LIKENESS of God is to be found in man, for is not the existence of man a proof of the existence of God? What is the nature of God? He is a living, self-sufficient Being, with a mind that is allknowing, eyes

certainly thinks, sees, hears, has a will, acts of his own volition and understands quite precisely what is meant by the ‘ego’—the ‘I’. To believe in God is to have faith in a higher form of the ‘I’. Man’s

of justice? This is alluded to in both the Christian and Islamic traditions: God created man in His own image. (Genesis 1: 27) The Prophet of Islam said: God created man in His Own image. (Sahih al-Bukhari)

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

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

invited to a Christian Church in Philadelphia, to deliver a lecture on ‘Islam and Peace’. The gist of my lecture was that according to Islam, peace is the summum bonum; without peace, there can be no progress

Creator then for such a person, science becomes greatly helpful in developing God-consciousness. Islam talks about tawakkul (trusting), and about surrendering to and relying on God alone. How does one

that if I am on the right path, God will certainly help me. What, in your view, is the correct Islamic way of solving social problems? In what way can social activists learn from this approach? Social problems

is the Islamic approach to social problems. How can individual reform lead to cause social reform? Or does the impact of individual reform remain limited just to that particular individual? What is society

THE IMPORTANCE OF PATIENCE IN ISLAMHighest Virtue PATIENCE or Sabr is a central Islamic value and teaching. It is repeatedly stressed in the Quran. There are other words with a similar meaning in the

competition and challenges. Hence, we are compelled to live in a situation of problems. Given this scenario what do we need to face the challenges successfully? Patience is a culture of prophets; a method of prophets;

of these differences. Sabr is thus the basic condition for success in this world. The Prophet of Islam said: “God’s help is for those who keep patience.” (Musnad Ahmed) Sabr is not a passive attitude.

THE IDEOLOGY OF PEACE IN ISLAMTHE IDEOLOGY OF PEACE IN ISLAM Unconditional Peace SCHOLARS have defined peace thus: “Peace is the absence of war.” This definition is absolutely correct. Peace in fact means

is because peace on its own does not bring justice. Justice is not necessarily an element of peace. What peace does, in actual fact, is to open up opportunities. It creates favourable conditions that would

power of a peace bomb is based on love, while that of a violent bomb is based on hatred. According to Islam, peace is therefore not simply an absence of war; peace opens doors to all kinds of opportunities

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

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:

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

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

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 recognised as one of its most influential Muslims1 . His

but used ‘God is great’ as their slogan. This incident reminded me of a saying of the Prophet of Islam, who once said to his Companions that a day would come when Muslims would commit unlawful acts. His

PROPHETIC MODEL OF SUCCESSBelievers must not Despair THE followers of the Prophet of Islam should always keep in mind that the Prophet Muhammad has been acknowledged by historians to be the most successful

success for his own and succeeding generations. It is a matter of historical record that the Prophet of Islam was faced with the severest of difficulties. Beset by hardships, not to speak of persecution, he nevertheless

always remain hopeful. They should never allow their hearts to be weighed down by despair. This is what the Quran means by saying that “Surely with every hardship there is ease.” (94: 5) This Quranic teaching

regularly misconstrued as war, with all its connotations of violence and bloodshed. However, in the Islamic context, and in the literal sense, the word jihad simply means a struggle—doing one’s utmost to further

actual Arabic equivalent of war is qital, and even this is meant in a defensive sense. According to Islamic teachings, jihad is of two kinds. One is with the self (jihad bin nafs), that is making the maximum

greed, revenge, anger—in one’s self. The psychological efforts to lead such a life of restraint is what jihad bin nafs is about. In social life, it happens time and again that all sorts of base, negative

CULTURAL VERSION OF ISLAMA SCHOLAR in the history of religion has rightly observed: ‘Religion begins as an ideology but after some generations it is reduced to a culture.’ This observation applies to all

religions including Islam. Present-day Islam practiced by Muslims is no more than a culture. Although the form is preserved, the spirit is absent. The only exception with the religion of Islam is that the scriptures

scriptures of Islam are totally intact. All those deteriorations among Muslims exclusively pertain to the Muslim community. The key formula for the right understanding of Islam is to differentiate between