ASK MAULANA

be so engaged in seeking to promote peace and to counter extremism, including and, especially among Muslims? My confidence is based on a verse of the Quran which says that a believer always has an option of one of the two benefits: the good of the Hereafter or the good of both the present world and the Hereafter (9: 52). As I have stated above, I am hopeful of both the good of this world and that of the Hereafter. In such a situation, I do not need to fall prey to frustration. I am hopeful of the good of the Hereafter because my mission is based on the Quran and Sunnah. As far as the good of this world is concerned, I am hopeful of it because many people have left their violent ways and have come to the path of peace after becoming familiar with the ideas laid down in the literature of Centre for Peace and Spirituality (CPS). Do you think the problems that many Muslims today face is at least partly a result of their thinking about people of other faiths in such a demeaning manner? The problems Muslims are facing today are a result of their own wrong planning, a planning that goes against nature. The world in which we live is governed by a law, which may be called the divine law or the law of nature. Right planning is to plan in accordance with the law of nature. On the contrary, wrong planning is when one’s planning is based on one’s desires and does not take into consideration the law of nature. For example, in the present age western nations have achieved dominance. Muslims considered this a threat for themselves and began to fight against these nations. They continued this struggle at the cost of great sacrifice to themselves. Everyone is aware that this step by Muslims yielded no result at all. The reason is that it was based on wrong planning. The Quran states a law of international life in these words: ‘Lord Sovereign of all sovereignty. You bestow sovereignty on whom You will and take it away from whom You please.’ (3: 26) In the present age, Muslim empires, such as the Mughal and Ottoman empires, came to an end. This happened according to the international law mentioned in this Quranic verse. Muslims should have accepted it and re-planned the affairs of their community. Had Muslims done this, Muslim history of recent times would have surely been different.