manage to attain, to greater or lesser
extent, the objects of their desire. Yet, this does not give them the
happiness they were looking for, and so they are no different from the
first category of people. After getting what they hankered after, they
realize that these things do not give them true joy. And so, in this world
those who obtain the objects of their worldly desire feel as deprived as
those who do not. Yet, few people realize this.
Human beings deprive themselves of what is truly worth having,
and delude themselves into imagining that the things of this world
will give them joy. Life is absolutely uncertain, yet people imagine it
to be absolutely certain. People are all advancing in the direction of
the unknown ‘tomorrow’, and yet they think that they are building a
‘successful’ world in the known ‘today’.
How unaware people are who think they know themselves! What
failures those people are who consider themselves to be the most
successful of all!
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN
Equal In Respect, Different In Role
THE term ‘gender equality’ was used for the first time in Europe
in the late nineteenth century. To begin with, it was used only
to argue for women’s right to vote. However, it later came to
be adopted for general use to describe the equality of both sexes in
every aspect.
This term then spread rapidly all over the Western world, as an
expression describing the ideal status of men and women. In the second
half of the twentieth century, extensive research was carried out on
this subject, and this concept began to be doubted. The latest study
done on this is by an IIT-Delhi alumnus, which has been extensively
covered by the media.
Islam says that men and women are different by birth,
rather than being identical. Both are
complementary to each other.
A study team led by Ragini Verma, associate professor of radiology at
the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has revealed that
there are stark differences between men and women in the structural
connections linking different regions of their brains.
Verma and her colleagues are among the first to demonstrate differences
in the brain’s hard-wiring to support long-standing observations of
gender differences in functional tasks. Their findings appeared in the
US journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, December
2, 2013.
The researchers’ findings in this regard only confirm the Islamic position
stated in the first quarter of the seventh century. Islam says that men
and women are different by birth, rather than being identical. Both are
complementary to each other. This fact is referred to in the Quran in
these words:
You [men and women] are members one of another.
THE QURAN 3: 195
According to the Quran, everything in this world has been created in
the form of pairs:
We created pairs of all things.
THE QURAN 51: 49
In the material world, every atom consists of positive particles and
negative particles. In the plant and the animal worlds, there are males
and females. The human world consists of men and women.
‘Men and women are equal in respect
and different in roles’.
This pair-system in the world means that everything functions in a
pair-fashion. In other words, nature functions on the principle of
complementarity, rather than in an independent manner.
Observing this natural fact, one can say that using the term 'gender
equality' to express the relationship between men and women is
not natural. The right statement based on nature in this regard is:
‘Men and women are equal in respect and different in roles’.
HUMILITY AND SINCERITY IN PRAYER
Sure Path to Positive Thinking
The Quran says:
Successful indeed are the believers;
those who are humble in their prayer […]
THE QURAN 23: 1-2
HUMILITY and utmost sincerity in one’s Salat or worship comes
when you recall God, who will one day take account of your
every thought, word and deed, and who will reward or punish
you, as the case may be, for all of these. In this regard, the Quran talks
about the humble;
Who know for certain that they will meet their Lord,
and that they will return to Him.
THE QURAN 2: 46
From this we learn that humility and sincerity are the condition
engendered in one’s heart from the overwhelming consciousness of
one‘s meeting with God. Humility and utter sincerity in prayer is to
make oneself so awakened at the conscious level that when one utters
the words that are part of the prayer, their meaning and significance
activate one’s mind.
Humility and sincerity are the condition engendered in
one’s heart from the overwhelming consciousness of
one‘s meeting with God.
Various parts of one’s body perform the external actions that form part
of the prayer and one’s mind is full of fear of having to stand in front of
God. This condition becomes so overwhelming that one’s body begins
to quake with fear. Acquiring this condition requires great effort. That
is why patience has been included along with prayer (THE QURAN 2: 45).
A Persian poet says:
At night, when I stand up with the intention of offering prayers,
I keep thinking, ‘What will my child eat
tomorrow morning?’
In metaphorical language, what the poet is telling us is that for offering
prayers with humility and utter sincerity, the mind should not be
engrossed in some other thought. Instead, it should focus entirely on
one’s meeting with the Lord.
Offering prayer with humility and utter sincerity is
possible only for the person who before prayer has
developed positive thinking.
Experience shows that the most powerful thing that can shift one’s
focus away from something is negative thinking. In collective life, one
repeatedly faces negative experiences. In this regard, one should abide
by patience or sabr and completely save oneself from negative feelings.
Offering prayer with humility and utter sincerity is possible only for the
person who before prayer has developed positive thinking. And this is
possible only when one develops a mindset infused with patience, so
that despite the negative experiences one may encounter, one remains
firmly established in positive thinking.
Accept, Introspect,
Make Amends
There are different
kinds of bad deeds.
But no matter what kind of
bad deed you have committed,
after each one you should feel repentant
and try to erase the effects of your
bad deed by doing a good deed.
The fact is that every bad deed you commit
can pollute your soul. Cleanse it by your tears,
or by some other kind of penitent behaviour
WHAT WENT WRONG WITH MUSLIMS
A Result of Not Changing
IN 1770, the Turkish naval establishment was wiped out in the Battle
of Çeşme by a Russian fleet. In 1799, the Fourth Mysore War was
fought between Tipu Sultan and the British East India Company at
Srirangapatanam. In this war, Tipu Sultan was killed. When the British
Governor-General of India, George Harris, heard of the death of Tipu
Sultan, he is said to have exclaimed: “Today, India is ours!”
These two events symbolise the beginning of the end of Muslim
political glory in the modern age. There were a series of such events
in most Muslim countries, and the Muslim leadership of that time
strongly reacted to this disturbing phenomenon. But history shows
that in all their attempts they totally failed to achieve their goal. First,
there were complaints, then protests, followed by violence, then
the gun culture, and, lastly, suicide bombing. In short, this is the
scenario of more than two hundred years of Muslim struggle. What
is happening in Egypt today is only the latest manifestation of this
unsuccessful Muslim activism.
The time has now come to reassess this long failed struggle. There is
no justification for continuing this pattern of resistance. It will only lead
to more loss. An unbiased study tells us that the Western powers who
Muslims considered enemies were, in fact, not enemies, but harbingers
of a new civilisation. It was the Western nations who had developed
this new civilisation, and it was bound to spread out across the world.
But there were two aspects to this. One was the political dominance of
Western nations. And the other was that they had brought to the world
an age of new science, technology and industry. The traditional world
was then transformed into a new world, which resulted in a change in
the balance of power.
The mistake that Muslim leaders made was that they failed to
understand this duality. They took it as simply a political phenomenon,
and they waged a political war against these Western nations. In this
situation, the best policy for Muslims would have been to differentiate
between politics, on the one hand, and civilisation, on the other. The
better choice would have been to avoid the political problem and to
take into account the non-political aspect of Western expansion, that is,
the civilisation ushered in by the West, based on scientific discoveries
and modern technology.
It was this policy that was adopted by the Japanese after the Second
World War, and within less than fifty years they emerged as an
economic superpower. The same option was open to Muslim countries.
They should have avoided the political problem and availed the
opportunities of civilisation instead. Had Muslims done this, history
would have taken a different course.
This creative policy is definitely an Islamic policy, and the Prophet
of Islam adopted it. During the negotiations prior to the signing of
the Hudaybiyah Treaty, he avoided political problems and tried to
avail of whatever opportunities presented themselves at that time.
Thus, he went on to have that great success that is mentioned in
the Quran as a ‘clear victory’ (THE QURAN 48: 1).
In this regard, consider two verses from the Quran. The first reads,
Believers, turn to God, every one of you,
so that you may prosper.
THE QURAN 24: 31
In this verse, the Arabic word used for turning to God in repentance
is tawbah (tubu ilallah). Tawbah means, in a sense, following a U-turn
policy, which means to re-assess one’s actions and make amends. In
the context of this verse, it means that Muslims must adopt such a
policy at the level of the entire community.
The other Quranic verse tells us,
God does not change the condition of a people's lot,
unless they change what is in their hearts
THE QURAN 13: 11
This means that if Muslims want to see a new future, they must change
their present.
Now, in the twenty-first century, the time has come for Muslims to
adopt a U-turn. They must bring to an end all violent activities, and
should devote their energies to achieving a two-point formula of
education and dawah, reaching out to people with God’s message.
Education will bring their succeeding generations into line with modern
standards, and dawah work will provide them with a global mission
through which they will be able to chalk out a proper line of action
for themselves.
FROM THE SPIRITUAL TREE
Signs Of God
There is a tree beside my house. I call
it the 'Spiritual Tree'. I derive spiritual
inspiration from it. A tree is an evergrowing
being that was initially a seed
possessing the potential of becoming
a full-grown tree. A seed takes food
from the universe around it and then
grows into a tree. The same is true
with spirituality, the desire for which is
intrinsic to, and an integral part of, the
very nature of, every human being. To
realize this spirituality, Man must derive
spiritual food from the universe around
him. A tree converts carbon-dioxide into oxygen; a spiritual person is one who
can take positive lessons from negative situations. From this perspective, a tree
is an embodiment of a spiritual personality. — Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
It was the 7th of September, 1982, and I was in a mountainous region in Africa,
standing in front of a tree that I hadn’t ever seen before.
THE entire tree appeared as a sign of God. Everything about it
seemed strange. Its delicate flowers, its fruits, its leaves that
seemed to have been crafted with mathematical precision—
everything about the tree announced that it had not grown on its own,
but, rather, that it had been made by someone—its Maker.
Like this tree, every other tree anywhere in the world is a model of
God’s craftsmanship. But not having seen this sort of tree before, it had
greatly affected me. On seeing this strange and beautiful African tree,
I spontaneously said:
It seems that everything that God has made in this world has
written on it the phrase 'Made by God'!
It is as if God wrote the words 'Made by God' on everything and then
kept Himself hidden from people’s vision so that they could recognize
Him from the things that He has created. Despite His being invisible,
they could, in this way, discern His presence.
A person with an expert knowledge of machines can, simply by looking at a particular machine, tell you where it has been made. The same is
true with every other thing in the entire universe. We are in a world
full of ‘natural machines’, as it were, each of these continuously doing
its work.
These ‘machines’ do not have a visible stamp on them indicating who
made them. But because their manufacturing is so extraordinary and
the craftsmanship that has gone into making them so utterly unique,
they themselves announce who their Creator is. In this way, all created
things and beings clearly tell us about the Creator.
Nothing in the natural world has a label on it stating in words who
made it. But, if you go deeper, you will realize that each of these has,
written on it as it were, the name of their Creator. Anyone can clearly
discern that every created thing is undoubtedly made by God, and not
by anyone else.
LESSONS FROM JESUS CHRIST
To Forgive And Forbear
WE find from the Quran and Hadith that a large number of
God’s messengers were sent to different nations and
regions. Nearly all of these prophets are unknown from
the historical point of view. The records of their contemporaries
make no mention of them or their work. It is as if these prophets and
the incidents connected with their lives were thought not worthy of
being mentioned.
Without a doubt, the prophets are examples of the loftiest human
character. But because of the unpredictable nature of History, only
events largely connected with people in power have been recorded,
thus depriving posterity of the precious details of the lives of the
prophets. The Quran revealed this lost chapter for the first time
in history.
It might seem that a recital of the facts relating to the life and mission
of the Prophet of Islam would have sufficed, but there was a very
good reason for making frequent mention of other prophets and
also testifying to their having received God’s guidance, a blessing
that exalted them above all other creatures. It was so that the
Prophet of Islam and his ummah might learn valuable lessons from
the ways in which these prophets dealt with the situations in which
they found themselves.
In the Quran, the Prophet of Islam is thus addressed:
These are whom God guided aright,
so follow their guidance.
THE QURAN 6:90
Every one of the prophets mentioned in the Quran was an upright man,
guided by God along a straight path. The Quran mentions a number
of these prophets by name—Ibrahim (Abraham), Ishaq (Isaac), Yaqub
(Jacob), Nuh (Noah), Dawood (David), Sulaiman (Solomon), Ayyub (Job),
Yousuf (Joseph), Musa (Moses), Haroon (Aaron), Zakariya (Zachariah),
Isa (Jesus), Ismail, Yahya (John the Baptist), Younus (Jonah), and Lut (Lot)
peace be upon them all God has also instructed us not to differentiate
between the prophets as they essentially brought the same message
to mankind (
The Prophet Muhammad was instructed by God to follow the guidance
of the prophets before him. By extension, all the followers of Prophet
Muhammad must also seek guidance from the lives of the other
prophets. Each one of us must evaluate the situation we face, and
then, whilst examining the lives of other prophets, should determine in
which prophet’s story we can find a similar example. Our response to
this situation should be the same as that of the prophets.
Every one of the prophets mentioned in the Quran was an
upright man, guided by God along a straight path.
For example, from the Prophet Abraham we learn what our behaviour
should be towards unbelieving parents. We are to obey them as long
as doing so does not contradict God’s commands.
We are to convey to them the message of God in a gentle, kind-hearted
and reasonable manner. But if they chose to disbelieve, we must not
force them, but, instead, should pray for their forgiveness instead.
The Prophet Ismail’s example shows us what our behaviour should be
towards believing parents. We are to obey them in what is right and
seek guidance from them and assist them in their work.
We learn a lesson from the Prophet Yusuf’s example of not standing
against rulers and not confronting them in the political field. We should
accept their position and avail of the opportunities that arise in other,
non-political, spheres.
Similarly, from Jesus’ life we can draw many lessons that can provide us
with wonderful guidance. The Quran repeatedly mentions Jesus Christ,
and we can learn much from his life.
Unilateral Good Character
Jesus Christ says:
‘‘But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to
those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, and pray for
those who spitefully use you”.
LUKE 6: 27-30
The same teaching is echoed in the Quran:
And good deeds and evil deeds are not alike.
Repel evil with good and he who is your
enemy will become your dearest friend.
(THE QURAN 41: 34)
This is a practical code of conduct for us, showing us the way to live in
peace and harmony.
Duty Consciousness
When some people asked Jesus what they should do in the face of the
oppression of the Romans ruling over them, he said:
Give to king what is due to the king.
And give to God what is due to God.
Similarly, a Hadith cited by Al-Bukhari says:
Give the ruler his rights. Ask for your rights from God.
Peace under all circumstances
Jesus said:
To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also.
And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your
tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him
who takes away your goods, do not ask them back.”
What Jesus Christ meant here was to put an end to the root cause of all
conflicts. Thus paving the way for the other person to realize and make
amends for his behaviour.
Awaken the man within
By forgiving someone for his ill-treatment of you,
you awaken in him a sense of shame, whereas
by returning evil for evil, a reaction of
revenge and retaliation
is set aflame.
DOMINION AS A TEST
Creation Plan of God
WILLIAM Penn was born in London in 1644 and died in 1718.
A great advocate of religious tolerance, he took part in both:
religious affairs and politics. One of his sayings is as follows:
Let the people think they govern, and they will be governed.
Penn said this on the basis of his study of history. But this is not
something related only to history. It is, in fact, a universal law of nature.
It is established by God himself according to His own creation plan.
This natural law set by the Almighty God has been described in these
words in the Quran:
We alternate these days among mankind.
THE QURAN 3: 140
By ‘days’ here is meant the days of victory and defeat, of domination
and subjugation. In this world just as everything else is for the purpose
of testing people, so is political power. That is why it is granted to each
group by turn, so that every group can be tested. In this world, the
state of domination and power is for the sake of testing people, just as
the state of subjugation and submission, too, are.
In this world, the state of domination and power is for the
sake of testing people, just as the state of subjugation
and submission, too, are.
What is required from man is that when he is granted power, he should
not suffer from pride and arrogance. And when man finds himself in
a state of subjugation, he should not fall prey to negative psychology.
Either of the states should be acceptable to man as a matter of divine
ordainment. In both states, man’s eyes should be set on shouldering
his own responsibilities, rather than on the right or wrong attitude
adopted by others.
If you bear this in mind, it will keep you away from negative activities.
It will enable you to save your capabilities from being wasted, and so
you can focus on beneficial and result-oriented actions. Loss of power
is from God. Protesting against it is to protest against God. And is there
anyone who can succeed in his protest against God?
THE BIBLES TESTIMONY
A Point to Consider
THE Prophet Moses is said to have lived in around the 13th or
6th century CE. In other words, there is perhaps a gap of some
2000 years between the two. Several statements attributed to Moses
are found in the Bible. The Bible says that once Moses addressed his
people, saying:
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from
among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—
just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of
the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of
the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ And
the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken.
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their
brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall
speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not
listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will
require it of him. But the prophet who presumes to speak a
word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or
who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall
die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word
that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the
name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come
true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet
has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.
THE BIBLE Deuteronomy 18: 15-22
These words of Moses are clearly a prediction. Here, he predicts that
after him, a prophet like him would appear. The entire history after
the Prophet Moses indicates that there was only one prophet like him
—and that was Muhammad Ibn Abdullah.
Christians take this prophecy of Moses to apply to Jesus, although Jesus
was in many respects in no way like Moses.
Moses was born in the natural way, through a mother and a father, while
Jesus was born in a supernatural way. Moses married a woman, while
Jesus abstained from marriage and married life. Moses led his people,
while Jesus did not get the opportunity to lead his community. Shariah laws were revealed to Moses but not to Jesus. Moses took his people
out of the slavery at the hands of Pharaoh, while despite the advent
of Jesus, the Jews remained under the Romans. Clear differences like
these exist between Moses and Jesus. And so, accordingly, Jesus cannot
be termed to be kind of prophet that Moses was.
This is such an obvious fact that many non-Muslim researchers
themselves accept it. For instance, a Christian scholar, Rev, James L.
Dow, has written a dictionary of the Bible. Rev. Dow writes:
The only man of history who can be compared even remotely
to him [Moses] is Mahomet [Muhammad].
Rev. James L. Dow, Dictionary of the Bible, Harper Collins, Glasgow, 1992,
It is a historical fact that among all the prophets, the Prophet Muhammad
is the only one who can be considered to be like Moses. In this way, the
Bible’s statement quoted above applies to him, thus testifying to him.
And what Rev. Dow says is the witness of a Christian scholar.
Strangely enough, the very same point is made in the Quran, in a
verse revealed in the Makkan phase of the Prophet’s life. Thus,
the Quran says:
We have sent a messenger who is a witness over you,
just as We sent a messenger to Pharaoh before you.
THE QURAN 73: 15
Here the Quran points to the same truth that is contained in the
Bible. In this way, what the Quran relates here is a proof of the truth
of prophethood.
Immeasurable Hope
Belief in God plays a great role
in our lives in that it adds
immeasurable hope
to our struggle.
LIFE IS A TIGHTROPE WALK
Art of Balancing
LIVING life is like tightrope walking. ‘Tightrope walking’ means
maintaining your balance between two opposite positions;
proceeding very cautiously, so that you avoid either of two
equally bad situations.
The word ‘tightrope walk’ was initially coined for a form of entertainment.
A tightrope is a tightly stretched wire or rope fixed high above the
ground on which someone walks across, in order to entertain people.
But the spirit of the tightrope walk, that is, maintaining a balance
between two opposites, is a great principle in real life.
Maintaining a balance between two opposites,
is a great principle in real life.
You like sweet food items, but your doctor says that you are diabetic,
so you have to avoid sweets. In this case, you will try to find a balance
between your desire and the doctor’s advice. At home, you experience
a disturbing situation, but when you are in your office, you feel that
you have to deal with office affairs with a cool mind, so you try to find
a balance between two contrary mental states. You are walking on the
road, and a scooter-rider hits you. Naturally, you become angry and you
want to beat him up, but you think that if you turn violent, the police
will arrest you and take you to jail, so you try to control your emotions.
In your business, you have suffered loss and fallen into despair, but
you think: ‘I have lost the present, and if I give in to despair, I will lose
the future also.’ So, you seek to balance the way you feel.
There are hundreds of such situations that we face in our daily lives.
Life is indeed like a tightrope walk. If you lean to one side, you are
bound to fall. So, save yourself from leaning to one side, and maintain
a balance between the two sides. This is the only formula for a safe
journey through life.
For example, a student who fails in an examination thinks of committing
suicide due to deep frustration. Then, he remembers the well-known
saying: ‘Try, try, try again!’ He starts rethinking his future plans, and
says, ‘If I have lost the first chance, there is every possibility that I will
be able to avail of the second chance.’ He then starts studying with renewed diligence, appears in the second examination and passes with
good marks. This student was able to maintain a balance between two
opposite choices and was saved.
According to the conventional dictionary, a tightrope walk is a form
of entertainment. But there is another dictionary—the dictionary of
wisdom. In this dictionary, a tightrope walk means ‘living with wisdom’.
One has to maintain a wise balance between
personal desires and external realities.
A dictionary of words can enhance your vocabulary, but a dictionary
of wisdom gives you a chance to achieve success while remaining
unaffected by the vicissitudes of life.
Everyone is full of desires, but the world outside of us is full of realities.
You have to maintain a wise balance between your personal desires
and external realities. This is the real art of life. This is an art which
is required by everyone, be he a leader or a common man, a wealthy
person or a poor man, an educated or an uneducated person.
On balance, life is the same for all. Almost everyone is destined to face
similar situations, and so everyone would be well advised to adopt this
formula of careful tightrope walking.
Surviving Competition
In this competitive world, those who want concessions
will always find themselves in the back seat.
It is only those who make every effort
to earn excellent qualifications
who alone will come
to the fore.
RELIGIOUS HARMONY
Not Religious Uniformity
WHAT the world needs today—perhaps more than anything
else—is an acceptable formula for the attainment of religious
harmony. This being currently one of the most important
topics under discussion, I shall attempt to present here, in brief, the
Islamic viewpoint.
Let us begin with a verse of the Quran which reads:
If anyone seeks a religion other than Islam (submission to
God), it will not be accepted from him;
he will be among the losers
in the Hereafter.
THE QURAN 3: 85
In the opinion of certain interpreters, this verse implies that salvation
according to Islam is destined exclusively for Muslims. Islam thus
appears to uphold the superiority of the Muslim community. But this is
an out-of-context interpretation and is certainly not correct.
Let us take another verse of the Quran which serves as an explanation
of the above-quoted verse. It states that:
Believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabeans — whoever
believes in God and the Last Day and does
what is right — shall be rewarded
by their Lord; they have nothing
to fear or to regret.
THE QURAN 2: 62
This verse rules out the concept of community superiority for any
given group: even Muslims have been bracketed here along with other
religious groups. The content of this verse makes it very clear that
salvation, by Islamic standards, depends upon the individual’s own
actions, and that it is not the prerogative of any group. No man or
woman can earn his or her salvation by the mere fact of associating
with a particular group. Salvation can be achievable only by a person
who truly believes in God and the world hereafter, and who has given
genuine proof in this life of having lived a life of right action.
Another important aspect of Islam is that it does not advocate belief in the many-ness of reality; on the contrary, it stresses reality’s oneness.
That is, according to Islam, reality is one, not many. That is why, in
describing monotheism, the Quran states:
That is God, your true Lord.
What is there, besides the truth, but error?
How then can you turn away?
THE QURAN 10: 32
This verse makes it clear that monotheism (i.e. belief in one Lord being
the Creator, Sustainer and object of worship) is the truth. All other
paths lead one away from, rather than towards, the truth. The fact that
certain religious thinkers believe in the many-ness of reality is of no
concern to Islam. With oneness as its ideal, it cannot accept many-ness
even as a hypothesis.
Both points — the oneness of Absolute Reality, and salvation as the
prerogative of the true believer in this oneness — form a major part
of Islamic ideals. Just being born into a certain group or community or
associating oneself with others of similar persuasion does not entitle
one to salvation, be one a Muslim or a non-Muslim.
Islam advocates the policy of tolerance and respect for
one another in everyday dealings.
Now let us deal with the fact that in practice, different kinds of religious
groups do exist. Then, given the various kinds of differences separating
them, let us consider how to bring about harmony between them.
One solution commonly advocated is to spread the conviction that all
religions are essentially one: that they are simply diverse paths leading
to a common destination. Islam, however, does not accept this view,
and, in any case, experience has shown that repeated attempts to
bring about harmony on this basis have been a failure.
The Emperor Akbar attempted to achieve harmony by state enforcement
of his self-formulated religion, ‘Din-e-Ilahi’; Dr Bhagwan Das spent the
best part of his life producing a thousand-page book titled Essential
Unity of All Religions; Mahatma Gandhi attempted to spread this ideal at
the national level by a countrywide movement whose slogan was Ram
Rahim ek hai, meaning Ram and Rahim were one and the same. But events have shown us that they all failed in their attempts to achieve
the goal of religious harmony.
Islam’s approach to the entire problem is much more realistic, in that it
accepts ideological differences. Once having accepted these differences,
it then advocates the policy of tolerance and respect for one another in
everyday dealings. This is on a parallel with the principle expressed in
the English saying: ‘Let us agree to disagree.’
This principle formulated by Islam is best described,
not as ‘religious harmony’, but, rather,
as ‘harmony among religious people’.
In this connection, one of the commands of the Quran is that ‘there shall
be no compulsion in religion’ (THE QURAN 2: 256). At another place, the
Quran declares that ‘you have your religion and I have mine’ (THE QURAN
Muhammad migrated to Madinah, he issued a declaration reaffirming
his acceptance of the religion of Muslims for the Muslims and the
religion of Jews for the Jews. In order to perpetuate an atmosphere of
mutual harmony, the Quran commands the Muslims in their dealings
with unbelievers:
Do not revile those (beings) whom they invoke instead of God,
lest they, in their hostility, revile God out of ignorance.
THE QURAN 6: 108.
This principle formulated by Islam is best described, not as ‘religious
harmony’, but, rather, as ‘harmony among religious people’. This is a
principle whose utility is a matter of historical record. It is evident that
in the past, as well as in the present, wherever religious harmony has
existed, it has been based on unity despite differences, rather than
on unity without differences. It is not based on agreeing to agree, but,
rather, on agreeing to disagree.
One extremely revolutionary example of this principle is to be found
in the life of the Prophet Muhammad. It concerns the conference of
three religions which was held in the Prophet’s mosque in Madinah. A
60-member Christian delegation from Najd had come to Madinah to
determine the situation there. They stayed at the Prophet’s mosque.
Following them, the Jewish scholars of Madinah also came to the
mosque. In this manner, the followers of three faiths (Islam, Christianity and Judaism) gathered in one place. They carried out dialogues and
discussions on various religious topics for many days.
Reports say that during this period, when it was time for the Christians
to pray, they stood up in the mosque itself and prayed according to
their custom. The Prophet saw this, and let them continue what they
were doing. So they performed their prayer in the mosque.
This conference is described by Muhammad Husain Haykal in his book,
The Life of Muhammad:
The three scriptural religions thus confronted one another in
Madinah. The delegation entered with the Prophet into public
debate, and these were soon joined by the Jews, thus resulting
in a tripartite dialogue between Judaism, Christianity and
Islam. This was a truly great congress which the city of Yathrib
[the earlier name for Madinah] had witnessed. In it, the three
religions which today dominate the world and determine its
destiny had met, and they did so for the greatest idea and the
noblest purpose.
Although Islam believes in the oneness of reality, it lays equal stress on
the practice of tolerance in everyday dealings, even if it means going
to the extent of permitting non-Muslims to come to an Islamic place
of worship for religious discussion, and if it is time for their prayers,
letting them feel free to perform their worship according to their own
ways in the mosque itself.
Tolerance has been the rule throughout the history of Islam. It has,
in fact, been one of the main underlying causes for its successful
dissemination. Here I quote from the Encyclopaedia Britannica:
Islam achieved astonishing success in its first phase. Within
a century after the Prophet’s death in AD 632 [the early
generations of Muslims)… had brought a large part of the globe
— from Spain across central Asia to India — under a new Arab
Muslim empire… despite these astonishing achievements,
other religious groups enjoyed full religious autonomy.”
Encyclopaedia Britannica 9/912
And this is the part which I wish particularly to stress:
Despite these astonishing achievements, other religious groups enjoyed
full religious autonomy.
Now, a factor that needs to be noted here is that when any religion,
having reached this stage of antiquity, has secured a sacred place in
the hearts of its believers, it becomes impossible to bring about any
changes in the attitude of those who claim to be its followers. Efforts
to bring about a change can produce a new religion, but they can never
succeed in changing the old religion. There are many examples of such
failures in the past.
A very important point from the practical point of view is that although
the necessity to bring about harmony among the different religions
is not a newly-felt imperative, endeavours towards that end are still
only in the formative stages. If progress towards that goal has been
slow of attainment, it is because of the established positions which
ancient religions have secured in the hearts of their followers, simply
by virtue of their antiquity.
Trying to bring about changes in these religions per se has never
brought about harmony, because instead of old religions being brought
closer together by this process, they have developed, rather, into new
religions — a process which has either left the problem of disharmony
unsolved or has further aggravated it. There are many examples of
such abortive efforts in the past.
Encourage people to show respect for others’ beliefs and
to be humanitarian at all times in their dealings
with adherents of other religions.
In view of this historical reality, it is clear that the suggestions made
by Islam with regard to promoting harmony among the followers of
different religions is the only viable solution. Any alternative suggestion,
however attractive it might appear, would be either impracticable or
counter-productive.
Once, when discussing this point with me, a religious scholar said,
‘We have been attempting to bring about interreligious harmony for
the last one hundred years, but the results have been quite dismal. It
would seem that there are insurmountable obstacles in the way.’
I replied that the goal we want to attain is certainly a proper one; it
is simply that the strategy we employ is impracticable. Religious
harmony is, without doubt, a desirable objective. But it cannot be achieved by attempting to alter people’s beliefs — a policy advocated
by more than one scholar in this field. The only way to tackle the
problem is to encourage people to show respect for others’ beliefs
and to be humanitarian at all times in their dealings with adherents
of other religions.
It is important to realize that it is quite possible to inculcate this attitude
without in any way tampering with long-cherished credos. It should
never be conceded that the goal of religious harmony is unattainable
simply because people’s beliefs differ from each other. It is certainly a
possibility, provided that it is seen as a matter of practical strategy, and
not as a pretext for making ideological changes.
Religious harmony is, without doubt, a desirable objective;
but cannot be achieved by attempting to
alter people’s beliefs.
‘Practical strategy’ is something which people regularly resort to in
matters of their daily existence. As such, it is a known and acceptable
method of solving the problem.
Since no new ground has to be broken, either for the religious scholar
or for the common man, it should be a very simple matter for people to
extend their everyday activity, within their own sphere of existence, to
include an honest and sincere effort towards global religious harmony.
It is simply a question of having the will and the foresight to do so.
Ignore
The Divisions
The way to prosper is to
ignore the matters that divide one from others
and concentrate on cultivating areas of mutual concern.
DIVINE SIGNS
For Those Who Think
ONCE, when visiting a book fair, I felt as if I had entered a city
of great learning. But there, I also saw a dog running around
looking for food and obviously unaware of the fair, the books
and the importance of knowledge. This sight reminded me of some
verses of the Quran: 'Those who deny the truth may take their fill of
pleasure in this world, and eat as cattle do, but the fire will be their
ultimate abode.' (
world will be blind in the world hereafter also.’ (
God’s signs—divine signs from which lessons may be learned—are
visible everywhere, but most of us human beings move around in blind
ignorance of them. I thought that the dog, being unaware of all that
was contained in the books all around it, was similar to the way most
human beings lead their lives. People are lost in the creation, and not
in the Creator. God has given us wisdom, but we human beings do
not apply it. For example, we seldom address ourselves to the biggest
questions in life: “What is the Truth?”, “Who is the Creator?”, “What is
the purpose of life?” and “What happens before and after death?” Man
continues to be lost in the world of appearances, without even giving a
thought to the real world.
We should understand what God wants from us by understanding His
divine signs and then lead our lives accordingly. We should remember
that God expresses His mind in the Universe and that the Universe
is thus full of divine intelligence. We must, therefore, observe it and
extract spiritual lessons from it. It is wrong to imagine that one man
can know everything by oneself. We need God, the Creator, to guide us
here, as everywhere else, for the human mind is not sufficient. Without
God’s guidance, man cannot acquire knowledge.
In the world as God envisaged it, there would be no malice; there would
be universality rather than exclusivity; there would be no intolerance,
no anger and no negative thinking. A world where everyone existed
peacefully would be of benefit to all. But such a world will come
into being only when human beings develop their personalities in
accordance with God’s likes and dislikes. While the world of nature has
no choice but to exist in a state of harmony, we human beings, with
our freedom of will, must choose deliberately, and of our own accord,
to live in this way. What we need to do, as the Quran says, is colour
ourselves ‘in the dye of God.’
THE WORD OF GOD
From The Scriptures
THE Quran is the book of God. It has been preserved in its
entirety since its revelation to the Prophet of Islam between
610 and 632 A.D. It is a book that brings glad tidings to mankind,
along with divine admonition, and stresses the importance of man’s
discovery of the Truth on a spiritual and intellectual level.
Translated from Arabic and commentary
by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
But those who believed and did good deeds will be brought into
Gardens with rivers flowing through them. They shall abide there
forever by their Lord’s permission, and will be welcomed with the
greeting, ‘Peace’! (
To say assalamu alaykum or ‘peace be with you’ at the time of meeting
someone is not simply a formal social custom. This is, in fact, an
outward symbol of a heartfelt connection.
Those who have lived their lives in this world with feelings of
benevolence towards others, who have known how to forget their
grievances and love others wholeheartedly, who have always spoken
of others with respect, who have chosen for others what they desired
for themselves, who have always longed in their heart of hearts for the
well-being of others and who have rejoiced in seeing others in a state
of well-being—such will be the people who will be entitled to take up
their abode in the splendid world of paradise. The greeting assalamu
alaykum has always given expression to their feelings of love and wellwishing
whenever they met their brothers; in the Hereafter, when they
greet their heavenly neighbours, this salutation will assume a powerful
and more aesthetic form.
Do you not see how God compares a good word to a good tree? Its root
is firm and its branches are in the sky, it yields its fruit each season
with its Lord’s permission—God makes such comparisons for people,
in order that they may take heed—but an evil word is like an evil tree
torn out of the earth; it has no foothold. (
Those who think deeply, seeking a more profound reality, find it In
the present world, Almighty God has appointed outward symbols for different realities. For example, a good tree is a symbolic representation
of the believer.
It is the special characteristic of a tree that it makes the whole world
its ‘dining table’, and in this way develops from the stage of a seed to
establish itself on the earth as a majestic tree. The tree absorbs from
the earth water, minerals and salts in order to grow; at the same time,
it obtains nourishment from the air and light from the sun. It takes
nourishment from below as well as from above.
Using all these through the process of photosynthesis, the tree is able
to make food throughout. This is what is meant by 'yields its fruit all
the time'.
This is also true of the believer. While the common tree is materially
a tree, the believer is a conscious ‘tree’. The believer observes in the
world God’s creation and, looking to the system governing it, derives
from it a proper lesson and guidance. Moreover, he continuously
receives God’s blessing from ‘above’.
Fruit ripens on the tree in the proper season. Similarly, a believer
adopts such behaviour as is proper for every occasion. Whether it is
under economic constraints or in economic prosperity; whether it is in
a moment of happiness or sorrow; whether it is a matter for complaint
or commendation, whether it is in a condition of strength or weakness,
on every occasion his language and behaviour express the reverence
which he is expected to show as a true servant of God.
The opposite example is that of the ‘evil tree’, i.e. the wild bush. Its
appearance suggests that it is provided with extremely unwholesome
food, as a result of which it is covered with thorns, and bitter fruits with
an unpleasant taste grow on its branches. It greets anyone who goes
near it with a foul smell. Nobody likes such a tree. Wherever it grows, it
is uprooted and thrown away.
This is the case with the unbeliever, who, from the beginning, has
always been a persona non-grata on this earth. To him, the universe,
despite its superlative features, has no argument in its favour and
teaches no lesson. Though there is no end to the liberality of God’s
blessings, he has no share in them; God’s magnanimity is not reflected
in his character or his dealings.
God will strengthen the believers with His steadfast word, both in the
present life and in the Hereafter. God lets the wrongdoers go astray.
He does what He wills. (
Being steadfast in the world means persevering in righteousness
and doing good deeds at every turn in one’s life. Being steadfast in
the Hereafter means having been successful at the time of question
-answer in the grave.
Man is at every moment being put to the test. He faces different types
of favourable and unfavourable events. On these occasions, only those
who have grown the ‘tree of faith’ inside themselves behave in a correct
and godly manner.
In the prevailing circumstances, they manifest the most appropriate
reaction expected of them according to the will of God. In contrast to
this, the man whose personality has grown like a wild bush evinces
bitterness at every event; on every occasion he proves to be a thorn.
When these two types of person are finally tested beyond the grave,
the one who proves himself to be the ‘good tree’ will be ushered into
the Garden of Paradise. And the one who proves to be the ‘evil tree’
will receive the appropriate punishment of being uprooted from this
world in order to be thrown as fuel into the fire of Hell.
ASK MAULANA
Your Questions, Answered
EXAM STRESS
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan answers questions posed by
students on the eve of their exams.
The pressure of studies, together with the
repeated questioning of my parents, is stressful
and I end up getting very depressed thinking of
the consequences if I do not meet my parents’
expectations.
Parents are always eager for their children’s
success. But, at the same time, they should be
realistic. Parents must limit themselves to wise
counseling. It would be counterproductive if they constantly question
their children and put inordinate pressure on them.
Parents must know that in practical life, getting lower grades in exams
is a relative thing; because a student learns even if he gets less marks,
and then in the next term, he can try to score better. This is the case in
other spheres of life, too. There are many examples to prove this. For
example, Mahatma Gandhi and Swami Vivekananda were not toppers
at school, but they became heroes in practical life.
We are told that board exams are crucial for students, but fear and
uncertainty haunt me and have made me very apprehensive about the
future. Some of my friends say that they’ll commit suicide if they don’t
perform well.
According to my experience, nothing of this sort is crucial in life. What is
important in life is sincerity and determination. Parents must inculcate
this spirit in their children. Qualifying in an examination is good only
for securing further admission in educational institutions, but it is not
necessary for a better life in the future. Parents must educate their
children in the principles of life and try to inculcate in them virtues like
patience, wisdom, and adjustment. They must help them understand
the importance of a realistic approach. They must teach them to learn
from failure, and to know that it really doesn’t matter if you don’t get
your way in everything. These are the things that alone come to use in
real life. If you top in examinations, it is no guarantee that you will also
top in life. If you are aware of the principles of life, success will follow you. You mentioned about your friends talking about suicide. Suicide is
not an option. Discover your potential, and you will realise that suicide
is akin to underestimating both — yourself and the Creator.
I think I have a split personality that is compelling me on like a strict
mentor. But pressure to match up to my friends hounds me, and I find
that I am unable to concentrate. How do I deal with this?
Don’t take your friends as models to emulate. There are thousands
of books that discuss the lives of successful persons. You should read
these books and try to draw lessons from the lives of such people
Excessive academic stress is telling on my nerves. I sometimes go
completely blank, and I am on the verge of a breakdown. I want my
family to talk to me more, but they leave me entirely alone, saying
that I shouldn’t be disturbed. I am beginning to feel desperate. I have
even thought of running away from home.
What your family is doing is out of love. In fact, they are giving you
more time to discover your capabilities. Then why complain? Take it as
an opportunity. Your books are your best companions. Try to live on
your own, then you won’t complain about others. The other name for
this attitude of yours is ‘underestimation of yourself’. Knowing more
about the lives of successful people is more important than contact
with family members, as the former gives you guidance for life, while
the latter only give you emotional satisfaction.
There is a world beyond parents, friends, and school. You should try to
increase your learning by knowing about this world. And, be thankful to
the person who gives you more time by not coming to meet you!
What if I start panicking during my Maths exam? I keep thinking about
this and get tense, and this might make me blank out. I am deeply
worried about this.
This is not a bad sign; it only means that you have some capability other
than in Mathematics. You should discover that capability and develop
it; and in this way, you may emerge a successful person. There are so
many persons in history, in the present and in the past, who were not
good in Mathematics but who emerged as heroes in practical life!
There are numerous subjects other than Mathematics. The Creator
has given different capabilities to different people so that in every field
people who can excel emerge. You also have a special quality; discover
it and try to make progress in that field.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan (1925-2021) was an Islamic scholar, spiritual guide, and an Ambassador of Peace. He authored over 200 books and recorded thousands of lectures giving the rational interpretation of Islamic concepts, prophetic wisdom, and the spiritual meaning of the Quran in the contemporary style. His English translation, The Quran, is widely appreciated as simple, clear and in contemporary style. He founded Centre for Peace and Spirituality (CPS) International in 2001 to re-engineer minds towards God-oriented living and present Islam as it is, based on the principles of peace, spirituality, and co-existence. Maulana breathed his last on 21 April, 2021 in New Delhi, India. His legacy is being carried forward through the CPS International Network.
What God most earnestly desires from human beings is worship. The Quran says: “I have not created jinn and mankind except to worship Me.” ( 51:56 )
