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 Demiurgus Peace International Award and Sayyidina Imam Al Hassan Peace award for promoting peace in Muslim societies. He has been called ’Islam’s spiritual ambassador to the world’ and is recognized 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. O N March 17, 2016 my telephone rang and a Muslim greeted me and asked a question: Is it lawful according to Islam to call the homeland as madar-e-watan (motherland)? I replied that questions on whether it is lawful or unlawful is to make it an issue of the Shariah (Islamic law), while in fact this has nothing to do with the Islamic law. The Quran and the teachings of the Prophet do not deal with the question of how to address our nation. Hence, it must be regarded as an issue of culture and not of the law. The Quran and Hadith have used a word, ghulu, that is, extremism, which means making something an issue of the Shariah when it is in reality, not related to it. According to a Hadith, a person once asked the Prophet a number of questions. The Prophet did not respond to any of the questions, instead he just said: 'Istafti qalbak' (Musnad Ahmad). That is, ‘Seek the fatwa from your heart.’ A fatwa is an opinion of the Shariah. This saying of the Prophet tells us that matters not mentioned directly in the Quran and Hadith should be decided Love for one’s nation, or patriotism is a natural fact. MY MOTHERLAND