FROM MAULANA’S DESK

Missionaries and social reformers typically use the second method of description. As for the third method which is talking about it by taking one aspect as the sole basis of understanding it as a whole. The scholars who have contributed to the political interpretation of Islam are an example of this third approach. They expressed their understanding of deen of Islam in such a manner, that it can be called, in the sense I am using the word, a particular interpretation of deen based on a single central factor— politics. In brief their understanding of deen can be said to be a ‘political interpretation of Islam’. I am aware that no single word can fully represent a complex phenomenon, but the picture of deen that emerges from their writings can be said to approximate what I term as a political interpretation of deen. In their writings the political aspect appears as the focal point of the totality of deen. From this perspective, the reality of belief and prophethood cannot be understood without taking politics into account. Nor can the true significance of worship be comprehended apart from its supposed political underpinnings. Nor, too, according to this perspective, can one progress on the spiritual path. It is as if without politics, the religion of Islam is utterly empty and totally incomprehensible. The unrealistic and unnatural interpretation of any truth always passes through a historical process and results in total failure for those who follow it. Today, we witness the worst manifestation of following such an ideology in the form of terrorism. o Maulana Wahiduddin Khan editor@thespiritofislam.org Follow Maulana at speakingtree.in The unrealistic and unnatural interpretation of any truth always passes through a historical process and results in total failure for those who follow it. Loss & Gain Often we have to lose in order to gain.