The mission of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan may be called a peace mission. Peace for him is not just an academic subject. It is the goal of his existence. He is a born pacifist, and leading a peace-loving life has always been a source of great spiritual solace for him. It is his aim to spread the ideology of peace throughout the world to usher in an era of global peace.

It has been rightly said that “Man is a rational animal” and also that “man is an explanation-seeking animal.” Both these sayings convey the same point: that man derives mental satisfaction from his actions only when the goals at which they are aimed have been established as right by rational argument. Attempting to evolve a complete ideology on the basis of peace is indeed as important a goal as peace itself, and vice versa. Both are interdependent. The one cannot exist without the other.

Such violence as has been witnessed in modern times has never hitherto been experienced. Wartime depredations and violence by unauthorized groups in the form of proxy or guerilla warfare have inflicted such great harm upon humanity that this seems to be undoing all our progress. This is a reality which is being experienced by all concerned inhabitants of the earth.

How can this be explained? The reason is clear: people do not possess a complete ideology, which favours peace, whereas the sole justification for violence is the force of public sentiment. When an activist feels the urge to become a world leader or when a community is provoked into avenging the losses it has suffered, no need of logical or rational justification is felt. The force of sentiment is sufficient to activate leaders and followers alike. But where adhering to peace or adopting a peaceful course of action is concerned this is possible only when there is a very strong justification for peace. While violence is instinctive, peace calls for strict mental discipline and self control to be exercised, everyone wants to assert himself by negating others, so that, one short emotional outburst is all that is needed for violence to be indulged in, unlike peaceful action, which requires serious thought to be given to it.

The only solution to this serious problem is for man to be in possession of a complete ideology of peace. The actual problem of today is that no ideology of peace in the real sense exists. Why is there this negative side to human psychology? It is directly related to the creation plan of the Creator. It acquires meaningfulness only in terms of God’s plan of creation.

Advocating Islam as a complete ideology of peace, Maulana says that the present world has been designed by its Creator as a testing ground for mankind. Man has been granted full freedom of will in this world. But this freedom is not meant to produce anarchy. Its objective is to demonstrate whether man, despite having full freedom, can lead a disciplined life.    More.....>