FROM MAULANA’S DESK
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, born in 1925, in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, is an Islamic spiritual scholar who is well-versed in both classical Islamic learning and modern disciplines. The mission of his life has been the establishment of worldwide peace. He has received the Padma Bhushan, the Demiurgus Peace International Award and Sayyidina Imam Al Hassan Peace award for promoting peace in Muslim societies. He has been called ’Islam’s spiritual ambassador to the world’ and is recognized as one of its most influential Muslims . His books have been translated into sixteen languages and are part of university curricula in six countries. He is the founder of the Centre for Peace and Spirituality based in New Delhi.
LESSONS FROM DE-MONETISATION
ON the 8th of November 2016, when I tuned in to the 8:00 PM news as usual on the All India Radio station, I was surprised to hear the voice of the Prime Minister of India instead of the regular newsreader. The Prime Minister announced that the “500 rupee and 1,000 rupee currency notes presently in use will no longer be legal tender from midnight tonight, that is 8th November 2016.” He added that these notes will not be considered valid currency anymore and will be “just worthless pieces of paper.” The Prime Minister said the measures were aimed at curbing the “disease” of corruption, black money and terrorism which continue to plague the country.
This announcement came as a sudden catastrophe to many in the nation just as if it were an earthquake. They reacted with much uproar and lamentation, but there was nothing that could be done to change this decision.
This incident was a worldly matter, but thinking about it I was reminded of a verse from the Quran
This Day your wealth and your offspring will be of no avail, and only those will be saved who come to God with a sound (purified) heart. (26: 88-89)
The words ‘wealth’ and ‘offspring’ in this verse are symbolic of the materialistic culture of man. Today, the sole concern of man is the acquisition of material wealth and worldly power. He considers money as everything and believes it to be the answer to all his desires. In such a situation, the Prime Minister's announcement came as a bolt from the blue, as much of, the wealth that people had accumulated was now as good as garbage. After hearing this, many people burnt huge piles of money and many others just threw them out with the garbage.
If all such things come to naught in the world of the Hereafter, then what is it, which will be of use in the Hereafter? There it is only a ‘purified heart’ that will be of any value.
If within a moment of the Prime Minister's declaration, valid currency had become dead currency, consider then what will be the situation when the Lord of the universe declares that “Today your wealth and your offspring will be of no use” In another place in the Quran, God declares, “On that Day man shall flee from his own brother, his mother, his father, his wife and his sons.” (80: 34-37)
Consider then what will be the situation when the Lord of the universe declares that “Today your wealth and your offspring will be of no use”.
In this world, there are many people whom others, consider their ‘whole and soul’ in life; but suddenly in the world of the Hereafter they will be deserted by these very same people. In the verse, ‘flee from his own brother’ does not mean actually deserting his brother. Rather, all those people whom a person, held to be his support and succour in the world will now appear as a burden to him. Wealth, offspring, relatives, friends, positions, armies, governments and all other things that man once relied on as his strength—will all be shattered in the world of the Hereafter and man will find himself all alone and powerless in front of Almighty God.
If all such things come to naught in the world of the Hereafter, what is it which will be of use in the Hereafter? There it is only a ‘purified heart’ that will be of any value. This matter has been related in the Quran as follows, “Paradise is the recompense for those who purify themselves”. (20: 76)
A verse of the Quran that marks the signal for the Hereafter says, “The trumpet will be blown and, at once, people will rise up from their graves, and hasten to their Lord.” (36: 51)
There is another symbolic meaning of this verse which can be explained as follows. Every person lives in a protective shell that he has created for himself. This shell is made of money, wealth, material interests, family and societal ties, position and power. When suddenly ‘the trumpet is blown’, all these protective shells will be broken and man will stand exposed and bare.
With the Prime Minister’s announcement of demonetisation, all the ‘black money’ hoards were exposed and laid bare. In a similar manner, with the ‘blowing of the trumpet’, all the hidden qualities of people will be exposed and their true personalities laid bare. Tomorrow, in the world of the Hereafter that is sure to come, mankind will be separated into two types of personalities; a purified personality and a ‘blackened personality’. (3: 106)
It is negative thinking that leads to the ‘blackening’ of one’s personality. Negativity gradually obscures man’s personality and just as a dye colours water, negative thinking blackens the personality.
The Quran mentions that there will be two ‘trumpet signals’ for the Day of Judgement. I believe that the first ‘warning signal’ is a symbolic one which can, therefore, be of more than one type. The second ‘warning signal’ will be the final one, that will usher man into the world of the Hereafter. Looking at it from this perspective, the Prime Minister’s declaration of 8th November is a symbolic ‘warning signal’ that will reveal glimpses of the Hereafter to the man who has the vision to see it.
There are many people whom others, consider their 'whole and soul' in life; but suddenly in the world of the Hereafter they will be deserted by these very same people.
Today, the more wealth that one has, the more is one distraught and stressed. Today, there are piles of money but their value is nothing. In a similar manner, in the Hereafter, people will have their ‘pile’ of deeds that they have accumulated in the world, but it will be of no use to them. Just as today, man lives in a self-centered world and does not come to the aid of his fellow human beings, on the Day of Judgment ‘he will have no friend’ (69: 35), and ‘no friend will ask about his friend’. (70: 10).
After the announcement by the Prime Minister, people were in a position to protest and condemn the decision. There have been many debates and demonstrations against the decision. But in the Hereafter, there will be no one to raise their voice against the declaration of God. (20: 108).
Such incidents that occur in our lives are equivalent to the ‘first warning trumpet’ of the impending Day of Judgement. Similarly, every earthquake and storm, every natural disaster, every accident, old age, disease and death are all a first ‘warning trumpet’. This ‘first warning trumpet’ is a reminder of the Day of Reckoning to follow soon, but when the ‘final trumpet’ is sounded it will signal the end of time for mankind on earth and usher in a new period of eternal life in the Hereafter.
The most crucial aspect of this matter is that every man has dedicated himself to the immediate acquisition of material gain and has no concern for his eternal life to come. He cares only about obtaining immediate wealth, money, health, fame and position and makes no effort towards preparing for his everlasting life in the Hereafter.
The Prime Minister’s declaration of 8th November 2016 was sudden and unexpected. Similarly, death and the Day of Judgement will also appear suddenly. The time has come for man to think about his eternal life. Instead of adorning his present home, which can be seized from him at any moment, he must work towards preparing an eternal home for life in the Hereafter. And what is this eternal home for man? It is Paradise. We do not need to travel into space to understand where or what is Paradise. To get a live understanding of Paradise, consider this saying of the Prophet of Islam:
Paradise has been veiled with unpleasantness
If you can develop your minds so that you are able to lift the veils of evil and of things that are prohibited or to be avoided, then Paradise will become apparent to you. In this present and temporary world we face many unpleasant experiences. Paradise will be a place free of all such experiences, it will be a place of eternal joy, whose inhabitants ‘shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve.’ (2: 62)
That is why the people of Paradise will live in eternal happiness and praise God saying:
Praise be to God who has taken away all sorrow from us.
(THE QURAN 35: 34)
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
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