Dear Deoband, Nadwa and Ashrafia, Replace Your Obsolete Projects by Progressive Theology: Learn from Modern Arab-Islamic Thinkers!
By Ghulam Rasool
Dehlvi, New Age Islam
21 January
2021
On January
20, the Delhi-based Islamic Fiqh Academy of India, founded by Deoband’s
prominent theologian Qazi Mujahidul Islam Qasmi (1936–2002), has issued a
significant statement in Urdu dailies. It avers that this research-oriented
Fiqh council is greatly concerned about Muslims’ domestic matters particularly
women’s issues, and has issued 810 legal documents on civil issues like Nikah,
Talaq) and other related themes, besides over 60 books and Risalahs on Islamic
perspectives on current affairs such as Hindu-Muslim relations, Islamic Banking
and Covid Vaccines in the light of Shariah. Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani,
General Secretary of the Fiqh Academy is quoted as saying that authentic Arabic
documents and jurisprudential books as well as online material and fatwas on
day-to-day life are being rendered in Urdu, Hindi and other regional languages.
To achieve this larger objective, the Fiqh Academy has been extensively
translating voluminous books on Islamic jurisprudence written by the Arab world’s
Sunni scholars and jurists like Sheikh Abdul Karim Zaidan, an influential Iraqi
Sunni jurist and former and a former Iraqi Minister of Endowments in 1968 who
died in 20014.
Dar ul Uloom, Deoband
-----
On the
surface of it, this is, indeed, an interesting development emanating from
India’s Islamic theologians and it signifies an increased inclination of the
Shariah-oriented Sunni institutions in India towards an intellectual exchange
and knowledge sharing with the Arab Islamic scholars. A wide embrace for this
kind of intellectual churning in local theological deliberations will reshape
the general attitude of the Muslim clergymen in India whose creativity has
largely been inhibited by a rigid and reform-resistant clinging to the 18th
century curriculum called Dars-e-Nizami. However, the kind of traditionalist
Arab Islamic scholars that Fiqh Academy and others in India are promoting is
disappointing. For instance—just take a look at the work and thoughts of Iraqi
jurist, Sheikh Abdul Karim Zaidan whose voluminous work المفصل في أحكام المرأة والبيت المسلم في الشريعة الإسلامية "A Detailed Book on Rulings on Women and
the Domestic Affairs in Islamic Law” (11 volumes) is being translated by the
Academy. A former general observer of the Muslim Brotherhood in Iraq and Member
of the Muslim World League, he is considered in the Arab world as one of the
fundamentalist modern Sunni jurists. His above-mentioned book as well as other
works, particularly his book “The Rulings of the Dhimmis in Darul Islam” have
sparked criticism from among the progressive Arab thinkers and Islamic
modernists.
In fact,
the Fiqh Academy of India would do a better job if it shifts its focus from the
textualist and traditionalist jurists to rationalist Islamic thinkers and
modern Muslim legal theorists. Instead of translating books and thoughts of
retrogressive scholars like Zaidan, it should have focused its concerted
efforts and energy on the books written by alternative Arab Islamic
intelligentsia including Hassan Hanafi, an Egyptian authority on modern Islam,
Mohammed Abed Al Jabri, Moroccan Islamic philosopher known for his
"Critique of Arab Reason", Mohammed Arkoun, an influential Algerian
thinker who has greatly contributed to contemporary intellectual Islamic
reform.
Nadwatul Ulama
-----
Similarly,
more reputed and established Islamic scholars like Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd should
be introduced in the Indian Islamic seminaries as Quranic exegete for his
universalist Quranic hermeneutics. Another Egyptian scholar, Mohamed Fathi
Osman who calls for cooperation between Islamic theology and other faith
traditions should be studied and translated as part of what is taught in Indian
Madrasas as “Taqabul-e-Adyan” loosely
translated as “Comparative Religion”. Thought this subject in Madrasas in India
has largely become “Competitive Religions” as they inculcate a bent of mind
through this which promotes a Munazarah
culture, sectarian polemics and a confrontational religious attitude in place
of a dialogical approach towards other religions and denominations. Mohamed
Fathi’s writings which offer an overview of the Qur’an in a dialogue with other
scriptures should be strongly recommended in the current madrasa milieu.
Likewise, in a famously known, yet grossly overlooked subject in our Madrasas Ilmul-Kalam (theological reasoning),
Taha Abdur Rahman, one of the leading philosophers in the modern Arab-Islamic
world should be introduced through his seminal work on philosophy (Kalam) logic (Mantiq), philology and philosophy of language (lmul Lughat) and philosophy of morality (Falasafa-Tul- Akhlaq).
Thus, a
complete progressive Islamic theology based on evolving rationalist as well as
critical-traditionalist theories has been underlined in the modern Arab-Islamic
intellectual churning. And this has to be accentuated in India’s Darul
Ulooms—from Deoband, Nadwatul Ulama of Lucknow to Jamia Ashrafia of
Mabarkpur—in order to enable Madrasa graduates and future Islamic clerics to
creatively rethink their positions on the issues of contemporary relevance. The
above-mentioned Fiqh Academy is currently led by a frequent Urdu columnist
Maulana Khalid Saifullah Rahmani and is patronized by Darul Uloom Nadwa and
Deoband’s chieftains and influential clergymen such as Maulana Sayed Rabey
Hasani Nadwi, Maulana M. Saalim Qasmi of All India Muslim Personal Law Board
(AIMPLB), Maulana Sayed Nizamuddin of Emarat-E-Shariah Bihar, Mufti Junaid
Ahmad Falahi of Indore, Mufti Ahmad Khanpuri of Gujrat and other Muslim think
thanks such Dr. Mohammad Manzoor Alam, chairman of the Institute of Objective
Studies of New Delhi. It is incumbent on this Academy, as its foremost duty, to
introduce Indian Muslims to the present-day Ijtihadaat
(creative rethinking) in the Arab-Islamic world. First and foremost, it must
replace its run-of-the-mill projects like translation of the voluminous
obsolete works by Sheikh Zaidan by progressive theological publications of the
modern Arab Islamic thinkers as mentioned above.
Al Jamiatul Ashrafia
-----
Let’s not
forget that the ʿUlamā—the alumni and graduates of the traditional Deeni madrasas—are still looked up as thought
leaders and instructors in the daily practical life of Muslims the world over.
But regrettably, they are now less capable on an intellectual level to tackle
the baffling issues and recurring challenges posed to the Muslim community
globally and locally. As a matter of fact, today's ʿUlamā are not well-equipped with the
modern scholastic abilities to guide the global Muslim society in the rapidly
changing and dynamically emerging issues of modern life.
But
deplorably for the present-day ʿUlamā, they do boast of their invaluable intellectual heritage and
flourishing traditions of the past but their own thoughts are deeply entrenched
in an unreformed and restrained madrasa curriculum—Dars-e-Nizami. Consequently,
they often issue too irrational and irrelevant religious decrees or Fatwas to
fathom, and that makes a mockery of common Muslims in their daily dealings with
others.
As Muslims
the world over grapple with an increasing number of religious and scientific
issues, the ʿUlamā and Islamic thought leaders miserably fail to accomplish their basic
responsibility of re-constructing Islamic thought processes. Rather, their
regressive pronouncements only enhance the perception that Muslims are not open
to progressive thoughts and fresh ideas. This is actually an inevitable result
of the clergy's failure in developing a canonical Islamic worldview
incorporating the progressive Quranic traditions in full harmony with the
established scientific trends.
At a time
when the world has ushered in an intellectual post-enlightenment era, Muslim
theologians are in a dire need for a revitalization in their socio-religious
and theological progression. This should be the urgent task of the Islamic
theological institutions like the Fiqh Academy of India. India’s leading
seminaries and Madrasas like Darul Uloom Nadwa, Jamia Ashrafia of Mubarakpur
and Nadwatul Ulama of Lucknow must provide an enabling environment for their
students to understand and grasp the past tradition in light of modern
humanities and sciences. But this cannot be accomplished without a reformed
educational curriculum that could enable the ʿUlamā to update their traditionalist
worldviews to modern changes and epistemological shifts by deepening their
theological and scientific literacy.
URL: https://newageislam.com/ijtihad-rethinking-islam/dear-deoband,-nadwa-ashrafia,-replace/d/124116
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