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

all kinds of human progress. His off repeated saying was: Peace is the “Summum Bonum of Human Existence.” IT is the supreme good and must be achieved at all costs without any precondition. He would not subscribe to the general opinion of preconditioning peace with justice. His philosophy of peace was: Peace for the sake of Peace. Too often peace is linked with justice. People generally believe that peace and justice go hand in hand. You cannot have one without other. But Maulana Wahiduddin Khan doesn’t subscribe to this off repeated view point. He says that peace is desirable for the sake of Peace without any precondition. Peace is desirable for the sake of normalcy. When normalcy is achieved it opens up all doors to opportunities which leads to development obtaining justice and all constructive activities. All his life (spanning over a long period of nine decades) he has focused on spirituality, peace and interfaith understanding. The mission of his life has been establishment of Worldwide peace. He has received the Demiurgus Peace International award and Sayyedna Imam Ali Hasan Peace award for promoting peace in Muslim societies. This year Govt. Of India conferred him with Padma Vibhushan award. He has been called Islam’s spiritual Ambassador to the world and is recognised nationally and internationally as one of the most influential persons of history. He made extraordinary contributions towards inter religious understanding through his insightful writings and holding of Interfaith dialogue from time to time.