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

Born on 1 January 1925 in Village Badharia, in district Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, Maulana received his education at a traditional seminary. Maulana’s Tafseer, Tazkirul Quran is a commentary on the Quran that has been read and hailed widely. He wrote this Tafseer in Urdu in 1983 and it was first published in Arabic in 2008 from Cairo as al-Tadhkir al-Qawim fi Tafseer al-Quran al-Hakim. It has also been translated in Hindi and English. Besides the Tafseer, Maulana has authored some 200 books on Islam, prophetic wisdom, spirituality and co-existence in a multi-ethnic society. Most of his works deal with Islam’s relations with modernity and secularism. He started a magazine Al-Risala in 1976 in Urdu. The magazine would carry articles written by him and would be read by Muslims all over India. He later started English and Hindi editions of the magazine too. In the magazine, he would propagate inclusiveness of Islam, would write about the rights of women and minorities besides the concepts of charity and Jihad. Co-existence was the core of his all writings as he firmly believed that in contemporary world Muslims can’t prosper if they live in cocoons. The Maulana was pained by the misinterpretation of some of Quranic verses by some fringe elements within the Muslim world to suite their jaundiced, violent and unreal world-view. Through his writings he took such elements head-on and tried to introduce Islam to Muslims and others in its real and correct spirit. Despite threats, malicious campaigns, character assassination by some of his own community members and so called leaders, Maulana stood his ground and stood by his principles till his last breath. His humanism, message of