POSITIVE ASPECT OF ILLNESS

Hindus and others, and engaged in conveying the message with them. There were no obstructions whatsoever. I was indeed touched! Here I was, an Indian coming to America and engaging in inviting people to God, and none stopped me; truly amazing! Compare this with the times of the Prophet Muhammad and other prophets. They faced stiff opposition to their work. One can engage in such work without any opposition, the only condition being to be free from hate and complaint against anyone. The origin of every evil is complaint. Complaint leads to hate; hate leads to enmity; and enmity leads to violence, to war, to suicide-bombing, to the gun-culture and the bomb-culture. And the result is destruction. The Quran is the basis of our mission. We have published translations of the Quran in several languages. We have brought out supportive literature to help people interpret the Quran to suit our contemporary times. Our recent book The Age of Peace, must be made available to many more people. Learning through reading is a Quranic principle. In the Quran, God says: ‘Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One who taught by the pen’ (96: 3-4). Earlier people wrote by hand, and that took much time and effort. As a student in the madrasa, I copied an entire Arabic course book by hand! Today the printing press and the Internet can produce and disseminate books at the touch of a button, and on a massive scale. No matter what your background or educational qualifications, you can devote yourself fully to dawah work. This is such a mobile age! People are constantly moving and you interact with many people every day. Keep the peace literature with you and distribute it to people you meet, an easy way to do this work. We should be grateful to God for all these blessings. Wherever I travel, including our recent trip to America, I see people searching for a message that addresses their minds, their innate nature, their spirituality—a message that has nothing to do with political wrangling and conflict, and free of hate. Only God can satisfy this inner thirst. And that indicates the importance of inviting people to God. The 20th century witnessed several ‘social movements’. But all of them somewhere got stuck in politics. And where politics appears, protest, complaint and hate inevitably raise their ugly heads. These traits are The origin of every evil is complaint. Complaint leads to hate; hate leads to enmity; and enmity leads to violence.