ASK MAULANA

ASK MAULANA Your Questions Answered Maulana Wahiduddin Khan in a Discussion with an Academic from Sweden If you were asked to define the essence of Islam, what would you say? The very word ‘Islam’ tells us the essence of Islam. The root of the word ‘Islam’ is silm, which means peace. And so, the essence of Islam is peace. Many Westerners believe freedom to be the summum bonum, but according to Islam, the summum bonum is peace. There are many verses in the Quran that stress the importance of peace. For instance, the Quran says as-sulh khair or ‘reconciliation is best’ (4: 128). In another verse, God calls people to the ‘home of peace’, that is, Paradise (10: 25). This is the ideal world that the Quran calls darus-salam, the home of peace (10:25). So, we are required to live in peace and to give peace to others. Why is this so? It is because without peace there cannot be any positive activities. Peace is the basis of all kinds of goodness. Without peace, you can’t have positivity, you can’t have positive thinking, you can’t have good relations with others. Nothing that we want in life—in our personal life, in our family life, in our social life—can be achieved without peace. And so, Islam stresses peace. That said, I should make it clear that in Islam peace is not a matter of belief. Its importance lies in its practical value, the practical purpose it serves. Tawheed and prophethood are matters of belief, but the matter of peace pertains to living in society, so it is a worldly matter. Its importance lies in it being a practical need or method to be followed for leading life in this world. Islam is based on monotheism, the oneness of God, or tawheed in Arabic. As far as belief is concerned, tawheed is the greatest thing. All Islamic teachings revolve around this belief—that God is one. The oneness of God is the most important thing in Islam. As far as practical life is concerned, you cannot achieve anything without peace. So, for practical purposes, Islam stresses peace, and as far as belief is concerned, Islam is centred on tawheed or the oneness of God.