Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was a well-known English literary critic, theologian, philosopher and poet. One of his poems is titled The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In this poem, Coleridge describes a sailor who, on account of some sin, gets stuck in the sea. He has no fresh water to drink. His ship is surrounded on all sides by sea water, but because the water is salty, he cannot drink it. In anguish he cries out, “Water, water everywhere. Nor any drop to drink.”
The condition of this fictitious sailor is potentially the same of every human being in this world. Man cannot live without water. But a huge proportion of the world’s water is exceedingly salty—being contained in the seas and oceans—and hence is not potable.
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan is an Islamic spiritual scholar who has authored over 200 books on Islam, spirituality, and peaceful coexistence in a multi-ethnic society.
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