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 Muslims1 . 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.
LESSON FROM LONDON
ON May 7, I switched on the radio and heard the speech of a British Muslim. One of his statements was: “I want to thank every single Londoner for making the impossible possible today.”
This voice from London prompted me to search for details about this event. It was the voice of Mr. Sadiq Khan, a practising Muslim and former labour cabinet minister, who was elected mayor of London, by defeating Conservative candidate Zac Goldsmith in a landslide victory. He gained more than 1.1 million votes, the single largest mandate for any individual politician in British history.
The new mayor of the UK’s capital is the son of immigrants from Pakistan who settled in London in the 1960s, where his father worked as a bus driver. Khan studied law and became a human rights lawyer before being elected as the Labor MP for the London constituency of Tooting in 2005.
In his victory speech, Mr. Khan referred to his humble origins on a council estate and said he had never imagined that someone like him could be elected mayor of London, and he promised to be a mayor for all Londoners.
I discovered that this incident had a revolutionary message for all Muslims—Abandon thinking along the lines of complaint and make plans for actions on a positive basis.
‘Making the impossible possible’ is not a simple matter. It is the phenomenon of a new age. The spirit of the age has ended the monopolization of social and political positions by the privileged class. Opportunities are open for everyone, be it political or nonpolitical. The case of Mr. Sadiq Khan is an illustration of the spirit of the age.'
Mr. Sadiq Khan’s victory clearly disproves the common Muslim perception that the West is anti-Muslim, a phenomenon termed as ‘Islamophobia’
However, this opportunity is strictly for those who adopt the peaceful course of action and do not take to violence under any circumstance. Mr. Khan’s victory clearly disproves the common Muslim perception that the West is anti-Muslim, a phenomenon termed as ‘Islamophobia’. It is high time for Muslims to abandon this kind of thinking and re-orient themselves to peaceful and constructive action. Their goal should be to achieve competence and be meritorious, which will open all doors of opportunity for them.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
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Unrealistic Thinking
Unrealistic thinking is that which
does not take the actual state of
affairs into account, which is based
on suppositions and conjecture, on
mere opinion, rather than on fact.