Shibli Nomani: A Shrouded Taj Mahal of Literary Excellence - 2
By Mohammad Ashraf Chaudhry
Pittsburgh , CA
According to Prof. David Lalyved, understanding Shibli involves the understanding of his teacher, Maulana Muhammad Farooq Chirayakot. Maulana Chirayakot was a known rationalist scholar, a sort of Mutazalite and an outspoken critic of Sir Syed.
In his great work, Ilm-ul-Kalam, Shibli raises the bold question, “Mai Insaan Ko Fayal, ba-ikhtiar mann-ta hoo. Aur Is Se Khuda Ke Uzmat o Shaawn mai Kuch Farq nahi aata”.
Now in the eyes of the orthodox Ulema, this kind of human empowerment, humanism or human freedom was blasphemous because to them it appeared (Nauz-o-billa), somewhat like bonding Allah. The claim that human reason was also an equally authentic source of Truth, as was Revelation, did not fit well with traditionalists whose teachings remained centered on the doctrine of pre-fated destiny of man. A helpless and unworldly man appealed to their mindset more than a Faal, or active Muslim.
The issue became exceedingly important as to how free was man in controlling and carving out his own fate after the disaster of 1857. Many Muslims with mystical trends found the answer in total resignation and withdrawal. For them, Miskiniat, or helplessness of Muslims was a virtue. A few bold ones, like Shibli as in his al-Kalam and al-Nauman and Al-Rumi, and Iqbal in his Asrari-Khudi and Kuliayat-i- Iqbal and Shikwa and Jawab I Shikwa, tried to liberate the Muslims of the Continent from the shackles of a pre-fated doctrine.
Shibli was not just a thematic scholar. He, indeed, was a practical alim/scholar. He did not just found institutions like Darul-ul-Uloom at Nadva in 1998, or Darul-Musanafeen at Azamgarh in 1913, wishing to blend the best of the Islamic and Western learning. He extensively traveled to foreign lands like Turkey, Egypt, Syria and Rome with his friend and colleague, Prof. Arnold, to do research, and then he penned such authentic biographical and historical works as al-Farooq, al-Mamoon, al-Nauman (on Imam Hanifa’s life), al-Ghazali and al-Rumi, and finally his masterpiece, the Seerut-Un-Nabi, and as stated by Anne Schimmell, many of his works became available for use as references in many a university of Europe as early as 1906. Iqbal in the writing of his doctorate thesis benefited directly from them. The sole distinction of these works being that they all met the standard Western methods of historiography, biography and literary criticism. Another unique purpose they served was that they artfully defended Islam too, as they befittingly responded to the Western and Christian criticisms of Islam and of Prophet Muhammad.
Shibli’s Shir-ul-Ajam, (the Poetry of the Orient) alone is enough to earn him a lasting name. This outstanding work deals with the principles of criticism and carries in it some of the brilliant criticism of Persian poetry. Famous British Orientalist, Prof. Browne says about this work, “It undoubtedly is the best literary estimate of Persian poetry written up to the present day”. Iqbal in later years even wished for such a work on Kashmiri poets who had written in Persian. Shibli was so accustomed to holding comparisons that even while garlanding Iqbal in 1911 in the All-India Mohammadan Educational Conference, arranged exclusively to recognize Iqbal’s accomplishments, could not desist from warning Iqbal, “ A critic like Toosi was awarded many a title by the Sultans, and today he stays buried in the pages of history. Awards bestowed by the people alone are the lasting ones. Iqbal is being awarded the titles of, ‘Ghalib’s Sani; Tarjaman-i-Haqiqat and Farzooq-i-Hind’, by the people, and he deserves them fully”, as reported by Javed iqbal in his book on Iqbal, “Zinda Ruud”.
Shibli’s essays, known as “Muqaalat-i-Shibli”, are reflective of his maturity and depth as a thinker. He undoubtedly would have been a precursor of Iqbal had he continued writing in Persian. Hali’s Mussaddis carries in it a note of pessimism; Shibli’s “Subhe-Umeed” has Hali’s theme except Hali’s absence of hope of a bright future for the Umma. Hali and Shibli both lament the decline of the Muslim Umma, but both diagnose the ailment differently. Hali ascribes it to Muslims’ disassociation with the materialism of the West, while Shibli underpins it to their estrangement from the Islamic principles of Justice, Inquiry and Ilm. Shibli’s elegiac poem written on the death of his younger brother, Ishaq fully meets the conditions of any great elegy, even that of Grays’.
Shibli’s comparison between the elegies written by Anees and Dabeer in “Moweuzina-i- Anees-u-Dabeer” brings Urdu Elegiac verse into perfection. He establishes the superiority of Anees over Dabeer, not because he was mentally tilted towards Anees, by citing examples of diction, novelty, and originality of ideas and his use of graphic descriptions. Dabeer loses to Anees, according to Shibli, for the use of the verbosity of language, and the excessive employment of imagination.
Shibli in his Ilm- ul-Kalam empowers man through such statements as, “Mai Insaan Ko Fayal, ba-ikhtiar mann-ta hoo. Aur Is Se Khuda Ke Uzmat o Shaawn mai Kuch Farq nahi aata”. Iqbal, later inspired by such ideas as these, cites the example of Khalid bin Walid in his Javed Nama to show that man’s free will and his ability to be the master of his own destiny does not clash in any way with God’s grandeur, with His system of Justice, and with His arbitrary rule over the Universe.
In Al-Nauman, written on the life of Imam Abu Hanifa, Shibli emphasizes as a solution to the problems of the Muslim Umma the urgent need for a rational approach in matters of religion and on the employment of Ijtehad and Consensus in matters of general disagreements. Shibli first time introduced to the world the “conversational and first-person expression style” or “Muta-kal-lana” way of expression of Rumi.
Few people in the entire history of the world literature can make a claim that they could blend and translate their thoughts into action the way Shibli did. Shibli did this, at least in India when it came to putting beliefs into a manifested form of action.
A few examples would amply support the veracity of this statement:
In 1912 Shibli valiantly opposed Mr. Burns, the Chief Secretary of UP, when he tried to replace the Urdu script with Devnagri script. And he succeeded in averting that change.
2. Shibli campaigned to withdraw all those books of comparative religions that were biased, and were instrumental in fanning sectarian and religious differences, or that preached that Islam as a religion spread by dint of sword. And Shibli succeeded in his mission.
3. While he actively supported the Indian Congress, and opposed Muslims joining the Muslim League, and endorsed the Congress’s campaign for a Swaraj, self-rule; he practically fought against such fanatical religious movements as Shudhi, and Kashtaria. When Shibli heard that a rich Muslim Rajput, Mr. Safaed Khan, living in a distant village of Shahjahanpur was about to convert himself along with his companions, Shibli made efforts to reach that remote place even when amputated in one leg. People on his request did carry him on a cot, but up to a certain distance. Somehow, he could not reach the place on time. Shibli always felt sad that he could not avert the conversion. But, at least he tried.
4. Shibli picked books written by Morrisdon and Delafos on the history of Islam as they were taught in the Universities of Allahabad and Calcutta, and pointed out some errors in them .Mr. Morrisdon himself traveled to Lucknow to meet Shibli and when convinced, he promised to remove the objectionable portion.
Shibli was not just a Hujra preacher, but was a man of action, a man who actually lived Islam in the modern times. How could such a man who for 31 years of his total 57 years’ life had kindled the light of knowledge and had spread the spirit of re-awakening in Muslims, at such prestigious institutions as Aligarh; Nadva, Usmania university, and who had tutored directly such luminaries as Hamid uddin Farahi, Abal Kalam Azad, Sulaiman Nadvi; Mohammad Ali Jauhar, Zafar Ali Khan, Sajjad Haider Yaldram; Aziz Mirza, Masud Ali Mahvi, Abdus Salam Nadvi, Abdul Bari Nadvi, and who had written such books as : Seerul un Nabi, Al Farooq; al-Rumi and Swaneh-Omar; be confined to a small place like Azamgarh?
It has been easier to accuse him of arrogance for he was outspoken and relentless; of having a disliking for women liberation; of lacking in modesty because sometimes he did maintain a harsh tone in his letters; of not being the first to initiate a correspondence, the exception being Iqbal-famed Attiya Faizee and her sisters; of never forgetting when slighted, of being an instigator of students just because he would lecture them on Bukhari Sharif off the campus, or even of being an apostate.
One answer to these so-called shortcomings of Shibli is that like President Obama, he talked too much of bringing about a change as it was a period of great transition. As a visionary, Shibli just could not confine himself exclusively to the pulpit of an Immamet; nor could he squeeze himself into the mould of a traditional preacher. Shibli, in fact, was a whistle-blower, announcing on to the Muslim world that it was time to wake up, and to change. Alas, Muslims’ themselves worked hard to seek destruction of this great edifice of literature.
