POSITIVE ASPECT OF ILLNESS

MAULANA'S ADDRESS TO ISNA The Age of Peace I N August/September 2015, we members of the Centre for Peace and Spirituality went on a two-week trip to the USA at the invitation of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) to attend its convention in Chicago. Besides Chicago, we visited Washington DC, Pennsylvania, and New York. With God’s grace, I got to speak at different venues and to meet people from different walks of life and backgrounds. At the ISNA convention, I stressed upon one point in particular: that today we are living in the ‘Age of Peace’. The Age of Peace is the title of my latest book, released during this trip at the ISNA convention as well as at the United States Institute of Peace, a centre set up by the US Congress to promote peaceful methods of conflict-resolution. I cited a Hadith (words of the Prophet), full of wisdom, in relation to the age of peace that we are living in today. The Prophet is reported to have said: wise is he who understands the age in which he lives. This Hadith reflects the importance of something crucial—the need for wise planning. A solid understanding and appreciation of the conditions of the times can aid in wise planning. It is about availing the opportunities afforded by the age in which we live. If we have no idea about the conditions of our times, we will lose out badly. In my address at the ISNA convention, I stressed that one special characteristic of our contemporary age is freedom; the kind the world never enjoyed before. A major reason was that in earlier ages much of the world was under monarchy, with only the monarch enjoying total freedom. But today we live in an age of democracy where each individual has the inalienable right to be free. When the Prophet was in Makkah, the early Muslims were prevented from praying at the Kabah. Today there is no such restriction. You— Muslims and everyone else—can pray anywhere in the world and none can stop you. Isn’t that amazing! The Prophet and his Companions faced opposition when they wanted to worship at the Kabah, and today Muslims are free to build mosques in every country and worship there. This is the freedom that we now enjoy. Wise is he who understands the age in which he lives.