I FOUND MY CALLING UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF MAULANA - Mr. Haroon Shaikh, Mumbai

His choice of eclectic reading helped him to write so cogently, lucidly and convincingly on issues that concerned us. So, my friend’s question about the madrasas the Maulana had attended pricked him as much as it intrigued everyone else, including one of his granddaughters, present in the room. “You are asking irrelevant questions. Do you ask your customers where did they spend the previous night?,” the Maulana said. My friend smiled and he left with the Maulana suggesting he read some of his books. Unlike some Islam supremacists and televangelists, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan didn’t engage in polemics. He didn’t scream from extravagantly-created podiums that “Islam is the best religion.” Neither did he raise the slogan “Islam is in danger.” His Islam was tolerant, pacifist, peace-loving, confrontation-avoiding. So, to find solutions to many of the 20th and 21st centuries’ problems, he sought inspiration and guidance from the Treaty of Hudaibiyyah, signed in 628 between the Quraish of Mecca and the Prophet of Islam who lived in Medina in exile. This treaty though seemed humiliating and the surrender of some legitimate rights to the enemies provided the Prophet and his followers a much-needed break from warfare. Subsequently, the Prophet and his supporters returned to Mecca in a bloodless coup never heard of before. Once sworn enemies were now the Prophet’s ardent followers and bloodthirsty elements became brothers in faith. He had trained his mind not to lament the miseries but to count the blessings divinity has endowed human life with. He established the Centre for Peace and Spirituality (CPS)