In Tazkiyah—Purification of the Soul Maulana Wahiduddin Khan explains that the Quran mentions four responsibilities of the Prophet, one being the purification of the self (2:129). As such it is essential for believers to give utmost priority to the purification of the self in their lives. Similarly, it is necessary for the da‘i and the reformer to attach great importance to the process of purification.
It is an incontrovertible fact that a new age has set in Kashmir and could rightly be described as the ‘Dawn over Kashmir’. This development in Kashmir is not attributable to any external cause but is rather the result of fresh thinking on the part of the Kashmiri people themselves.
In The Secret of a Successful Family Life Maulana Wahiduddin Khan gives principles to lead a successful family and social life. The first is the art of life management which means that man, on the one hand understands himself, (who he is, what his capabilities are, etc.) and, on the other hand, he becomes aware of the world around him. It is only then that he can plan his life in a realistic manner. He further explains that there are two ways to examine an action, either by an ideal standard or based on the result. Realism and wisdom lies in the latter.
On an occasion of an international conference in Switzerland in 2001, the Maulana heard an 80-year old Kashmiri participant viewing the beauty around her in awe: “Our Kashmir was as beautiful as Switzerland, but today it stands destroyed.” Thinking of this he states that the blame for the destruction of Kashmir must be placed on the shoulders of those inept Kashmiri leaders who, with their emotionally-driven rhetoric, completely misled their people and pushed them on to the destructive path of militancy.
