ASK MAULANA

ASK MAULANA Your Questions Answered The remedy for ignorance is asking questions. (Prophet Muhammad) The spirit of enquiry is the hallmark of an open society and the above saying of the Prophet aptly illustrates this principle. A culture of curiosity and open-mindedness will foster development in any society by motivating its members to learn enthusiastically and enrich their knowledge. This is because awareness of one’s ignorance is half of knowledge, as it becomes a stepping-stone to seeking and finding answers. A questioning mind is like a flowing river that is replenished with fresh thoughts and ideas and continues on its journey. Is Religion necessary in today’s world? Religion undoubtedly is more than a necessity for this world. The strife in this world is because people have become materialists. The aim of religion is to make people spiritual instead of being materialists. If the world has to have peace, religion should become more widespread. How do we know if by following religion we have become hardliners? Hardliners are not products of religion, but products of erroneous interpretation of religion. When you only define religion in terms of form, it makes you a hardliner. If you define it in terms of spirit, you will not become a hardliner. Would the world be more peaceful, without religion and borders, and with common culture and one language? It is a mistake to believe that the world would be a more peaceful place if there were just one culture or one language, without religions and without borders. This will never happen because difference is part of nature. There are two key aspects of human knowledge: humanities and physical sciences. Physical science does not have any differences, for instance, water shall always be H2O, and every scientist will always end up with the same conclusion through different experiments. In the subject of humanities, however, there will always be differences, as we learn from many scholars. For instance, Dr. Alexis Carrel has written a 312-page book, wherein he has failed to find the reality of human life. That is why he titled the book, Man, the Unknown.