MY THOUGHTS ON MAULANA WAHIDUDDIN KHAN - Dr. Rajat Malhotra

gain rewards from God. If acts of worship were performed on certain days and times, their value would increase many times over. Thus, religion felt very transactional and not deeply connected to the mind and heart. Later in college, I began to be influenced by the political and radical interpretations of Islam that were prevalent at the time. These voices claimed that Islam and Muslims were superior to others and that God commands Muslims to establish His Sovereignty. It was also common to hear that the Muslim empire, which had lasted for almost a thousand years, had been usurped by the West through conspiracy and force. The effect of these ideas was to create in us a negative mindset, one in which other nations and peoples were our enemies or obstacles to be removed. The mindset of “us vs. them” was being inculcated. Non-Muslim governments were being called tyrannical regimes and claiming allegiance to them was being called shirk. These ideas were coming to light through various books and newspapers. While my traditional village upbringing did not give me the spiritual understanding of Islam that I was seeking, this new political interpretation of Islam did not sit well with me either. I knew from my lived experience growing up in Karimnagar that the “us and them” divide was a creation of the mind and not a reflection of the lived reality of coexistence that existed across India. Even in my college days, most of my friends were non-Muslims and I had good relationships with them. We often studied together for our exams and we also had intellectual exchanges among ourselves that were thought provoking and fruitful.