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

A recipient also of the Demiurgus Peace International Award, Maulana believed that only an attitude of forgiveness could foster peace. ‘Forgive other people’s mistakes and forget negative experiences. Revengeful behaviour or keeping negativity alive is the biggest killer of one’s spirituality.’ In the February of 1982, he was walking back home from a meeting in pouring rain when he slipped and fell. He reached out to a pole nearby but held instead an open electric junction box hanging on it. He found himself jolted by electric shocks. At that moment of physical agony, he realized the body was impermanent, not the soul or the mind. On April 21, a week into the month of Ramadan, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan left his body. He was 97. His soul and mind continue to live in his writings and the spirit of camaraderie and love he stood for. THE SCHOLAR WHO BELIEVED IN DIALOGUE Amitabh Mattoo I n a Manichean world darkened by narrow binaries, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan often stood as a source of light and hope. With his passing away, India and the world have lost a remarkable religious leader and Islamic theologian who tried, till the very last, to bridge differences especially amongst the believers of different faiths. A Padma Vibhushan