FROM MAULANA'S DESK

FROM MAULANA’S DESK 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. SUNANDA Pushkar, an Indian woman, died on 17th January 2014 due to a reported overdose of sedatives. She was 52. She was so highly distinguished that a commentator expressed his overwhelming impression of her in these words: 'Sunanda Pushkar: The woman whose presence you couldn’t ignore'. There are thousands of such cases where people become depressed, develop tension and lose their peace of mind. In extreme cases of despair, some of them even commit suicide. It is common for people to turn negative when they undergo an unwanted experience; they forget the 99% positive things they still have in their life and let the negative 1% overwhelm them. Men and women of this kind are of every sort — rich and poor, powerful and powerless, stupid and brilliant, dull and charismatic. Why this sad state of affairs? The reason is that people know what others are but they fail to discover what they themselves are. The fact is that every person is born as a hero but his pessimistic way of thinking makes him valueless in his own eyes. This is all a matter of one’s way of thinking. Change your thinking, and you will discover your true value. Man is a special creature; unique in the whole universe. He has been endowed with superior qualities by the Creator that no other creature THE VALUE OF A HUMAN BEING