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.
VIRTUAL MEETING
GOD says, “It is obligatory for Me to love those who love each other and meet each other for My sake.” (Musnad al-Shihab al-Qudhai) In this Hadith, love does not mean material love, but it means meeting each other for the mission of God, i.e. those who are united for the sake of God’s mission; whose missionary spirit is so strong that every member of the mission becomes a beloved companion to them.
If such people come together, then they deserve to be loved by God. But it turns out that human beings, despite sharing the zeal for one mission, sometimes don’t come together for one reason or the other. For example, sometimes it happens that people participating in the same mission migrate and move to different areas. Similarly, the recent outbreak of Covid has forced people to resort to social distancing as precaution. It is not possible for anyone to interact face to face in such situations. The only possible meeting at the moment is electronic meeting.
The possibility of electronic meeting is a facility of modern times. This method did not exist in ancient times. This is also called a virtual meeting.
In these times when everyone must follow social distancing, the people of a mission should take full advantage of the facility of virtual meetings.
It means being in different parts of the world and discussing with each other through the internet using video, audio or writing methods. A virtual meeting is a substitute for direct companionship in modern times.
A virtual meeting too—if it is for a mission—is to love for the sake of God, and to gather for the sake of God. In these times when everyone must follow social distancing, the people of a mission should take full advantage of this facility.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
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Follow Maulana at http://www.speakingtree.in (The Times of India)
1. The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims 2020, Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Jordan.