MY THOUGHTS ON MAULANA WAHIDUDDIN KHAN - Dr. Rajat Malhotra

Interaction with Maulana I met Maulana in 1986, ten years after I became acquainted with his literature; I met him at his home/office. Since then, I have had the privilege of spending time with him at his home in Delhi several times and at my own home during his four different visits to the United States. I also spent a long time with Maulana during his visits to Canada and Dubai. Maulana was a figure of simplicity. His own needs were very little. I never saw him in vain talk and wasting time doing nothing. I always saw him either engrossed in a deep thought, engaged in writing something or engaged in discussions with people about useful topics. I have never observed Maulana talking frivolously or making jokes. His diet was very simple and very little. He preferred to stay at people’s homes rather than in hotels. He would stay with the host as a “no problem” man. He wore very simple clothes. He would carry a long shirt and pajama on his body and one in a bag and a coat. I will mention one incident here to illustrate his simplicity. At one time during his trip to America, my wife wanted to wash his clothes. She found that there were large holes in both pockets of his coat. She informed her cousin Farooq Chishti about this. He brought a nice new coat as a gift for Maulana. Maulana refused to take it and said with moist eyes that “I have no needs of my own and I do not need any pockets”. He returned the new coat and kept his old one. He did however accept voice recorders brought by Farooq Chishti to record his conversations on his journeys. He said he would accept anything which will be helpful in the promotion of his mission, but nothing for his personal gain.