Islam: An Ideological Movement
for a Peaceful Co-existence

Irfan A. Omar interviewed Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, President of The Islamic Centre, New Delhi and Editor-in-Chief AI-Risala magazine, during his visit to Washington in February 1998.

Q. How do you find the general situation of the Muslim community here and their reaction to your talks?

A. I am very hopeful of the Muslim community here. Mainly because I do not measure people and their situations with ideals. In my view, there are no ideals. When you are looking for ideals then there is always disappointment. I always measure situations with practical possibilities.

We know that now the number of Muslims is increasing all over the world. People are converting on their own. I see a divine plan in it. After the Prophet, the word of Islam spread throughout the world, people went out as traders and took with them the message of Islam. Similarly, Muslim and non-Muslim interaction today is making it possible again for the former to present Islam to the latter on an unprecedented scale.

I commented while talking to some resident Muslims here over the fact that they left their countries in search of economic opportunities and many of them have found such opportunities and prospered here (in the United States and the Western world in general). Now all they have to do is to turn their intentions for the sake of Islam; continue to strive in whatever they do in making an honest living, just intend to do it for the cause of Islam and there they will find themselves spreading Islam in all kinds of situations.

My feeling is that there is a dawah explosion everywhere nowadays. Everywhere there is talk of Islam. For example, someone mentioned that he went into a bookstore in Chicago and asked the salesperson about the number of copies that were sold of the Satanic Verses. The answer was “three.” Then he asked, “how many copies of the Quran translation were sold today?” The answer was, “seventy.” So, in my view, even Salman Rushdie is helping in the cause/propagation of Islam. By selling three copies of his own book, he helped create interest in the Quran which far outweighed the interest in his own book; a ratio of 3:70. So, there is an explosion of dawah and people are writing, publishing, talking and debating about Islam everywhere, not only in the US but everywhere in the world.

At the same time there is a shift in the style of thinking of many people from violent activism to peaceful activism. This is a refreshing change from my last visit. Now more and more people are convinced of peaceful means for the defense of Islam and Muslims. I have strongly urged that violence is against the spirit of the age and it must be discarded. Peaceful activism is the Islamic way of activism and it should be utilized. So, during this visit, I have noticed that people are beginning to realize this factor and in this I see that history is moving in the right direction for the cause of Islam.

Q. Do you think that the American culture or Western culture in general is conducive for the growth of Islam?

A. Absolutely. I was talking to someone during a recent conference on Dajjal and I mentioned that those who call Western culture a manifestation of Dajjal should know that we need many more of such Dajjals. You see, for first time in recent history Western culture has caused great awakening. For the first time religious freedom was granted and religious persecution condemned. It is Western culture that invented modern means of communication. It is Western culture that accomplished major achievements in science and technology and therefore helped discover the ayat (signs) of God hidden in nature. Books like Maurice Bucaille’s The Bible, the Quran and Science became, possible only after Western culture had unfolded the proofs of God in nature and in science.

But today Muslims are stuck in those aspects of Western culture that are demeaning, antithetical to Islam. They should, instead, focus upon those aspects of the West that are productive, intellectual, constructive, moral and so on.

Q. Many Muslims tend to see non-Muslims as ‘the other’ as it were, to the extent that there appears a clear dichotomy between Muslims and non-Muslims, us and them, good and evil. Does this attitude have any basis in Islam?

A. The Quran and Hadith are opposed to this attitude of creating the “other” and constructing divisions between ‘us’ and ‘them’. The Quran says, “Call (people) to the Way of your Lord with wisdom and with beautiful preaching and argue with them in ways that are best” (16:125); “Repel (evil) with goodness. Then he who hated you will become your friend.” (41:34)

So revolutionary is this idea, that even an enemy is to be treated as a friend. One should consider even one’s enemy as a potential friend and respond to his mistreatment with goodness. Therefore, according to the Quran, we do not have the right to call anyone kafir which is the situation that emerges when the Muslims see non-Muslims as the ‘other.’ To call people kafir just because they do not claim to be Muslim is to violate God’s injunctions. Kafir literally means munkir as translated by Shah Abdul Qadir, Munkir is someone who rejects or conceals the truth. If the message has never been presented to a people, then they cannot be called munkir let alone kafir. Therefore, all races and peoples of the world should be viewed as human beings who are potential allies, allies of Muslims against unbelief. And they should be presented with the theory as well as practice of Islam.

All the prophets who came in this world with a message called out, “O people,” “O brothers,” “O my community;” none of them said, “O kafirun.” Therefore, we should learn from this prophetic style as to how to communicate God’s message in this world. If dawah is not done with its etiquettes which means that in spite of hate and persecution we do not react or curse those whom we intend to invite to the message, then there is little chance that anyone will listen to us and respect us.

Until we have exhausted the arguments and have presented the entire message to those who do not have it, we have no right to put the blame upon them. I would go so far as to say that even then we do not have the right to call non-Muslims kafir.

In the Quran, God declared the Makkan munkirin as kafirs. It is God who called them as such, but it is not right for humans to judge people by such labels since only God knows who is a munkir and who is not. So, our job as Muslims is to keep the work of dawa and leave it to God to see whether they are kafir or not.

In short, whether Western people or any other people do not see Islam as truth we do not have the right to call them kafir. In essence, we cannot perceive them as the “other;” it is not permissible for us to view them as such.

Q. What is the situation of Muslims in India? We hear of continuing disturbances between Muslims and Hindus as well as about the violent clashes which come would perceive as the persecution of Muslims at the hands of Hindus and Indian government. How do you respond to that?

A. The situation of Indian Muslims today is better than Muslims in any other place in the world. The reason I say this is because nowhere is there as great a number of Muslims as in India. Until a few years ago, Indonesia was regarded as constituting the largest Muslim population. But now that situation has been reversed; there are more Muslims in India than anywhere else.

Secondly, Muslims in India have far better opportunities than many other places. For any type of development and progress, both material and social, two things are required: peace and freedom. Both are available in India compared to many Muslim countries. In Pakistan there is freedom but no peace; in some Arab countries there is relative peace but little freedom. India is one country where both are present.