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

do self-introspection, improve myself, and become a better individual, become a better Muslim and become a candidate for Paradise. I remember Maulana always said: “It’s not easy to attain Paradise. You have to work really hard to attain it.” I realized then that we should make our goal in life to become a deserving candidate for Paradise. Maulana guided us on how we can develop such a personality: we need to first stay away from distractions of life, then focus on study and apply the learning to our life. Then we have to remain one hundred percent positive. Since I have understood this, I have been trying to develop myself so that God finds me eligible for giving entry into His eternal Paradise. I remember an incident when my son was leaving for his studies to Canada. I had just started coming to Maulana. Wanting to know how I can guide my son to stay safe, and help him, I sought Maulana’s advice on this asking: “How can I help my son?” Maulana’s prompt reply was, “forget your son and concentrate on yourself, save yourself.” From this I realized that Maulana meant that I have to work on myself. My son can work on himself. Maulana always said that we as parents are wasting our time and energy trying to give a perfect life to our children. This neither helps us or our children. What we have to do is start working on ourselves, by doing self-introspection, avoiding distractions and making us a deserving candidate for Paradise. When I think of it, I realize that the interactions I had with Maulana during my trips to Delhi were the highlights of my