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. CREATION FOR WHAT? O N the night of January 3, 2006, I was at my residence (C-29, Nizamuddin West) in New Delhi. In the last quarter of the night I had a dream. In my dream, the then President of the USA, George Bush Jr. came to me and requested me to teach his son. After this, I found myself in a big house where I went to a room on the upper floor. George Bush’s son was in the room. He was around 12 years old. He came up to me and asked, “Why was man created?” When I woke up I reflected on the dream. I realized that this was a question for the whole of humankind. Today, the whole of humankind, consciously or unconsciously, is facing this dilemma. Every person wants to know what the real purpose of his life is. What is life? What is death? What is a person’s status in this vast universe? Which path should man take to reach the desired destination? The modern world is a unique era in human history. People are born with an ocean of desires, hopes and wishes. Earlier, man could only express these desires in the form of wondrous tales. But despite lifelong efforts to fulfill these desires, man has been unable to achieve them. He