Description

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is an Islamic spiritual scholar who has adopted peace as the mission of his life. Known for his Gandhian views, he considers non-violence as the only method to achieve success.

Internationally recognized for his contributions to world peace, he has received, among others, the Demiurgus Peace International Award, the Padma Bhushan, the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavna Award and the National Citizen’s Award. A recent book, The 500 Most Influential Muslims of 2009 by Georgetown University, Washington DC, has named him “Islam’s Spiritual Ambassador to the world.” His approach, the book points out, is “popular among Indians, both Muslim and non-Muslim.”

Born in Azamgarh in 1925, the Maulana was educated in a traditional seminary. From his early years, he showed a voracious appetite for modern knowledge, spending entire days in the library. As a result he became well versed in both classical Islamic learning and modern disciplines. His extensive research led him to conclude that the need of the hour was to present Islamic teachings in the style and language of the post-scientific era.

Early Challenges

Having lost his father, Fariduddin Khan, at an early age in 1929, he was brought up by his mother, Zaibunnisa Khatoon and his uncle, Sufi Abdul Hamid Khan, arranged for his education. He comments that becoming an orphan very early in life taught him that, to succeed in life, you have to take such situations as challenges and not as problems. Being an advocate of result-oriented and positive action, he explains that treating such situations as problems can only be negative in result. All you can do in this state is either try to fight to remove them or lodge complaints or protests against them. On the other hand, if you take such situations as challenges, you can positively and constructively work to overcome them yourself, as and when suitable opportunities present themselves. His success in life is largely due to the implementation of this and other such principles, which he has derived from Islamic scriptures.

Education

Since his family was involved in India’s freedom struggle from the very outset, as a very young man he became a staunch nationalist with Gandhian values in the period prior to India gaining its independence in 1947, and he continues to be such till today. Although his brother, Abdul Muhit Khan, his cousin Iqbal Ahmad Sohail and other members of his family were sent to western-style schools for their education, the young Wahiduddin was enrolled at a traditional Islamic seminary, the Madrasatul Islahi, in Sarai Mir, near Azamgarh in 1938 to receive religious education. Here he spent six years, completing this course and graduating in 1944.

From childhood he unconsciously loved to live in nature. When during his days at the seminary he learnt that the Quran teaches man to observe and reflect on nature – God’s creation; he consciously began to imbibe this principle in his life. Henceforth, observation and reflection became the seeds that were to develop in him a scientific and analytical bent of mind, which he effectively applies till today in both religious and secular fields.

After graduating from this seminary of traditional Islamic learning, he started interacting with people to begin his life – considering his education to be complete. As it happened, the people whom he came across had received a modern, English medium education. During some of these interactions, he was deeply shocked to realize that, although his education had been completed, he was not able to respond to statements and questions put to him by others such as, “You can believe in religion only as a matter of faith, as it falls only into the framework of primary rationalism and not secondary rationalism,” and “Will there be anything lacking in history if Prophet Muhammad were to be taken out of it?” Questions such as these presented a new challenge to him.

His elder brother wanted him to join the family business, but realizing that, without studying English and modern science, his education would be incomplete, the young Khan immersed himself in learning English and then went on to study innumerable books on science and contemporary thought. Developing a voracious appetite for knowledge, he would visit the library early in the morning and leave only when requested to do so by the librarian at closing time. His quest for knowledge can be gauged by the fact that, even today he constantly questions all visitors coming to him, so that he may gain fresh knowledge from interacting with them.

Well-versed in Traditional Disciplines and Modern Sciences

As a result of his quest and resulting research, he became well versed in both classical Islamic learning and modern science. He then realized the need to present Islamic teachings in the style and language of modern times. Khan’s primary concern has been to present Islam as a perfectly suitable ideology for the modern age. Having a deep understanding of the original Arabic scriptures and with his extensive research in the fields of modern thought and science, Maulana has presented to the world – in the modern idiom – the real face of Islam, based as it is on peace, tolerance and co-existence. He dispels the notion that Islam is a religion of violence, a notion that has gained currency in the present times, because of Islam being misrepresented and therefore misunderstood. He deals at great length in his writings with issues relating to pluralism, inter-faith dialogue and peace. Let us now turn to Khan’s own distinct interpretation of how Islam can be understood in the modern world, an interpretation which claims to be both authentic and at the same time relevant in the present day context.

The Mission

Upon completion of his research, in 1955, he published his first book, Naye Ahd Ke Darwaze Par, or ‘On the Threshold of a New Era’. This book, the result of his exhaustive studies, was further elaborated upon in his next work, Ilme Jadid Ka Challenge, or ‘Islam and Modern Challenges’, which was later published as ‘God Arises’. The culmination of his research was his book, Al Islam, in which he presented the ideology developed by him, which was completely based on the original Islamic Scriptures. Continuing to write since then, he has authored over 200 books.

His book, ‘God Arises’ has been accepted as the standard Islamic position on modern thought and has been incorporated in the curricula of universities in over six Arab countries. It has been translated into various languages, such as English, Arabic, Malay, Turkish, Hindi, Malayalam and Sindhi. Its Arabic version has been published under the title of Al-Islam Yatahadda and has become popular throughout the Arab world.

From 1967 onwards, he has been addressing public and private gatherings in order to advocate a policy, which should be constructive, nationalist and inter-nationalist in nature. He has become actively involved in serving the cause of national and international unity based on peace and inter-faith harmony, and has extended his mission to interfaith efforts, by which he seeks, in the modern idiom, to present to the world the peaceful, tolerant spirit of Islam. Over a period of time, he has begun to contribute articles to various journals and newspapers, and has become a regular contributor to several national and international dailies and magazines.