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Our Mission
To share spiritual wisdom and convey the message of truth to mankind peacefully.
CPS International, Centre for Peace and Spirituality, is an organization, which aims to promote and reinforce the culture of peace through mind-based spirituality. Non-profit-making and non-political in character, it engages in peace, spirituality and inter-faith efforts. The Centre aims to use every peaceful method to address the modern, scientific thought of young people and inquisitive minds of all ages, so as to give them an understanding of the ideologies of peace, spirituality, monotheism, and life and explain the creation plan of God. It aims to help seekers in their search for truth and to help man in his spiritual quest. Drawing inspiration from the Quran, the word of God, and the Sunnah (the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad), the Centre further aims to share the spiritual wisdom of Islamic Scriptures with the world and to remove misconceptions about Islam to reveal its true face, based as it is on peace, tolerance and co-existence.
Ambassadors of Peace and Spirituality
The Centre was set up in January, 2001, by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, an Islamic scholar who has adopted peace, spirituality and inter-faith harmony as the mission of his life. According to him, peace and spirituality are both two aspects of the one truth. Positive thinking at an individual level is called spirituality; when this positive thinking reaches a collective level in society, it culminates in peace.
The question is how is the message of peace and spirituality to reach people at a collective level? Maulana believes that this can be achieved by re-engineering the minds of individuals to inculcate the highest level of spirituality in them. There are two ways of addressing people: at the collective level and at the individual level. While most people prefer to address people en-masse in crowds, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan has – to the point of sacrifice – chosen to interact with people at the individual level. According to him, addressing a crowd does not yield any long-term results, for, in very large groups, the individual’s mind is never properly addressed, and therefore individuals – the building blocks of society – are unlikely to change.
Maulana has throughout addressed individuals with the objective of re-engineering their minds, so as to bring about the kind of spiritual revolution in them, which will convert them into positive and peace-loving, spiritual beings. Through his efforts – spanning decades – Maulana has created a team of individuals who have been spiritually reconditioned, by means of the simple formula: “Change yourself – by living a God-oriented life – and you will be able to change the whole world.” He believes that it is this team of individuals, trained as they are in the ideologies and principles of peace and spirituality, who will play the role of ambassadors of peace and spirituality to the world to usher in an era of peace.
The ambassadors of peace and spirituality, comprising the thousands of members of the CPS International and its global partners have made it their life’s ambition to unite peace-loving people worldwide.
Peace Mission
Such a peace mission is the basic need of the 21st century man who, having reached the pinnacle of his technological achievements, is still confronted with negative influences such as stress, materialism, inequality, and the pressures of workplace and social living. The result is that more and more people, succumbing to negative emotions such as intolerance, hatred and the urge to retaliate, are at an individual level exhibiting signs of aggressiveness, and, at the collective level, violence, disharmony, a propensity to cause environmental damage and, ultimately, terrorism.
The Centre, therefore, realizes that establishing world peace is the number one priority, as it is the sole path to positive achievement, and is, most importantly, a crucial factor for human survival. However, merely making appeals in support of peace, or going to the lengths of bombing terrorist hideouts, will not establish peace. The fact is that the terrorism of the present age differs greatly from that of former times. Today, it is not a matter of who has the more sophisticated, and lethal technology; it is more a matter of technology versus ideology, for terrorism has a complete ideology of violence, albeit false and of its own making, to support it. Realizing that terrorism will persist in one form or another, until the ideology of violence is replaced by an ideology of peace, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan has developed just such a full-fledged ideology of peace, derived directly from the Islamic scriptures. CPS and its global partners draw inspiration from this in their major peace efforts, their aim being to give to the world a practical model of peace at an ideological level, so as to replace the culture of violence with the mentality of peaceability.
Spreading Contemplative Spirituality
The question that comes to mind is how does one start the process of building a positive and peaceful society? At the CPS, we believe that there is only one way to do this and that is through spirituality. Although there are two major schools of spiritual discipline: one based on meditation and the other on contemplation, at CPS, we subscribe to the school of contemplation. We believe that, as it is man’s mind that differentiates him from the rest of creation, it can only be through the development of his mind that man can attain true spirituality. Following this principle, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan has developed a comprehensive Ideology of spirituality – derived directly from the Islamic scriptures. CPS International and its global partners are striving towards the spread of spirituality by disseminating this ideology of contemplative spirituality and training individuals in spiritual principles.
Explaining Purpose of Life
At CPS we believe that man is born with an inquisitive nature. Being endowed with a reasoning faculty, he cannot help but question the activities and phenomena that take place around him. He becomes restless unless rational answers to questions pertaining to the ideology of life, such as the following, are addressed: Who am I? , Where did I come from? Does God exist? Do I need a God? What is the purpose of my life? Why do I have so many desires? Is my life governed by destiny or free will? Why is there suffering in the world? Where will I go when I leave this world? Does the hereafter exist? How do I achieve salvation? etc. Although the questions are many; at CPS, we believe that there is only one answer – a reason-based understanding of the Creation Plan of God, which will enable us to understand man’s purpose in life. CPS is making every possible effort to help seekers rationally find answers to questions pertaining to the ideology of life and to explain scientifically the ideology of monotheism, life after life and the creation plan of God.
Ideology of Monotheism
A common question people ask is, ‘how can the existence of the one Universal God be explained scientifically?’ To be able to answer this question we have to first understand that the concept of God is innate in human beings; however, people usually doubt the existence of God, as He is unobservable. The proof of the existence of an unobservable God, can be illustrated by taking the example of sub-atomic particles, which while being invisible are still considered to be in existence by the scientific community. Previously people held the direct argument, based on visibility of matter, to be valid and the indirect argument, based on effects of matter to be invalid. At that time, the atom was considered to be the smallest particle of matter. But when the atom was split, it was found that it was nothing but a mad dance of energy waves or electrons, which were not observable. Scientists, however, continued to believe in the concept of the atom and its subatomic particles, protons and electrons, although they now realized that they were unseen. They concluded, 'the electron is invisible, but it exists'. The scientists were led to this conclusion because, although the electron itself is not visible, its effects are experienced, and for these, no other explanation is forthcoming except the existence of the electron.
It is, therefore, on the basis of such indirect observation that a new logic came into being. Till now only the direct argument of observability was considered valid, but from now onwards, the indirect or inferential argument based on the invisible sources of visible effects was also taken to be acceptable. An example of this is the invisibility of X-rays to the naked eye, while their effect can be seen when we observe the X-ray film.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan provided scientific proof, using this inferential argument that this division of primary and secondary rationalism is in itself wrong. In his books, God Arises, In Search of God and Religion and Science, he has explained the ideology of Monotheism, giving credence to the belief in a non-observable God by seeing the effect of His creation – the universe, giving the maxim, “Where there is a design, there is a Designer.” Bertrand Russell likewise confirmed this in his book, Why I Am Not a Christian. The following, an excerpt from God Arises, proves this point:
“The option one has to take is not between the ‘universe without God’ and the ‘universe with God’. The option is actually between the ‘universe with God’ or ‘no universe at all’. Since we cannot, for obvious reasons, opt for the latter proposition, we are in fact left with no other option except the former — the ‘universe with God’.”
CPS and its global partners are spreading this ideology of monotheism to make people understand their Creator.
The Creation Plan of God
Once people accept the existence of a Universal God, the next question is what does God want from me? Or what is the Creation Plan of God? The ambassadors explain that, in terms of the creation plan of the Creator, human life is divided into two stages – the pre-death stage and the post-death stage. The limited period before death is meant to be a test for man, while the period after his death will be the period for his reward or punishment, based on his performance in the test in this life. Those who pass the test by living a God-oriented life or a Rabbani Life by purifying themselves and building a positive personality through the process of tazkia or purification, instead of a self-oriented life, will be rewarded with eternal Paradise. On the other hands, those who fail to do so will be debarred from entering Paradise and will suffer everlasting punishment.
Explaining the concept of free will as per the creation plan of God, the ambassadors say that, in the present world, man finds himself totally free. However, this freedom does not belong to him as a matter of right, but is rather a test paper for everyone. In the present world of trial, any man or woman, to be eligible for Paradise, must, firstly, acknowledge the truth of the One God (based on the ideology of Monotheism), and surrender to Him, not by compulsion as does the rest of creation, but by his or her own choice and, secondly, must lead a principled life – a God-oriented life.
God-Oriented Living
When an individual is thus trained in spiritual principles and he gains a rational understanding of the creation plan of God, his life enters a new phase – that of the building of a positive personality in consonance with the Creator’s spiritual principles – another name for which is God-oriented living.
The ambassadors believe that all sorts of success, be it the achievement of peace; positivity; spirituality; the discovery of life; the secret of success in this world and the after-life all depends upon living a God-Oriented life. Just as the earth is sun’s satellite and its existence would have no meaning without it; in the same way, all of man’s activities should be God-oriented. The essence of the issue is that just as all other creatures of the world are compelled by their nature to live a God-oriented life; man, of his own free will, should surrender to God. He should build a life, which is based on the concept of God. This consciousness is the real ascension of man. In this consciousness lies the secret of all success.
CPS Efforts
The various activities of the Centre – peace efforts, spirituality efforts and inter-faith efforts, therefore, aim at bringing a spiritual and intellectual revolution in individuals to convert them into peace-loving people. This will ensure that the negativity and violence in his mind are replaced with a culture of peace and spirituality.
CPS and its global partners are undertaking peace efforts to spread the ideology of peace and train people based on its principles. With this objective, we regularly participate in peace efforts of Indian and world organizations. The objective of the peace efforts is to re-engineer the minds of individuals everywhere to replace the mentality of violence with a culture of peace. This is done by making them realize that they have to maintain peace unilaterally, for nothing that we desire can be achieved without it. This is because human thinking is at the root of both the state of peace and violent action — though at opposite poles. Therefore, if one were to apply one’s mind in all sincerity to the end result, one would never indulge in violence, only in peaceful activities. It is only peaceful minds that make for a peaceful world.
The spirituality efforts of the Centre are aimed at sharing the spiritual wisdom of the Islamic Scriptures and to help seekers find rational answers to their questions pertaining to the ideology of life and train them in the spiritual principles. This is done by explaining to them that man's spiritual journey is entirely intellectual in nature. Its quest has two aims: one is to solve the riddle of why all men and women undergo negative experiences in this world; and the other concerns the finding of positive solutions. It addresses the paradox of human beings having been given the freedom to make moral choices, and their frequent misuse of this liberty -a course of action which causes them to repeatedly face situations in which people do each other harm; losses are incurred because of others' injustice; severe provocations are suffered because of untoward experiences. All these give rise to evils such as malice, lust, anger, arrogance, greed, etc. Giving a practical solution, the ambassadors explain that when man raises himself above his immediate situation, i.e., from the material to a higher level of thinking, he is able, at this elevated thought level, to eradicate his negative emotions and attitudes and replace them with positive ones: patience when confronted with provocation, love when confronted with hate, etc. The afflicted person then becomes one who loves rather than hates. His adherence to his code of ethics then becomes unconditional: he is never affected in his moral judgments or actions by the misdeeds of others. He thus becomes a peaceful, spiritual person.
The inter-faith efforts of the Centre aim at making people realize the fact that Islam is a religion of peace and spirituality and not of violence. Through such efforts, the Centre and its global partners are in the process of eradicating misconceptions about Islam by explaining that if they have gained currency, it is because information about Islam is being derived, not from Islam’s original sources – the Quran, the word of God, and the Sunnah (the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad), – but from latter-day interpretations of and commentaries on these sources, and, even worse, from the dubious practices of present-day Muslims in different parts of the world. The ambassadors are thus explaining that the only way of righting the wrongs done to Islam is by adopting a scientific approach to it, i.e. distinguishing between Islam – as derived from its original sources – and the conduct of Muslims over the centuries. When people follow this line, they come to realize that Islam is actually a religion of peace and spirituality, which aims at producing a peaceful society by providing the moral basis for individuals to be positive in their outlook and behaviour.
To achieve these objectives, CPS and its global partners are using every peaceful method including one-on-one interactions of Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and ambassadors of peace and spirituality with individuals, spiritual and world leaders; weekly and monthly talks and lectures; seminars and conferences; the publication of books, articles and the magazine, Al Risala and the dissemination of on-line material through the following sites: www.wkhan.net, www.alrisala.org, www.goodwordbooks.com and www.cpsglobal.org; distribution of audiovisual material in the form of DVDs, VCDs, audio CDs, MP3s, etc.; PR activities; and television & radio broadcasts throughout the world. The various divisions of the Centre are at the heart of the CPS Activities. They are providing the pivot around which CPS and its global partners can spread the message of peace and spirituality globally.
Our Vision
The sphere of activity of CPS International is, therefore, global. The Centre is uniting peace-loving and spiritual people of the world through its peace efforts, spirituality efforts and inter-faith efforts, using every peaceful method that will be beneficial and helpful in attaining its objective. Our vision is to spread the message of peace and spirituality globally. We believe that when this message enters each and every home of the world, it will usher in an era of global peace and unity.
[Join hands with the CPS][1] to make this a reality!
SourcesBold text http://www.wkhan.net http://www.cpsglobal.org http://www.alrisala.org http://www.goodwordbooks.com
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