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

asked me to show him my hands. Reluctantly I opened my hands and showed them to him. Maulana started telling me some things about the lines on our hands. But I was not really paying attention. My mind was in a turmoil. I was thinking how an Islamic scholar could ask me to show him my hands. In sat confused, while Maulana started his lecture. I readied myself to write notes of the lecture in my diary so I could share with my husband and others. That day Maulana gave a lecture on the Creation Plan of God, that God created an eternal world called Paradise and then created man for Paradise, but divided his life in two parts: a small portion to give a test on this earth so he could show that he was deserving of inhabiting Paradise, and an eternal part in which he could live in Paradise for all eternity, if he proved himself deserving of it. This made complete sense to me. No one had ever explained the purpose of life from the Islamic perspective in such a rational manner. It completely addressed my mind. But the thought that Maulana had asked me to show him my hands continued to nag me. Then suddenly God reminded me of the dream I had had decades ago, which I had completely forgotten. I found the similarity too much to be taken as a chance occurrence. After the class I went up to Maulana and candidly told him that his lecture had completely addressed my mind. However, I was very disturbed that he had asked me to show him my hands. But, then I had remembered a dream I had had decades ago which was very similar to what had occurred today. I shared the dream with Maulana, of how I saw God and Prophet Muhammad in pant shirt and