Spirit of Islam, March 2013

FROM THE CHIEF EDITOR’S DESK P RAYER is only another name for spirituality: spirituality and peace are two sides of a single coin. Spirituality is the inner content of peace and peace is the external expression of spirituality. Where there is peace, there is spirituality, and where there is spirituality there is peace. Both are interconnected. In June 2011, while on a visit to the USA, I was invited to a Christian Church in Philadelphia, to deliver a lecture on ‘Islam and Peace’. The gist of my lecture was that according to Islam, peace is the summum bonum; without peace, there can be no progress, neither in the secular nor in the religious field. At the end of my lecture, a Christian scholar observed: “Jesus Christ once said: ‘Love your enemy.’ This, no doubt, is the highest ethical value.” Then he asked whether I could mention any Islamic teaching of this kind from the Islamic scriptures. To the pleasant surprise of that gentleman, I said, “Yes.” And then I referred to Chapter 41 of the Quran, in which it is laid down what one should do when facing the problem of enmity. The Quran tells us that in such a situation, we have to give a positive rather than a negative response. 1. The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims 2012, Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Jordan Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, born in 1925, in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, is an Islamic spiritual scholar who is well-versed in both classical Islamic learning and modern disciplines. The mission of his life has been the establishment of worldwide peace. He has received the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian honour in India, and the Demiurgus Peace International Award. He has been called ’Islam’s spiritual ambassador to the world’ and is recognised as one of its most influential Muslims1. His books have been translated into sixteen languages and are part of university curricula in six countries. He is the founder of the Centre for Peace and Spirituality based in New Delhi. LIVING WITH A POSITIVE MIND