Shibli Nomani: A Shrouded Taj Mahal of Literary Excellence
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburgh, CA
Once the 19th Century was characterized as the Age of Shibli; once people called him an Indian Bertrand Russell; once the literary world titled him as a Walter Scott of Islamic History and a Gibbon of Islam. Now that same Shibli stands either as forgotten, or remembered as vaguely as if he were a remote figure appearing somewhere in the pages of ancient history
Shibli, undoubtedly, is a forgotten literary Champ. Never before in Urdu literature has there existed a man with a greater range of ideas and with a wider diversity of multiple tastes as did Shibli. In him, one can find ideally combined, not one talent, but a number of talents. Shibli, indeed, was all in one: a world class critic; an authentic historian; a high class biographer; a unique historiographer; an ardent and impassioned reformer, a pragmatic philosopher and a functional religious leader, a matchless littérateur and much more without his being a Mulla, a Mufti or a Sheikh in the conventional sense.
I want the readers to specially pay attention to Shibli's two very special and arresting qualities. The first being his "literary awe or grandeur," or call it the "Allamana Shaan" pervasive in all of his works; and second being his "most lucid, fluid and flexible style", his very special way of expression that carried in it the simplicity of Hali; the colloquialism and informality of Nazir Akbarabadi; the heart-touching rhetorical elegance of Maulana Azad; the rhythmic wordmagic of Mohmmad Ali Jauhar; the erudite and knowledge-packed grace of Iqbal, and the sublimity of the imagery of Ghalib. Shibli very artfully, with a little sprinkling of romance here and there, without running the risk of distorting the historical facts makes even the driest topics of history, religion and philosophy highly palatable and readable.
Such has been the force of his expression, and its arresting ability that he could masterfully and most skillfully recreate the atmosphere of any age he was dealing with, and imaginatively make the reader re-live those historical moments. Shibli, as you will discern, was a very skillful portrayer of characters too; and his most brilliant figures included none else but the Prophet of Islam; Hazrat Omer; Imam Hanifa; Maulana Rumi and Imam Ghazali, to count only a few. I am sure you will be instantly transported to the court of Najashi; or to the sacred yard of the House of God in Mecca; or to the vast field of Arafat the moment I finish reading his description of these places. You will also not miss the points of relevance, though you may tend to disagree with him on what he says about the Muslim League and its composition, or the popular issues of their being in minority in India.
Many great writers became literary giants only after they had been dead for some time. Fame dawned upon them, but posthumously. Henry Thoreau, Emily Dickson, Kafka, and world famous painter Vincent Van Gogh, and even our Nasir Kazmi fall in that category. It is, however, just the reverse that happened in case of Shibli.
The dust of deliberate neglect began piling up on Shibli soon after his death in 1914. The Congress and the Muslim league, both in their preand post-partition days maintained an unfriendly, if not hostile, attitude towards Shibli. Both remained unnecessarily scared and over-awed of the impact of his personality, ideas and ideology. The Congress didn't like him though; unlike Sir Syed, he encouraged Muslims to its joining, mainly due to his mission and obsession to up-lift Muslims by awakening in them a true spirit of Islamic values.
Muslim League on the other hand, stayed hostile to him because of his severe criticism of it, and because of his appeal to the Muslims to desist from joining it.
The greatest and the brightest star that ever shone on the literary firmament of Urdu literature in the Indian Subcontinent, perhaps after Ghalib and Mir in the late part of the 19th century had been Shibli, but he became a victim of his own grandeur and Shaan. The result has been that he is hardly mentioned now in any circles; hardly any seminars are held in India or Pakistan to keep alive his legacy; hardly any monument, library, university or college has been named after him. Even Aligarh could not think better of him than just naming a boys hostel recently after him. Nadva even could not do that much. Deliberately and willfully, he remained assigned and relegated to a place called Azamgarh, a place where, no doubt, he was born, but where he never lived for more than 2-3 years of his total 57 years' life. Even Azamgarh that once undoubtedly was known because of Shibli and his dream institution "Darul Musanafeen Academy" (The House of Authors), having no parallel in the Sub-Continent as a Center of historical research and publications, is now being remembered in India as Atank-garh, a terrorists' den, just because two alleged terrorists, Atif Ameen and Mohammad Sajed chanced to come from there. What a pity! Once the 19th Century was characterized as the Age of Shibli; once people called him an Indian Bertrand Russell; once the literary world titled him as a Walter Scott of Islamic History and a Gibbon of Islam. Now that same Shibli stands either as forgotten, or remembered as vaguely as if he were a remote figure appearing somewhere in the pages of ancient history. Perhaps Nawab Mohsin ul Mulk, one of his well-wishers, was right when he on Shibli's joining the Nadva ul Uloom in 1908, rightly forewarned him, "As soon as you have attained reputation in Nadva, you will be hounded by Maulvis". He was right. It was a Maulvi named Maulvi Khalilur Rahman who carried a malicious campaign against Shibli, and did what he could to tarnish his reputation at Nadva in 1913. But Shibli was not a conceited scholar that he could lie down and take all this calmly. One of his weaknesses, if it could be termed so, was that he was too conscious of his literary excellence and Shaan. And this was enough to breed feelings of jealousy in others.
The irony of the whole matter does not end here. Aligarh Muslim University, where Shibli stayed for about 16 years, (1882-1898), working on mere 50c a month, if converted into modern currency, for most of the period, came to be finally accused by his clerical colleagues and critics as being too conservative, and too orthodox. What earned him this accusation was his earnest and timely efforts to integrate the modern Uloom with that of the Islamic values and teachings. He wanted Muslim students not to throw the Muslim baby along with the English baptizing water in their craze to imitate the English culture and English manners. Or was it his formidable popularity and the force of his ideas, or his close association with Professors like T.W. Arnold and Prof. Beck, or all this enjoined with his own transformation, resulting in his own disillusionment during the last few years of stay at Aligarh, especially the way and pace at which it had started changing! It is true Shibli would have left Aligarh much earlier, had it not been on the insistence of Sir Syed, his 40 years senior and father-like figure, and on the request of Mr. Beck, the Principal.
And at Nadva where he stayed for about five years - 1908-1913, his critics accused him of something that he never was. They called him too radical and anglicized to be a good Muslim, a kind of Kharjite mentality that was afoot to destroy him. Here at Nadva his crime being that he tried to incorporate in the religious syllabus, Nisab, the study of Mathematics, English, Sanskrit and Hindi with a view to producing religious leaders who understood the criticism of Islam in all languages very well. His critics read a conspiracy in these efforts against Islam. The Mulla mentality had hated Aligarh for this very reason; how could they allow the study of "Kafir Subjects" at a religious place of learning called Nadva.
At Nadva, Shibli had desired to produce a band of scholars who could selflessly work to establish harmonious relations among different Muslim groups, and also who could successfully meet the new challenges imposed by colonial missionaries, by the Orientalists, and by the critics of Islam. Blinded by jealously and Shibli's popularity, most Orthodox maulvis at Nadva and Deoband misconstrued the sincerity of his intentions and became his blood-thirsty enemies within a period five years. It would not be wrong to say that today the religious fanaticism and narrow-mindedness emanating from the distorted teachings of Islam in madrassas is what Shibli had attempted to forestall a century ago at Nadva. The wall of malicious propaganda carried out by the so-called Ulemas and custodians of religion proves often stronger than the fabled China Wall.
By the time Sir Syed died in 1898, his dream that the MAO College should one day blossom into a university, similar to that of Oxford or Cambridge, had already gone sour. Sir Syed had dreamed that like the towers of the churches of Oxford and Cambridge attached to these two great universities; one day the towers of the adjacent Mosques should also attach to the Aligarh University.
He wished to groom students on a pattern that at Aligarh, even a word like, "a liar - Jhoota", should become a banished word. Unfortunately, the Aligarh University appeared all set to producing a baboo culture, in which the ultimate ideal of Muslim students being a menial, clerical job in a government office. Neither Sir Syed, and nor Shibli, could put up with this low idealism.
Modernity, however, did not mix with orthodoxy in the ratio Sir Syed and Shibli had anticipated. Sir Syed himself began feeling uncomfortable with the growth of the over-Anglicized trends as they began developing at the Aligarh College. And Shibli could not feel comfortable either at all with the uncontrolled, unbridled modernity, which being to foppishly and slavishly follow the English manners. Learning of Ara
-bic became redundant, and the learning of Fiqh and Hadith unnecessary. Some other grave issues also cropped up. Many a Muslim began naming their children in an Islamic way, such as Ram Bakhsh and Lachman Singh. Appointment of nonMuslim arbiters to settle purely Muslim family issues became common, resulting in Muslim disgruntlement.
Christian missionaries aggressively began preaching their faith. The Methodist Missionary Center alone converted about seventy thousand people to its fold as per the record of 1893. The Hindu priests also followed suit. Movements like Gurukul of Arya Samaj, or Bharat Mahamandal of Sanatan Dharm, and Dharm Mahatsav, and the Shudhi Movements to convert Muslims also gained momentum.
Modernity did not include a desire for the acquisition of the spirit of enquiry, research and rationality that actually were the secret of Western power and ascendancy. Shibli wanted his students to go for the key that had opened the doors of success for the West, and not for their outward glamour. Shibli finally left Aligarh in 1899, but after having impacted and shaped such luminaries as Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Mohammad Nazir, Sajjad Haider Yaldram, and Maulana Mohammed Ali Jauhar.
Similarly, when he finally left Nadva in 1913, he already had had the satisfaction of having shaped and revolutionized such distinguished students as Saiyed Sulaiman Nadvi,Abdul Majid Daryabadi, Maulana Masud Nadvi, to name only a few. (To be continued)
