FROM MAULANA’S DESK

FROM MAULANA’S DESK 1. The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims 2020, 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. A MESSAGE OF HOPE T HESE DAYS, after waking up, I hear people talking of despairing things. News broadcasts are filled with gloomy updates of the coronavirus pandemic. Then I observe the sun rising. This natural and everyday occurrence of the sun rising gives me a most hopeful lesson. The world is moving from darkness towards light, while the people of the world were speaking as if the world was going toward darkness. This is against nature. The world of nature is so designed that here, one state gives way to another. There is a system in place in this world which brings light after darkness. Human beings are no exception to this principle. The present crisis humankind is facing reminds me of an incident. A woman from Delhi went to Germany with her husband and stayed there for some time. There she met a German lady, and they became friends. Once, the girl from Delhi said to her German friend that she believed in Paradise. The German lady replied: “Why do we need Paradise? We can have everything from our marketplaces.” This is a common feeling amongst most people today.