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. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS AND PERFORM YOUR DUTIES W HY is there widespread social and political upheaval in our world today? Is it due to injustice and the denial of human rights as is commonly assumed? Why do people rally around protests and strikes which often take a violent turn? It is due to an unrealistic concept of justice and an obsession with an unrealistic concept of human rights. People are living in a state of over expectation and when they find that their expectations are not fulfilled, they react. This reaction begins from negative thinking, and then it takes the shape of protest and finally leads to violence. The solution lies in reconsidering and correcting the generally accepted concept of human rights. This is the first step in finding a solution. In the 20th century, many movements were launched to champion human rights. But perhaps, there has been no significant movement based on human duties. Through the media, human-rights movements gradually spread all over the world. Now everyone is obsessed with the concept of human rights; they have become rights-conscious. This is against the law of nature. The law of nature is based on the