FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Dr. Farida Khanam has been a professor at the Department of Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. She has to her credit the authorship of several books. She has also translated many books on Islam authored by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Currently, the chairperson of Centre for Peace and Spirituality (CPS International), an organization founded by her father Maulana Wahiduddin Khan she is a regular contributor of articles to journals, newspapers and magazines. Dr. Khanam has edited Maulana’s English translation of the Quran and has also translated his Urdu commentary of the Quran into English. Under Maulana Wahiduddin Khan Peace Foundation, along with the CPS team, she is designing a series of courses on peace-building, countering extremism and conflict resolution.
WITH the January 2018 issue, Spirit of Islam enters its sixth year of publication. The continued interest shown by readers has encouraged our team to begin the new year with the resolution to dedicate ourselves once again to ensure that the pages of the magazine offer spiritual insight, wisdom and lessons to those who yearn for meaning and purpose in life.
A few months back, an educated young woman from Kolkata shared a conversation that the writings of the Maulana had been therapeutic for her during a very difficult phase of her life. The purpose of Spirit of Islam is to empower numerous such persons to deal with life’s challenges, deriving positivity even from negative occurrences, gaining in spirituality and developing themselves intellectually so that they may contribute constructively to society. The magazine’s regular readers will appreciate that the entire thrust of its articles is directed to the individual—a collection of intellectually prepared individuals being the sole foundation on which a peaceful and harmonious society can be built.
As the subtitle indicates, Spirit of Islam is also working towards enlightening people on the subject of global peace and regularly addresses relevant contemporary issues. The violence being perpetrated, especially in the West, in the name of Islam has called for serious deliberation on the matter. Several articles in our various issues have been singularly devoted to understanding the root cause of the problem, to analyze the types of interpretations of Islam that instigates people to take up arms and how the thinking of those engaged in such heinous acts of terror may be redirected into peaceful channels.
Islamic scripture and the life of the Prophet of Islam offer us an ideology of peace —principles which lay down how peace may be established between conflicting groups, controversies resolved, conflicts defused and enemies turned into friends.
Those who have followed the magazine’s contents closely will have realized that Islamic scripture and the life of the Prophet of Islam offer us an ideology of peace— principles which lay down how peace may be established between conflicting groups, controversies resolved, conflicts defused and enemies turned into friends. When a religion has such ideas and concepts to offer, it is certainly erroneous to suggest, as some have claimed, that it is inherently violent.
The increasing readership of Spirit of Islam leads our team to hope that the journey we have embarked upon is definitely bearing fruit in people’s hearts and minds. We hope and pray that God may help us in this noble endeavour and give His blessing to our work this year as well!
Thank you,
Dr. Farida Khanam
Editorial Director, Spirit of Islam
hub@the spiritofislam.org
The development of human nature
is possible only in an atmosphere of
freedom. Just as a tree flourishes in an
open environment, similarly the human
being develops to the full only in an
atmosphere of total intellectual freedom.