Book review : ‘In search of God’: Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
Faheem Ul Islam
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan (1925-2021) was an Islamic scholar born in Azamgarh Uttar Pradesh. He was best known for his quranic commentary in the light of science. He was a peace activist and was listed in the 500 most influential Muslims of the world. His writings and commentary regarding the hereafter world gives goose bumps to the reader, the way he puts his thoughts in the light of Quran are quite worthy to read. He has been a multidimensional author of various books.
Today it is my pleasure to write a review of his book “IN SEARCH OF GOD” published by ‘GoodWord’ Books publication house. The book contains almost six chapters which are diverse in their respective pages but relevant to the whole title at large.
The book actually answers the questions which a person feel to get when he comes across the questions regarding the existence of Almighty God. The way Maulana has briefly answered the doubts with a logical, scientific and Quranic perspective depicts his vision of spirituality and belief.
Firstly Maulana talks about the existence of man which is a most evident mystery. For man is not what he physically appears to be, but consists of what he calls I, and the. I is not observable. Maulana tries to answer and revolve his pen around this theme in the whole book. He talks firstly about the man, that if you are accepting your existence then logically you are compelled to say, “I exist, therefore, God exists.”
Maulana now moves towards the further topic and start questioning about DOES GOD EXIST?
He says I do believe in God based on my study and experience of my life. Here now Maulana describes the belief that people generally believe that they are in a position to prove or disprove anything but this is not the scientific position, we can’t prove or disprove anything we can only arrive at the point of probability, rather than certainty.
Now according to anthropology, that is the science of man, has established the concept of God is ingrained in human nature. If now belief in god runs in our blood and every man and woman is a born believer. And everyone in his life time goes under such circumstances of life where he/she feels helplessness then we experience that there is a supreme being present, why still we got stuck that whether God exists or Not?
Moving ahead Maulana highlights that according to encyclopedia of ignorance, increase in knowledge has only increased our ignorance. So Human knowledge has two different phases, the Pre-Einstein period and the post. In pre Einstein period the knowledge was mainly about the macro or material world which was observable and measurable and was dealing with logical aspect that real existence should be observable. And it created a theory called logical positivism. But later on with the advent of technologies when atom was split the whole situation got now changed from macro world to the unseen waves, particles.
Here it also pushes a man towards the existence of God. These are all examples which are put forth by the author to make a reader understand and give him a logical view of existence of God. The author also describes about Big bang theory which also supports the existence of god, that always science is witness that whenever the explosion occurs it causes destruction except the pre-planned ones.
So here the creation of universe by explosion of cosmic ball should also have been destructive but no, it creates the universe where every small tiny particle is in its accurate position so it makes us understand that there is someone who has a supreme authority of designing the world in such a beautiful way and he is none other than God. This miraculous phenomenon is enough to make us believe that the Big Bang explosion was certainly pre-planned under the supervision of super planner.
Maulana talks about various characteristics of the universe in which we reside. The Harmony in the universe between in-numerable stars and planets in space perhaps more than the grains of sand on the coast of seas.
All these bodies are continuously in a motion with rapid speed but there is not any collision between them. There are other various phenomenons which serves the example of such harmony. These all miraculous phenomenon speak about that there is a central management behind this universe, and such manager is none except Almighty Allah.
Maulana speaks about the most beautiful topic here and that is the right proportion of things in a a universe. He talks about the trees that there model is final and no one can create other model, same case is about the man.
A man is best creature on earth and this model is also final and no one has ever created a modified man. But when we look towards the man-made things they always go through modification and are full of flaws. This shows that the one who created us and the universe is a perfectionist and needs no modification.
His model is ultimate. The distance from sun to earth is as such if it moves closer few miles to earth the whole earth will burn and will destroy and if it will move slightly higher than actual position everything will freeze and whole universe will destroy. So this all also shows there is someone who is master in that, and is none except Allah.
He further speaks that man doesn’t stand alone in the universe. Julian Huxley the well known British writer was an atheist and his perception was that man doesn’t need god he is alone sufficient in this world. He has written this all in his Book (MAN STANDS ALONE). But in contrary his ideas were countered by American scientist, Cressy Morrison with his book (MAN DOESN’T STAND ALONE).
Even in present era many people are of same idea given by Huxley but when they come under such circumstances in their life, they felt helplessness and start believing that there is someone superior to him who can help him to get out of the box. A man experiences these things in different ways in his life with the passage of time.
All men and women have the feeling that they suffer from limitations, when they can’t achieve what they actually want. These limitations make them feel helpless. Everyone experience these moments either by loss, accident, death, or old age. Here Maulana speaks in a very well and deliberative way that these all helpless moments repeatedly remind us of the fact that we are in need of a superior power.
As without that very superior power we can’t go ahead in our life. So these all feelings provide us the psychological proof of the existence of God. Maulana now speaks about spirituality and say that spirituality awakens the mind. Spirituality is a great strength and best formula for character building.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan in the last two chapters addresses those people now who came to the point of belief in existence of one God. He says that now when we accepted the reality of existence of God with our whole senses, we have to live the life which is whole God Oriented.
As the earth revolves around the sun for its smooth functioning and if the earth doesn’t revolve around the sun or other planets then its existence would have been of no meaning. Same is the practical demonstration of a man, if he would not live a life according to the divine book of almighty Allah his existence is of no mean.
Man has been created a superior creature among all and its main responsibility is to adopt the only way which has been mentioned in the holy scripts of Allah. Our all worldly affairs should revolve around the orbit of Allah so that we can prosper in our life. The God oriented life begins when we start remembering God, then we begins to feel his presence, whatever we do and wherever we will be that all will remind us the presence of God. just as rain replenishes the crops, so does he remain ever immersed in the remembrance of God. And by all this we came in the domain of spirituality.
Maulana says that God is spiritual focus for man. One whose heart is attached to God undergoes spiritual experiences at every moment. As the belief in one god is the spiritual development for a man. And the main aspect is the sense of accountability. We should have the fear of hereafter as we have to stand in front of Almighty Allah who is known to each and every deed which we did, so this sense of fear and love with Allah will enhance the seed of Spirituality and will make a man true believer of God. When there will always be a threat of being chased by Allah, our deeds will be on the right way in which Allah and prophet has guided us. So Maulana also emphasis that main element is sense of accountability and that will lead the life of God oriented.
This Book really clears the doubts which a person might face during his life time in the modern world but the author’s approach in religious and modern context is appreciable. Quran is the ultimate divine book which shows the righteous path to lead our lives.
We should be more focused on Quran and sunnah and should not get stuck at any point on the basis of ideological clashes. This book is really a masterpiece by the Author. May almighty Allah reward the soul with his blessings and show us all the righteous path of those whom Allah rewarded, Aameen .
(The author hails from Achanpulwama and is pursuing his bachelor’s honours degree in political science at AMU)
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