ASK MAULANA

ASK MAULANA Your Questions Answered Maulana Wahiduddin Khan in a Panel Discussion on Unity in Diversity at India International Centre, Delhi in March, 2014. Do you agree with the understanding that Ultimate Reality, whatever it is called, has to be One and that It is ineffable, that It is too great to be described in words? According to Islam Ultimate Reality is another name for God. The Islamic concept of God is based on tawhid, or the oneness of God and He alone is the Creator and Sustainer of everything. Islam stresses duality—there is a Creator and His creatures. Reality is not only a matter of belief but also conviction. It is necessary to express that conviction in words else it is neither recognized nor understood. Reality or God can be expressed in words. I don’t wish to question the intent of proselytisation that seeks to bring others into one’s religious fold. But is it possible for followers of a tradition that believes in proselytisation to truly respect religious diversity? Are they not bound to treat religious diversity as a provisional state of affairs and cherish the hope that this state of affairs will eventually be overcome when the gap between the self and the other will be bridged via religious conversion? According to my study, conversion is alien to Islam. The Islamic concept is based on marifat, which means self-realization. According to Islam, the reality of God is a matter of self-realization. The word ‘conversion’, indicates that there are two persons— the person who converts and the other, the person who engages in trying to make others convert, from one religion to another. This concept is not present in Islam. Islam teaches that everyone must try to discover Reality on their own, because without discovery and self-realization, there is no conviction. Conviction is very important in Islam.