1. After having completed my education in 1943 in a traditional Arabic institution of Islamic learning in India, I came into contact with the outside world. During this interaction with modern educated people I felt that my education at the Madrasa was not sufficient to enable me to answer the questions coming from those educated in the modern institutions of scientific learning. I had an urge to communicate the message of Islam to them but I felt myself incompetent for this task of Da‘wah. Owing to this experience I resolved to learn English and then study modern literature on various disciplines produced in the west. It took twenty years for me to achieve this goal. Ultimately I succeeded in a proper understanding of modern thought and modern intellectual challenge. By God’s grace I was able to provide the answers on the same intellectual level on which the questions were raised.
2. There are two periods of orientalism, one beginning from crusades and ending with Thomas Carlyle. The second begins from Thomas Carlyle and continues till today. The Orientalists of the first period were people who were associated with the Church. Their main aim in studying Islam was to distort the image of Islam in order to keep the Christian world away from Islam.

In the next phase orientalism came out of the influence of the Church and became purely a discipline of history. Now scholars and academicians began treating it as such. In this second phase orientalists performed great academic services to Islam. On the one hand they scoured libraries to find out ancient Islamic manuscripts. They edited them with great labor and devotion, and then published them, thus these manuscripts came within the reach of the common man. On the other hand they wrote valuable academic books on Islamic subjects. To a large extent, they were representation of Islam as it is.

3. I have done the initial task on the theoretical level for the reconstruction of Islamic learning. But this scheme has yet to materialize. The reason being that for this important task an academy is required, which has all facilities at its disposal. Since such an academy does not exist, nothing worthwhile has been achieved practically.
4. I have written a 240-page book entitled Al-Fikr al-Islami on the issue of ijtihad. This book published in Urdu has yet to be translated into Arabic. The gist of this book is that what is required in this age is Ijtihad Mutlaq, and not simply what Muslim scholars call Ijtihad Muqayyed. This absolute Ijtihad in its intellectual capacity begins with the rediscovery of Islam and from practical respect it culminates in the reinterpretation of Islam.

In the connection of Ijtihad in modern times two things are of utmost importance—a new interpretation of the concept of nasikh and mansookh, in which naskh is not treated as ‘mutlaq’ (in an absolute sense) but is treated as a demand of practical necessity. Naskh pertains to methodology. That is, the matter of nasikh, mansukh is not final. What is Nasikh and what is mansukh will be determined by the given situation in every age so it is open to reapplication in the light of circumstance. In short, Naskh is a kind of adjustment between ideal and practical conditions.

5. Amir Shakeeb Arsalan had posed a real question in his book but he was unable to provide its answer in its depth. Therefore, Ummah failed to receive a clear guidance. The secular leaders who hold Islam to be responsible for the backwardness of Muslims are certainly wrong in their assumption. In no degree the reason for Muslims’ backwardness is traceable to Islam. The only reason for this lies in the halting of the process of ijtihad among Muslim scholars. It is due to this great importance of Ijtihad that according to a hadith, the Prophet urged Muslims to exercise ijtihad even if there is a risk of making mistakes.
6. Dr. Samuel Huntington’s opinion has the position of the opinion of some individuals. The Western scholars do not generally think along this line. Like Dr. Huntington who express such opinion do so because they equate Islam with terrorist movements of Muslims carried out in the name of Islam. So far as I view it Islam is not a challenge for the West, it is instead a blessing. It fills in the ideological vacuum. If Islam is disassociated with terrorism, such propaganda will of itself disappear.
7. Democracy, in effect, is the name of a political structure. In no sense it enjoys a general acceptance. If it is associated with secularism it will become secular democracy. Since democracy, of necessity, requires freedom, therefore, a high percentage of literacy is essential for the success of democracy. In semi or illiterate society democracy is reduced to anarchy.
8. The basic shortcoming of Marxism is that it is against the law of nature. The system of the present world has been established by its Creator based on the principle of competition. The intellectual and practical structure of Marxism wanted to establish itself on the negation of this eternal principle of nature. This was the reason for its fall.
9. What I wrote in Al-Islam Yatahadda was in the nature of a prediction. Now in 1991 after the fall of Communism this has finally been proved. All the doors are now open for Islam to make its entry. Now Islam is in a position of unopposed victory. The need of the hour is that Muslims rise with the message of Islam and avail this modern universal opportunities in favor of Islam.
10. I had my formal education at an Arabic religious madrasa. Afterwards I studied privately English language and modern sciences.
11. According to the Qur’an in this world Usr and Yusr always go together. We learn from a tradition narrated by Aishah that whenever the Prophet was faced with a problem he always opted for the easier course, abandoning the harder. This shows that Islamic method is based on the principle of gradation. That is, taking the start from the possible (begin from the possible) and not from what is impossible at that given time. In other words Islam, although a complete ideology theoretically, in practical respect its method is based on the principle of statusquoism. That is taking the start by breaking the statusquo is not the method of Islam. Rather the method of Islam is to begin one’s struggle without clashing with the status quo.

Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. President, The Islamic Centre. 1, Nizamuddin West Market, New Delhi-110 013 (India)Tel. 4648729, 4611128 Fax 4697333