PUNE DIARIES

PUNE DIARIES PERSONAL EXPERIENCES In March 1986, the President of the Islamic Centre, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, visited the central Indian city of Pune. This was his fourth journey to Pune, his previous visits having taken place respectively in 1971, 1983 and 1984. Pune was then known as Poona. It was then a city of about one and a half million peoples, 100,000 of which were Muslims. The size of the congregations which gathered this time to attend Maulana Wahiduddin Khan’s talks was indicative of a substantial increase in the number of AIRisala readers in that town. A full account of the Journey was published in AI-Risala, (June 1986) and here we give an abridged version in translation. Making up for Lost Time O N the evening of March 19, 1986, I was due to travel from Delhi to Poona. I arrived at the airport at the correct reporting time and initially we were informed at the Indian Airlines desk that the flight would be on time. At the last moment, however, we were told that the plane was one hour late. During travels, there is always a chance of delay. All modes of travels such as cars, trains and buses are prone to delays. While there may be genuine reasons for such delays, it is not uncommon that such cases arise due to the behaviour of some unruly passengers or due to inefficient management of the schedules. All this involves a considerable waste of time and constitutes a substantial loss to the nation. Yet it is at times such as these that one realizes what a great blessing faith is, for it compensates for every loss. There is a saying of the Prophet Muhammad to the effect that one extraordinary thing about a believer is that everything turns out well for him. If everything goes according to plan, a feeling of thanksgiving is aroused in him, but should his plans go awry, he realizes that man can only propose; it is God who disposes. In this way he comes closer to the Lord. Easier Said than Done After an hour-long wait, we boarded the plane. After taking my seat, I picked up the Indian Airlines in-flight magazine (Swagat, March 1986) and began to read about how Indian Airlines is one of most widely