THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN ISLAM

You are a niece of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. So, how did your association with this mission start? Did it come naturally to you because of the family bond or was there some other reason? From childhood, I had a special bond with Maulana. I remember that when I was 10 or 12 years old, how happy I would feel when Maulana visited us. He was always engrossed either in reading or in writing. I would observe him stealthily from behind a curtain. Whenever I got the chance, I would sit by his side silently. I liked to do something he asked me to do. I even enjoyed just sitting by his side. This was how I knew him but I knew nothing about the mission he was working on and also I knew nothing about the God-oriented life he had been living. It was yet to dawn on me that Maulana was a different person and that he had dedicated his life to God. I always felt this special attachment with Maulana that I did not feel for other family members. The Urdu monthly Al-Risala that Maulana wrote would arrive regularly at my home. I never consciously learned any lesson from the magazine. To put it in a nutshell, for me Maulana was always right. I would see the light of truth with him. Then it happened that the travails of life forced me towards his mission. I consider this shift a great blessing of God. Here, I found my soul at rest and peace of mind. Who played a bigger role in your upbringing, your father or Maulana? I would say that Maulana played a bigger and integral role in my upbringing. My father was a regular reader of Maulana’s writings. Through his example, I would read Maulana’s books. In this way, father and daughter, we both were trained by Maulana. What are the lessons that you learned from the company of Maulana? Some learnings are so thrilling that they cannot be described in words. I would mention some very special life lessons that I have learned from Maulana. 1. Maulana lived a need-based life, whereas people live a desirebased life. 2. He lived quite simply. He ate simple food. His life was far removed from what we may call materialistic. 3. He used to quote: Simple living, high thinking. He lived his life exactly in accordance with this quote.