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.
CREATION FOR WHAT?
ON the night of January 3, 2006, I was at my residence (C-29, Nizamuddin West) in New Delhi. In the last quarter of the night I had a dream. In my dream, the then President of the USA, George Bush Jr. came to me and requested me to teach his son. After this, I found myself in a big house where I went to a room on the upper floor. George Bush’s son was in the room. He was around 12 years old. He came up to me and asked, “Why was man created?”
When I woke up I reflected on the dream. I realized that this was a question for the whole of humankind. Today, the whole of humankind, consciously or unconsciously, is facing this dilemma. Every person wants to know what the real purpose of his life is. What is life? What is death? What is a person’s status in this vast universe? Which path should man take to reach the desired destination?
The modern world is a unique era in human history. People are born with an ocean of desires, hopes and wishes. Earlier, man could only express these desires in the form of wondrous tales. But despite lifelong efforts to fulfill these desires, man has been unable to achieve them. He dies only in a state of despair and frustration. In the ‘modern world’, it appears that the objects designed to fulfill man’s desires have grown enormously in number and are widely available. In the past, man dreamt of winged chariots, but now this has become a reality in the form of aeroplanes. The means of global communications that man imagined as legendary pigeons are now in everyday use in the form of modern wireless connectivity. The same transformation has occurred in almost every aspect of life. The comforts and luxuries that people could only imagine before are now readily available. Almost all of ancient man’s dreams seem to have become a reality.
Despite all these luxuries and comforts, as far as true joy is concerned, man has been unable to attain it. Today, you can purchase almost anything in the markets of the world, but you cannot buy peace and happiness anywhere.
Despite all these luxuries and comforts, as far as true joy is concerned, man has been unable to attain it. The birds chirping in the trees are joyful, but man is joyless. Today, you can purchase almost anything in the markets of the world, but you cannot buy peace and happiness anywhere.
There is only one reason for this tragic state of affairs. And that is, trying to understand life keeping only the pre-death period of life in mind. Whereas, the reality is that there is a post-death period of life and without taking into account this eternal period, the meaning of life cannot be understood satisfactorily.
According to the creation plan of God, human life is divided into two phases: a relatively short, pre-death phase, and a post-death eternal phase of life. The pre-death period of man’s life is the period for sowing seeds, as it were. The post-death period of man’s life is the period for harvesting the fruit. According to the law of this world fruits cannot grow without sowing seeds. And without fruits, farming is meaningless. Without knowing this fundamental aspect of life, it is impossible to find a satisfactory explanation for it.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
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