SELECTION FROM TRAVEL DIARY

This article is written by Maulana Iqbal Umri

Today, May 5, 2025, I left my home for a trip to Qatar. At 12 o’clock in the night, while everyone was sleeping, a Hindu brother escorted me to the bus stop in his auto. He also stayed with me until I boarded the bus. This scene testifies to the fact that India is a land of love, brotherhood and humanity, where the walls of religions do not separate hearts but bring humans closer. Such examples are common among us, there is a need to highlight them and not run after rumours and hate speech.

When I started the journey, I opened the Quran. I read these verses:  Each messenger We have sent has spoken in the language of his own people, so that he might make the message clear to them. (..) We sent Moses with Our signs, saying, ‘Lead your people out of the darkness into the light, and remind them of God’s Days. In that there are signs for every patient, grateful person.’

These verses have been beautifully explained by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan in his commentary of the Quran: It was the way of God to raise prophets from among the addressees’ own community, fully taking into account their mentality, so that they might be able to call upon the people in their own understandable language to accept the truth.

‘Our Signs’ means those signs of the universe which prove the statements of God to be true. ‘God’s Days’ means those events of history when the decision of God was made manifest and, with the special help of God, truth was victorious over falsehood. (Quran Commentary: 729-730)

Then I started leafing through Al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadith. I read this Hadith: Keep fearing God wherever you are. And do good after some misdeeds are done, good will destroy the consequences of misdeeds. And employ excellent manners while treating people.

This Hadith provided a practical guide to my journey:

• To make piety provision of the journey,
• Even if an evil deed is performed , the door of doing good is not closed.
• And treating people with excellent manners, regardless of religion or nation.