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

were non-sequiturs. Peace was indivisible and had to be pursued for its own sake. The Maulana also saw his mission to help the world rediscover that the essence of Islam (both etymologically as well as substantively) was peace. Indeed, the Centre for Peace and Spirituality that he set up inspired activism by encouraging its members to become ambassadors of peace, including by promoting positivity and interfaith dialogue. A great champion of inter-faith dialogue and harmony, he believed in the power of dialogue (rather than debate which provokes strife and negativity). For him this conversation between religious leaders had to be based (not on glossing over deep differences between faiths (on mutual respect derived from the Quranic verse “lakum deenukum wa liya deen (for you your religion, for me mine)”. The Maulana was drawn into controversy after he agreed with the Supreme Court judgment on the Babri Masjid. Even earlier he had argued that the solution to the issue was the relocation of the masjid. For him the issue had been magnified by the Hanifi school of jurisprudence, which believed that the land on which a mosque stood, had to be used as a mosque in perpetuity. Instead, he drew attention to that hadith, which held that the entire planet is a mosque for you wherever you happen to be at the moment of prayer. For me, the Maulana’s profound understanding of jihad was fascinating. He often used the aftermath of the Ghazwa-eTabuk as an example where the Prophet of Islam had made a sharp distinction between jihad (of a lower order) against one’s opponents and the jihad-i-Akbar (jihad of a higher order)