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

“India Mourns Islamic scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan” (Aandolu Agency, 22nd April) “Maulana Wahiduddin Khan was an Islamic scholar who believed in dialogue”: MWK saw his mission to help the world rediscover that the essence of Islam was peace (Amitabh Mattoo, The Indian Express, 23rd April) “Maulana Wahiduddin Khan: the advocate of religious harmony who told Muslims to relinquish Babri claims” (Manoj C G, The Indian Express, 23rd April) “Wahiduddin Khan, the Maulana who brought about a revolution in the Muslim world, dies of COVID-related complications” (Ziya Us Salam, Frontline, 23rd April) Various scholars have evaluated his works and thought and the aim of this write-up—as a mark of tribute to MWK—is to present a summary of some of the significant writings, of recent past and of the recently published obituaries, giving us clearly ideas how his work and thought have been evaluated and received over the years globally. Dr Yoginder Sikand (an Indian writer/ academic and currently a freelance researcher based in Bangalore) has done a good research on MWK and in one of his research works (published in Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 2003), he describes MWK as “one of India’s best known Islamic scholars”, whose “close involvement in the Jamaati-Islami and the Tablighi Jamaat” in the formative phase of his career-as-scholar and “a deep concern with the growing problem of Hindu–Muslim conflict in India … provide the general context for an examination of the development and