A SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT

A SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT D AVID CRYSTAL, a British linguist, is the foremost writer and lecturer on the English language. For students who wish to improve their English language skills, he prescribes reading the quarterly English Today three times daily before or after meals. Being so passionate about mastering the English language, I followed this advice to the letter. Existential questions, faith in the unseen, peace and spirituality are the areas that have always grabbed my attention. I feel it equally important to have a reason-based understanding of faith and religion to live a productive and uplifting life. To aid me on this journey, I read the magazine Spirit of Islam (SOI) three times daily. SOI has been the source of my spiritual nourishment. Every day, this world throws up new challenges that may well unseat the reason of any person. It becomes all the more important to know the bigger picture behind everyday occurrences. Human reason, with its limitations, stands stunned to challenges such as the problem of evil, why one needs to follow a universal code of conduct, violence, injustice, natural as well as man-made calamities. Human reason sans divine guidance is prone to misjudgement. What a relief it is to find practical solutions for not only mundane affairs but also lofty questions of human intellect in the pages of SOI! Read this passage that appeared in the first issue of SOI if you are thinking about why you cannot always have all the good things in life: God has placed unpleasant things alongside the pleasant things of life. Just as the rose bush, along with its exquisite flowers, also possesses piercing thorns, so also does life contain an amalgam of both pleasing and displeasing objects. This is the way God has created the world. There is nothing for us to do but to fit in with this order of nature that He has laid down. Much as we may try, it is impossible for us to have things any other way. (January 2013) The contents of SOI are based on the writings and ideas of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. The uniqueness of SOI lies in the fact that its contents take into account the divine guidance enshrined in the Quran, the practical model of the Prophet Muhammad, a true understanding of human nature and modern science. This results in very practical and