ASK MAULANA

Your Questions Answered

The issue of terrorism engaged in by self-styled Islamic groups seems to be becoming even more serious. Almost every day now there is a terrorist attack by such groups somewhere. Given this: What makes you continue to be hopeful—about peace, including and especially among Muslims and between Muslims and others?

My hopes are based on nature. I believe that radicalized Muslims are misguided. Muslims’ case is that they consider their violent acts as Islam. This thinking of theirs is based on a ‘jihadi’ interpretation of Islam. In comparison to this, I present an interpretation of Islam based on dawah. Thousands of Muslims all over the world have corrected and reformed their thinking after reading my writings, because they found them in accordance with their inner nature. This phenomenon has created hope in me in that I believe that others too can similarly be changed along peaceful lines. I continually make an effort to change the minds of people. From past experience, I can say that when people’s minds are addressed they abandon violence in favour of peace.

You continue to write on these issues with great passion. What drives you?

In 1967, I had started my mission of peace in New Delhi. At that time, a Delhi-based Muslim magazine wrote an article critical of me, bearing the title ‘A Lonely Voice’. However, in the past 40 years my way of thinking has been adopted by thousands of people in India as well as abroad; these people have become part of my peace mission. This positive experience is my driving force. I am certain that a person can deny everything else, but he cannot deny his own nature. Thus those who, after reading my writings, discover the truth cannot afford to deny it any more. This fact has been proved true in the past and with God’s help it will be proved correct in the future on a greater scale.

At your age and given how serious the situation today is, someone else might have given up all hope for a better, more peaceful world. He might have turned cynical and bitter. He might have lost all interest in these issues. He might have felt that trying to transform others and the world is pointless. But not you! What continues to inspire you to be so engaged in seeking to promote peace and to counter extremism, including and, especially among Muslims?

My confidence is based on a verse of the Quran which says that a believer always has an option of one of the two benefits: the good of the Hereafter or the good of both the present world and the Hereafter (9: 52). As I have stated above, I am hopeful of both the good of this world and that of the Hereafter. In such a situation, I do not need to fall prey to frustration. I am hopeful of the good of the Hereafter because my mission is based on the Quran and Sunnah. As far as the good of this world is concerned, I am hopeful of it because many people have left their violent ways and have come to the path of peace after becoming familiar with the ideas laid down in the literature of Centre for Peace and Spirituality (CPS).

Do you think the problems that many Muslims today face is at least partly a result of their thinking about people of other faiths in such a demeaning manner?

The problems Muslims are facing today are a result of their own wrong planning, a planning that goes against nature. The world in which we live is governed by a law, which may be called the divine law or the law of nature. Right planning is to plan in accordance with the law of nature. On the contrary, wrong planning is when one’s planning is based on one’s desires and does not take into consideration the law of nature.

For example, in the present age western nations have achieved dominance. Muslims considered this a threat for themselves and began to fight against these nations. They continued this struggle at the cost of great sacrifice to themselves. Everyone is aware that this step by Muslims yielded no result at all. The reason is that it was based on wrong planning.

The Quran states a law of international life in these words: ‘Lord Sovereign of all sovereignty. You bestow sovereignty on whom You will and take it away from whom You please.’ (3: 26) In the present age, Muslim empires, such as the Mughal and Ottoman empires, came to an end. This happened according to the international law mentioned in this Quranic verse. Muslims should have accepted it and re-planned the affairs of their community. Had Muslims done this, Muslim history of recent times would have surely been different.

There is great wisdom behind the above Quranic law regarding international life. That is, it helps in maintaining and continuing the process of development. Muslims, in their long period of rule, could not take the world beyond the agricultural age. When the European countries gained dominance, they helped the world enter the industrial age. It was now time for Muslims to understand new changes and draw benefit from them. However, because of their unawareness Muslims began to fight, leading to total failure.

Love All
Love is the greatest human virtue.
Where there is love, everything
is in harmony, and where there
is hate, all that is good remains
in jeopardy. The fact is that
difference is part of nature. It
has rightly been said: "Nature
abhors uniformity. This being
so, differences will arise between
individuals and groups. The only
solution is to adopt "Love all"
formula.