The inaugural issue of ‘Renaissance’ is before you. It has been launched with an aim to communicate the true message of Islam, and to purge it from various innovations which have over the years crept into its edifice. The basic idea behind its initiation is to present the teachings of Islam in their pristine form, and to apply its principles in current circumstances with a view to present positive solutions to the problems faced in the fields of law and politics, economics and sociology and indeed in all the other spheres of life.
No doubt, a tempest has blown the Muslim fleet our of course. We are going through a period of general decline in all the affairs of life. A revolution in the intellectual and mental perspectives in the need of the hour. The challenge we face is prodigious and the effort required in Herculean but then there is a heartening aspect to this situation. God has promised us to always send forth people in this world who would remain o the right path and revive the religion of truth, cleansing it from alien concepts whenever the forces of evil gain momentum. The following tradition bears references to this:
One group of my Ummah will always be on the right path and remain predominant among the people. No one would be able to hurt or inflict any harm upon them, until the decree of God arrives. (Muslim: Kitāb -ul-Imārah)
In recent times the task of such an intellectual revival and mental reformation has been taken up by a religious scholar of exceptional intellect, Imām Hamīd Uddin Farāhī. Ho together with his most outstanding pupil, Amīn Ahsan Islāhī, has redirected the Muslims religious thought from the path it has deviated and as such layed the foundations for an intellectual awakening. Under the guidance of our mentor, Jāved Ahmad Ahmad Ghāmidī, a charismatic religious scholar and a brilliant pupil of Islāhī, we humbly intend to contribute what little we can for the cause of this revolution. We are no scholars or men of learning but are very ordinary seekers of the truth. Our limitations and shortcomings are as evident to us as the midday sun, yet it is just the quest for the truth and its dissemination that has inspired a bunch of mediocres to undertake such a daunting task. IN the tremendous pandemonium that prevails our voice is no more than a whisper yet something deep down in our hearts beckons us to devote even the last quantum of energy we have for the cause of truth:
Stand upright, speak thy thoughts, declare
The truth thou hast that all my share,
Be bold, proclaim it every where,
They only live who dare.