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 Vibhushan, 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. DECONDITIONING THE MIND N O man is an island entire of itself. Every man is born in a particular society, and it is this society that creates the mindset of an individual. We imbibe the effects of our surroundings and the prevailing culture. Every person is a product of the environment or society they live in. These societal effects that are cultivated in one’s mind are referred to as the conditioning of the mind. Everyone possesses a mind that is conditioned in some way or the other, and this is the biggest issue we face. It is this conditioning that is responsible for turning us away from our original pure nature. In this respect, everyone is a sure case of a conditioned mind. It is very important that this unnatural effect is eliminated; which means the conditioned mind must be deconditioned. Hence, it becomes imperative that each one of us decondition ourselves and bring ourselves back on to our pure original nature. This process of deconditioning of the mind can also be called as the re-engineering of the mind.