English

Lucidly written and expansive in scope, the book Islam and World Peace by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan clears up the misunderstandings that abound on the subject of Islamic teachings about peace and war. It clearly states the authentic position on these matters, which is that Islam is a completely peaceful religion. In Islam, peace is the general rule or norm, and war is only an exception. Of the various names or attributes of God mentioned in the Quran, one is As-Salam, or ‘The Source of Peace’. That is to say, God is Peace. Islam’s mission centres on tawhid, the oneness of God.

In the present book, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan explains that everything in the universe—the sun, the moon, the stars—have all completely subjugated themselves to God’s will; they cannot make the slightest deviation from the path He has ordained for them. Similarly, all other elements in nature function in obedience to the laws of nature, laid down for them by the Creator. The entire universe has surrendered to God, the Lord of the Universe. But there is a difference between the status of man and that of the physical world.

The history of man begins with Prophet Adam. After the creation of man, throughout long periods of history, God appointed and sent His messengers to inform man of His creation plan. He wanted mankind to know what the Creator wants from him in this world and what his fate is going to be in the world hereafter. More than 100,000 prophets over a long period of time, including Prophet Noah, conveyed God’s message to mankind. According to Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, the Prophetic Role of Noah holds significance for all generations of human history.

The Vision of Islam offers an explanation of the teachings of Islam in a contemporary style and aims at providing such an interpretation of Islam as will address the modern mind. Maulana Wahiduddin Khan wrote the Urdu edition of this book, Al-Islam in September 1975. At that time he felt that with this book his mission had come to an end. Subsequently, there was a change of circumstances and by special divine succour a full-fledged mission came to be launched on the basis of the ideology he had presented in his book Al-Islam.