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

THE ADVOCATE OF RELIGIOUS HARMONY Manoj C G, New Delhi T he 97-year-old was a towering personality not just in India or among Muslims in the country but throughout the Islamic world and was known for his Gandhian views. “All his life he said what he really believed in. He did not care about what people would say or how they would react. So some people liked him so much, some people did not like him but it did not deter him. He kept on saying what he really believed in.” This is how Zafarul Islam Khan remembers his father, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, the noted Islamic scholar, spiritual leader and author who died of Covid complications on Wednesday. He was 97. Khan was a towering personality not just in India but across the Islamic world. Known for his Gandhian views, he advocated peaceful coexistence in a multi-ethnic society, which won him thousands of admirers. But his views also provoked hardliners or a section of the Muslim community. For instance, his views on the Ayodhya dispute, asking Muslims to relinquish claims over Babri Masjid site, riled many.