SPIRIT OF ISLAM JUNE 2O18

3 Spirit of Islam Issue 66 June 2018 FROM MAULANA’S DESK 1. The World’s 500 Most Influential Muslims 2018, Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre, Jordan. 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 1 . 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. DIFFERENT IS BEAUTIFUL E F SCHUMACHER authored a book ‘Small Is Beautiful: A Study Of Economics As If People Mattered’. It is often used to champion small, appropriate technologies that are believed to empower people more, in contrast with phrases such as “bigger is better”. Paul Taylor wrote the book, ‘Black is Beautiful: A Philosophy of Black Aesthetics’ In the same vein, I would like to say, ‘Different is Beautiful’. I am specifically referring to differences of opinion which should be used as a stepping stone rather than considering it as an obstacle. There is an example from Islamic history to illustrate this: The Kabah was built in the shape of a rectangle by Prophet Abraham, four thousand years ago. It transpired that for some reason, the Kabah had to be re-constructed, but in the process of construction the Makkan people made it square-shaped. Consequently, about a third of the area of the former rectangular building was missing from the newly built Kabah. The Prophet of Islam was later advised to restore the Kabah to its original shape, as built by Prophet Abraham. But the Prophet did not do so. The long, rectangular shape of the Kabah was earlier required,