Asem Mohiuddin
On April 21, Maulana Wahiuddin Khan died at New Delhi hospital after losing the battle to world pandemic COVID 19. The death of a 97 year old renowned Islamic scholar was widely mourned by all sections of society in the country and elsewhere in the world.
Khan devoted his life to preach and teach the Islam with moderate views and directly sourcing the information from Quran and Hadith. His views and interpretation of Hadith and Quran many times would trigger controversies among the certain sections of people. However, what was more pricking various Muslim sects his political ideology of ‘non-confrontational’.
“The Moulana I know was a non conformist, strongly believing in peaceful coexistence,” says Professor Hamiddulah Marazi, head of Religious studies at Central University. Marazi claims that he knows Moulana for the last five decades and despite contrasting opinions on various religious and political issues, Moulana was never allowing those views to spoil the personal relations.
“I have once strongly retorted his article on some religious issues. Initially I felt he might react strong but when we met he offered me a pleasant smile. “It was a good article,” Marazi recalls the meeting after he wrote that article.
Even though Maulana would brush aside the controversies and never try to enter into an argument, his political ideology and position on contentious issues often invited criticism.
In India after his remarks on Babri Masjid, many Muslims accused him of soft support of RSS and BJP.
“In the contemporary times I will count Maulana Wahiuddin Khan among the top ten Islamic scholars. And I am not sure how long it will take us to fill the vacuum after his departure from this materialistic world,” Javed Hassan Baig, a senior politician who is also a staunch follower of his ideology says.
Baig claims that Maulana was a practical man and opposed political Islam which according him did no good to Muslims in the world.
“He was insisting Muslims to focus on their character that may not only change their fortunes but will also inspire non Muslims too. Maulana had no belief that political Islam can ever change the fate of Muslims evident from the contemporary political issues prevailing in Muslim world,” Baig adds.
“For me, the Maulana’s profound understanding of jihad was fascinating. He often used the aftermath of the Ghazwa-e-Tabuk as an example where the Prophet of Islam had made a sharp distinction between jihad (of a lower order) against one’s opponents and the jihad-i-Akbari (the higher order jihad) against one’s ego and baser impulses. It was jihad-i-Akbari against one’s nafz, the Maulana argued, that was the supreme meaning of jihad,” writes Amithabh Mattoo, a professor at JawaharLal Nehru University in a column in The Indian express.
Many others think that Maulana was the follower of Gandhian views on non violence.
“The people of Kashmir and Palestine must understand that stones won’t get them anything, rather they shall accept fate and forget the past,” he had told The Wire in an interview in 2007.
Moulana was blaming the Muslims for the worsening conditions anywhere in the world. He said as long the lives of Muslims are not guided by the Quran and Sunnah they are bound to face tough times.
He even said that as per Islam Muslims shall learn to manage the situations not to react. “If you ask me about the Godhra riots in 2002, it was retaliation. Riots are never one sided,” he had told The Wire.
Stressing on the nationalism, Moulana believed that Indian Muslims shall exhibit true spirit of nationalism as it is allowed in Islam and refrain from negative propaganda. According to him, the negative image of Muslims in India can only change if they take the centre stage and work on the national outlook that includes all not only Muslims.
While he said that triple talaq was unislamic, he however, had believed that imposing Uniform Civil Code in India is impractical and contrary to the writings of constitution.
“All his life he said what he really believed in. He did not care about what people would say or how they would react. So some people liked him so much, some people did not like him but it did not deter him. He kept on saying what he really believed in.” Zafarul Islam Khan, son of Moulana Wahiuddin Khan said.
Maulana bagged the Demiurgus Peace International Award, under the patronage of the former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. This year the government of India had conferred him with second highest civilian Padma Vibhushan award and in 2000 he was conferred with Padma Bhushan award.
He had authored over 200 books on Islam, prophetic wisdom, spirituality and coexistence in a multi-ethnic society. Born in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, he received his education at a traditional seminary.
