FROM MAULANA’S DESK

FROM MAULANA’S DESK 1. The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims 2018, 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. RELIGIOUS BASE PLUS OBJECTIVE THINKING A FTER the death of my father, there was no elder in the family. The elder in the extended family was my uncle, Sufi Abdul Majeed Khan, who was my father’s younger brother. He was a spiritual person. As everyone in the family was acquiring secular education, he wanted one of us to become a Maulvi or a religious scholar. Due to this obsession, my uncle got me enrolled in a madrasa, an Islamic seminary, and bore all the expenses. The credit of my seminary education goes to him. At my madrasa, the Quran was considered the most important book. Hadith (teachings of the Prophet) was also taught and we had an Arab scholar who taught Arabic. This was the atmosphere of my madrasa. Madrasa education helped build my foundation. Had I not gone to a madrasa, I would not have formed a religious base. In every person’s life there are many incidents of school days. There are many in mine too. I will share one of them, which had a great impact on my life. One day in class, we read a lesson from our textbook, which