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. HAJJ SHOULD INCULCATE LOVE FOR HUMANITY I T is incumbent upon Muslims to perform Hajj, at least once in a lifetime, as long as they possess the means. As is clear from the following excerpts from the Quran and Hadith, Hajj is an important pillar among the five foundation pillars of Islam. Pilgrimage to the House is a duty to God for anyone who is able to undertake it. (3: 97) The root meaning of the word Hajj is “to set out” or “to make pilgrimage.” Canonically, it has come to refer to a Muslim act of worship, performed annually, in which the worshipper circumambulates the House of God in Makkah, stays awhile in the plain of Arafat and performs other rites which together constitute Hajj—the act of pilgrimage. To be a member of that huge congregation gathered from the four corners of the earth, A true pilgrim cannot afford to differentiate between a Muslim and a person of another faith. He has to be a well-wisher to everyone.