Principles of Life

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I Principles of Life

A cyclist whose brake got jammed took his cycle to a mechanic and asked him to repair the offending part, thinking that the mechanic would set to work on it at the point where the brake had got jammed. To his dismay, the mechanic took a hammer and began to rain blows on it at quite another point. The cyclist looked on in astonishment. Then the mechanic said, “It’s all right now,” and true enough, when he tried it out, he found that it had been set in order.

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I Principles of Life

Bertrand Russell was a liberal in the ultimate sense of the word. He often expressed thoughts which were so unconventional as to be pro­foundly disturbing to the more conservative members of his audiences. In his autobiography he writes of an incident which took place in the course of one of his lectures:

“A man rose in fury, remarking that I looked like a monkey; to which I replied, “Then you will have the pleasure of hearing the voice of your ancestor.” (p. 565)

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I Principles of Life

When the Prophet of Islam left his hometown in Makkah and emigrated to Medina, these words were on his lips: “Makkah, my dear and beauti­ful town. If my people had not expelled me, I would never have lived anywhere else.” (Sunan Ibn Majah, Hadith No. 3108)

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan I Principles of Life

Towards the end of his commentary on the verse of the Quran entitled “The Night Journey” or “The Children of Israel”, Ibn Kathir has related the following incident:

“An idolator heard the Prophet supplicating God by His names Rahman (The Beneficent) and Rahim (The Merciful). ‘I thought that he called on only one God,’ the man commented. ‘Yet, here he is, calling on two.’”