ME AND MAULANA: A PERSONAL RECOLLECTION OF WAHIDUDDIN KHAN - John M. Butt

asking such kind of dua was the inferiority complex in me which was perhaps due to the way I was brought up. I had a feeling that I was not intelligent enough to survive in this world. This attitude of mine had blocked my intellect and lowered down my morale. In the meanwhile, I got married and other challenges of life were waiting for me. In 2007, I got an urge of reading Quran with true meaning. I was looking for a scholar above all traditional maslaks. I was a bit confused with different version of translations and then I called up my friend Mr. Shakilur Rahman to guide me in this regard. He suggested me to go for the one by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and he arranged a copy of Tazkirul Quran for me. Mr. Shakilur Rahman had discussed with me about Maulana’s Sunday Classs at Nizamuddin, New Delhi. But I didn’t have very good impression of traditional Maulanas, hence I always found an excuse for not attending the class. Later in 2008 or 2009, one day in the month of Ramadan, I was upset on some issue in my family, I decided better to go and attend the class in spite of sitting at home and increase my tension. That was my first meeting with Maulana in person. The theme of his lecture on that day was ‘Spirit of Fasting’ and the way he expressed the spiritual aspect with wet eyes & melted heart, I was swayed away with the love of God. Later on, there was a time when I was supposed to travel to my native place and I asked Shakil bhai to give me some books to read while travelling. He offered me Maulana’s classical book ‘Al Islam’. When I went through the symbolic story of the African Farmer in the preface, I was thrilled. I