Advice of Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi’s (RA) to Muslims ofthe West
By Dr Basheer Ahmed Khan
Garden Grove, CA
Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi RA was a renowned Islamic scholar, an educationist, a historian, and a prolific writer who authored hundreds of books and fliers in Urdu and Arabic. He lived in India in the last century and travelled most of the world. His death on 31st December 1999 signaled not only the end of a millennium but also the death of true scholarship to which he made tremendous contribution in the sixty years of his eighty years of life on earth. I had the good fortune of reading a lot of his work and also met him a few times.
He was the illustrious son of a genius father Hakeem Syed Abdul Hai RA who wrote about the life and work of hundreds of prominent Muslims in India in Arabic in the seven volumes of “NuzhathulKhawatir”. MualanaAbul Hasan RA completed it by writing about the Indian Muslim activist of the previous century in the eighth volume. He was the younger brother of Dr Syed Abdul Ali who was his mentor and who was held in high esteem by him for his upbringing. The father, the son and the brother were all Rectors of NadwathulUlema at different times.
NadwathulUlema is a great institution of Islamic learning on the banks of Gomti River in Lucknow, India. It was established in early 20th century by a group of Muslim intellectuals and scholars. The mission of this institution was to bridge the chasm between religion and modern life and to bridge the gap between Islam and local religions and cultures. It included English, History, Math and Science in its curriculum. MaulanaNadvi wanted to introduce the study of Sanskrit for its students to understand Hinduism from the source for better relations between Muslims and Hindus. I don’t know if this dream was fulfilled.
NadwathulUlma was established to incorporate the best in the educational philosophy of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan of Aligarh and Shaikh Mahmood Ul Hassan of Deoband. As some of them felt that this was not happening to their satisfaction they established JamiaMilliaIslamia in Delhi about which I have written in two articles about Dr. Zakir Hussain (published in Pakistan Link of September 15 and 22, 2017).
It is one of the lessons of history that institutions are established with noble ideals but they are hijacked by forces of status quo. It is difficult to change this attitude of established religious order. To them faith is more important than facts because they can fool the people in the matter of faith but not facts. That is why Allah sent prophets to correct the errors of faith and did not leave it to the established religious hierarchy.
As the Muslim community of India was trying to present Islam on a new premise by establishing various educational institutions, another genius, HameeduddinFarrahi RA wrote a lot in Arabic about his ideas of interpreting Qur’an and Islam afresh. As an educationist exposed to all these institutions, his interaction with people of other faiths gave him some very good ideas. When he was asked as to why he wrote such useful stuff in Arabic, he said, “I want scholars to read my work and develop a consensus for change; I don’t want to create more divisions by exposing the common man to conflicting ideas”. He was expecting a miracle to happen that was impossible for Ghazali, Rumi, and Thimia’s RAA to show.
A dedicated student of MaulanaFarrahi, Ameen Ahsan Islahi, has translated some of his work in Urdu to let us have access to it. I was inspired to write the article “Allah, a Perfect Name to Personify His Glory” after reading it. Ameen Ahsan was ostracized by the fraternity of Islamic scholars for some of his divergent views from the consensus which he expressed in his exegesis, TadabburUl Qur’an. Another illustrious pupil of HameeduddinFarrahi RA was SadruddinIslahi RA who wrote the book AsaseDeen Ki Tameer based on which I wrote an article in Urdu which appeared in Weekly Dawath India, on the full back page in early eighties. Unfortunately, I don’t have a copy of it nor remember its title. A thing in motion gains momentum and does not collect mass is typical also about me. I am grateful to Maulana Yusuf Islahi who gave me a lot of information about MadrasathulIslah and MaulanaFarrahi.
Now coming to the advice of MaulanaAbul Hasan Ali Nadvi RA:
I am translating the gist of a portion of the speech which he had written in Arabic for delivery at the Islamic Center of Geneva in 1961. My translation is from its Urdu version published in “Maghrib Say KuchSaafBathain”. This will give us a glimpse of the commitment of MaulanaAbul Hasan RA about the Mission of NadwathulUlema and his hope in the Muslims living in the West to achieve it.
Abul Hasan Ali Nadvi’s advice:Addressing the Muslims who live in the West, he says: You need to start the study of Islam afresh and understand it in the modern context. Please do not restrict yourself to the explanations which are already given in books, but use your own intellect and unbiased thinking to understand the Qur’an. Read it not as a scripture revealed hundreds of years back, but as if it has been revealed on you today to guide you in your situation. Study the biography and Haidth of Nabi SA and develop a personal connection of love with him. This study should be to understand the reality of his work and time with the intention of following it and not to advance any personal agenda. You are the representatives of Islam in the West. Present the best example of it to the people over there and also to other Muslims who are feeling alienated. You have the unique opportunity to bridge the misunderstandings between the West, Islam and Muslims on the one hand and also bring back those Muslim who are disillusioned by its faulty practice to this role.
MaulanaAbul Hasan Ali Nadvi RA died without leaving any issue. When I think about the wisdom of Allah behind this I start to wonder if it was because that there was nothing more that he had to convey for which he needed his progeny; and who knows if his progeny could be befitting to inherit his legacy. There are thousands of those who have read his work in depth to carry forward the torch of his mission and I hope and pray that they will do it. I hope and pray that the Muslim scholars in America lead the Muslim youth in the direction which MaulanaNadvi RA had envisaged in the above advice and not alienate them from the communities in which they live by pushing them to their outdated knowledge, understanding, thinking and practices. For this we should go back to the Meccan life of Nabi SA and come out of the delusion that we are the dominant force after Fathe Mecca while we are not in our own countries.
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