A New Face for Madrasas: Islam Is Not a Monolith and Madrasas Owe Allegiance to Diverse Schools Of Thought, Which Are Hybridising Into Further New Strains
By
Moin Qazi, New Age Islam
13 May 2022
Indeed The
Very Idea Of A University In The Modern Sense ‒A Place Where Students Congregate To
Study A Variety Of Subjects Under Eminent Scholars, Is Generally Regarded As An
Innovation First Developed At Al-Azhar
Children
studying in a Madrasa (representational image) | PTI
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The Lodestar
The
silhouette of the large mosque, brick-like but for a bulbous dome, looks blurry
in the downpour past the minarets as the imposing wide red brick gates herald
you into the hallowed precincts of one of the most influential Islamic
institutions in the world that frames Islamic discourse in the subcontinent.
This is
Darul Uloom, the hallowed seminary. It is the spiritual lodestar for South
Asia’s 500 million Muslims and is considered a “citadel of Islam” amid the
westernisation of the sub-continent.
Inside,
room after room is filled with students wrapped in shawls against the winter
chill and wearing crocheted skullcaps. They squat cross-legged on mats, reading
from Qur’ans that lie open before them, resting on low wooden bookstands. They
are supervised by teachers, most of them respected elders, with shaved upper
lips and faces framed by scraggly beards, many of them dyed with henna. A
Muslim who has memorized all 6,236 verses of the Qur’an earns the right to be
called a hafiz.
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Religious
schools are a common feature of Muslim life. The most common of these schools
are known as a madrasa. In general, madrasas focus on teaching the Qur’an, the
recorded sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, sacred law and other Islamic
subjects.
Madrasas
have a long and rich history. These schools were distinct from madrasas today.
In addition to teaching the Qur’an and hadith, they also taught mathematics,
science, and literature. The curriculum in these madrasas was taught invariably
in Arabic, comprised usually Tafsir (Qur’anic interpretation), Shariah (Islamic
law), hadith (sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad), Mantiq (logic) and
Islamic history.
The madrasa
system is a thousand years old. The first major academic institution in the
Muslim world, however, was founded by Nizam al-Mulk Abu Ali al-Hasan al-Tusi
(1018-1092), the celebrated Persian scholar and vizier of the Seljuk Empire.
Later, Nizam al-Mulk established numerous madrasas all over the empire that, in
addition to providing Islamic knowledge, imparted secular education in the
fields of science, philosophy, public administration, and governance. The earliest
recorded South Asian madrasa was established in Ajmer, India in 1191 A.D.
The
Golden Age
Madrasas
have played an important role in the history of Islamic civilisation. They have
been powerful nodes in the learning system and have been harbingers of several
revolutionary achievements in fields as diverse as jurisprudence, philosophy,
astronomy, science, religion, literature and medicine. It was only when the
Golden Age of Islam began to decline that the madrasas lost their academic and
intellectual purity, and ceded prime space to western-oriented education.
The spread
of madrasas played a key role in the consolidation of doctrinal positions and
legal thinking, which now form the dominant position among Sunnis. In time, the
Shias developed their religious seminaries, called Hawzas, which play a similar
role. Some of the most famous madrasas are the Deoband in India, al-Azhar in
Egypt, Hawzas of Qum in Iran and the Zaytunia in Tunisia.
Negative
Profiling
Madrasas
across the world have suffered a great loss of reputation in recent decades,
thanks to a wave of extremism. They have been continually targeted with an
avalanche of searing and strident critiques. In secular countries, the state
has not only castigated madrasas but has attempted to wrest exclusive control
over them. Some madrasas are indeed guilty of fostering extremism, but most
aren’t.
However,
the negative stereotypes presented in some sections of the media do not present
the true picture. The majority of madrasas present an opportunity, not a
threat. For young village children, these schools may be their only path to
literacy. For many orphans and the rural poor, madrasas provide essential
social services: education and lodging for children who otherwise could well
find themselves the victims of forced labour, sex trafficking, or other abuses.
Rather than
undermining the madrasa system, policymakers should engage it because the
negative stereotyping has distracted us from the vast potential they possess to
nurture the children and instill the right moral and civic values; Beards and bombast may make for good
newspaper copy, but the reality of the madrasa system is far different: it is
characterized by both orthodoxy and diversity and once we modernized them
through meaningful convergence of all stakeholders, they would be an ally for
India’s unmanageable educational infrastructure.
Madrasa Curriculum
It was the
eighteenth-century scholar Mulla Nizamuddin Sahalvi who designed the
educational curriculum for the mainstream Indian madrasas. Thus, the curriculum
was named after him as “Dars-e-Nizami”.
Madrasas
generally taught calculation, grammar, poetry, history, and above all the
Qur’an and sacred law. At a higher level, they taught literary subjects and
arithmetic. While memorization of texts was emphasized, personal instruction,
lectures, and imitation of the teacher by students were also held to be crucial
to minimize errors in religious understanding.
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When the
East India Company purchased the right to collect revenue in the Mughal
provinces of Bengal, Orissa and Bihar from Emperor Shah Alam, one of the
clauses in the purchase agreement was that the British company will not change
the legal and administrative systems in those provinces.
Obliged by
the need to train judges and administrators to run those systems mostly
operating under Hanafi Muslim laws, the company needed to devise a curriculum
for the schools that it wanted to set up for its prospective employees. The
British schools also adopted this syllabus.
This
syllabus was an adapted version of the original Dars-e-Nizami devised by Abu
Ali Hasan ibn Ali Tusi, known as Nizam al-Mulk, for the higher education
institution. The most notable contribution of the school is the formulation of Dars-i
Nizamiyya, the standard education pattern of curriculum it pioneered in the
mid-eighteenth century. The scholar who shepherded the design of the course was
Maulana Nizamuddin Sihalvi of Lucknow.
It is important to underline the innovative
features of the new syllabus. Islamic education was normally divided into two
categories: Manqulat or the transmitted sciences such as exegesis (Tafsir),
traditions (hadiths) and jurisprudence (fiqh); and maqulat or the rational
sciences in which logic, philosophy, theology, rhetoric and mathematics were
taught. Without undermining the importance of Manqulat, which had
previously dominated the curriculum, the Firang Mahal shifted the emphasis to Maqulat.
Grammar, logic and philosophy acquired greater weightage in the teaching.
Madrasa
curricula, in most cases, offer courses like “Koran-i-Hafiz” (memorization of
the Qur’an), Alim (allowing students to become scholars on Islamic matters),
Tafsir (Qur’anic interpretation), Sharia (Islamic law), Hadith (injunctions of
Prophet Muhammad), Mantic (logic), and Islamic history (mostly constructed and
invariably avoiding any discussion on weak points of old Muslim leaders.
Education being on the concurrent list, madrasas
are in the domain of the state governments, officials in the HRD Ministry say.
(Source: PTI file photo)
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The Transformation
Of Teaching Pedagogy
From the
eighteenth century, large parts of the Muslim world engaged with modernity in
its colonial form, an encounter that transformed almost all aspects of Muslim
societies. Modern schools, higher education institutions, new official
languages, and, above all, a new epistemology was introduced. Madrasas
continued to provide religious instructions, though in the process they went
through remarkable transformations in form, teaching, and to some extent,
content.
The social
composition of madrasas began to change, becoming less affluent and more rural,
with the more inspirational Muslims joining western educational streams. The
madrasas lost intellectual vitality and teaching became pedantic with hardly
any scope for creative or intellectual development.
Madrasas no
longer retained the cutting-edge educational philosophy. The most important
change was the shift from imparting knowledge of Manqulat (the branches
of knowledge relating to belief and religion) and Maaqulat (branches
relating to reason and wisdom)
The First
War of Indian independence of 1856 A.D. marked a division of the composite
madrasa education into secular and religious spaces. This division can be seen
in the Deoband and Aligarh traditions, where Sir Syed Ahmed Khan emphasized the
development of an educational system according to the need of the time while
Deoband insisted on preserving religious values and tradition in the Indian
subcontinent.
Sir Syed
Ahmad Khan, who founded the Anglo-Mohammedan Oriental College in Aligarh in
1877 A.D., studied under the same teachers as the founders of Deoband. But he
believed that the downfall of India's Muslims was due to their unwillingness to
embrace modern ways. He decoupled religion from education and sought to emulate
the culture and training of India's new colonial masters in his school. But Sir
Syed’s intentions were vastly different from what others perceived. The purpose
of this new school was not just to prepare students for jobs, Sir Syed’s key
objective was that students should imbibe the new vision of knowledge-seeking
which was changing civilizations elsewhere. Sadly it took us so many years to
clear the misunderstandings about Sir Syed’s true mission. . The model received
support from the British, although it was castigated by orthodox religious
leaders who were hostile to any modern influences.
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Darul Uloom
Deoband was founded in 1866A.D.to preserve Muslim identity and heritage in the
face of British imperialism, which had replaced the rule of the Mughals. The Deoband leaders went back to Qur’anic
basics and rigorously stripped out anything Hindu or European from the
curriculum. Deoband’s founders made it the centre for “newfound scriptural
conservatism in Islam,” according to Alexander Evans, a British diplomat who
has researched south Asian madrasas
The leaders
of Deoband, therefore, went back to Qur’anic basics and rigorously stripped out
anything Hindu or European from the curriculum. Deoband’s founders made it the
centre of a “newfound scriptural conservatism in Islam”,
The
ideological foundations of the seminary have been distilled into a set of seven
cardinal principles that define the school’s charter (Maslak).
These are
(1) Conformity with Islamic law (shari’a). (2) Sufi-inspired self-purification
and the search for spiritual perfection (Suluk-I Batin). (3) Conformity
to the principles that guided the Prophet and his companions (Sunna). (4)
Reliance on the Hanafi law school. (5) Certitude and stability in true beliefs
concerning the Hanafi theologian al-Maturidi. (6) Removal of unlawful things
(muskrat), and especially the refutation of polytheism, innovations, atheism,
and materialism. (7) Adherence to the principles personally embodied by the
founders of the school, Muhammad Qasim and Rashid Gangohi.
Nadwatul
Ulama was launched in 1898 A.D. by a broad spectrum of ulema, traditionalists
to modernists, who all believed that the Deoband-type madrasa education did not
equip students for the challenges of modern life. Placing a greater emphasis on
the liberating message of the Qur’an, Nadwa favoured certain departures from
the traditional curriculum and emphasized the study of history. Nadwa’s
tolerance to intra-Sunni differences made it attractive.
Firang
Mahal (foreigner’s palace, which is located in Luck now) is closely identified
with the evolution of the educational pattern of madrasas in the Indian
sub-continent. Firang Mihalis(scholars
inhabiting Firang Mahil) trace their descent to the eleventh-century scholar
and mystic Abd Allah Ansari of Herat, who in turn was a descendant of Ayyub
Ansari, a close companion of Prophet Muhammad.
Its scion, Mullah Hafiz grew into prominence during Mughal rule. In 1559
A.D. Emperor Akbar endowed him with madam-I-ma’ash, or revenue-free grant. In
1692 A.D., His great-grandson, Qutb al-Din was murdered during a land dispute
(1695 A.D.) and the family suffered a financial jolt. Emperor Aurangzeb gifted them the present
house which became known by the name Firangi Mahal. Scholars congregated here
from all parts of India and Arabia, central Asia, and China. In 1896 A.D.,
Shibli Numani, the legendary Islamic scholar referred to Firang Mahalas as “The
Cambridge of India.” In the late nineteenth century, a madrasa was
formed and in 1905 A.D. a formal institution took shape under the name,
Madrasayi Aliya Nizamiyya, which continued until 1969 A.D.
While
Deoband and its clones did not compromise on puritanism, there was a movement
of educational reforms from within the realms of Islamic educationists that
strongly believed that in the absence of modern education, Muslims will be
unable to compete in the global employment market. These educationists were
driven by social and economic concerns and believed that the community should
adapt itself to the new currents.
The Critique
Critics
often charge the madrasa system of anachronism, citing its insistence on the
supreme pedagogical value of the old texts. The traditionalists argue that,
apart from connecting students to the canonical tradition, the “Nizami
curriculum” enhances the student’s mastery of every discipline and enables
scholars to solve any contemporary problem.
One of the
most accomplished modern products of madrasas, who had a very close association
with the Deoband seminary, Ebrahim Moosa, avers, “Few have been able to rebut
the charge that the texts used are redundant and at times impenetrable, save to
a few scholars who have spent their lives mastering them. Indeed most texts are
frustratingly terse, forcing teachers and students to scour commentaries and
super-commentaries for help.”
He further
argues, “For decades critics have petitioned for more lucid texts. But inertia
has turned the texts and syllabus into inviolable monuments to the past. The
result is that students are poorly prepared and lack the confidence to engage
the tradition critically to meet the needs of a changing world. At its worst,
the system recycles intellectual mediocrity as piety.”
The modern
Muslim reformist thinker, Fazlur Rahman, believed that the cultural isolation
of madrasa students would lead to stagnation. Indeed, the puritan madrasas are
already bellowing signs of a deeper dissatisfaction and fatigue with a
redundant learning system. Rahman contextualized and described madrasa learning
as follows:
“With the
decline in intellectual creativity and the onset of ever-deepening
conservatism, the curricula of education… shrank and the intellectual and
scientific disciplines were expurgated, yielding the entire space to purely
religious disciplines in the narrowest sense of the word. Mechanical learning
largely took the place of original thought. With the thirteenth century, the
age of commentaries begins and it is not rare to find an author who wrote a
highly terse text in a certain field, to be memorized by students and, then, to
explain the enigmatic text, he authored both a commentary and a super
commentary!”
Shibli
Nu’mani, a renowned twentieth-century scholar from within the madrasa circles
has himself noted, “For us, Muslims, mere English [modern] education is not
sufficient, nor does the old Arabic madrasa education suffice. Our ailment
requires a ‘compound panacea’ (Maʿjun-I Murakkab)—one portion eastern and the other
western.” These sentiments are true even though the local custodians of madrasas
don’t acknowledge them. The curriculums are often fossilized, with some
science and philosophy texts dating back to the thirteenth or fourteenth
centuries.
The Way
Forward
The issue
of reforms of madrasas is however quite complex and the adoption of state-led
modernisation has a complex interplay of several factors such as trust,
financial incentives, the impact of state-led policies on the functioning of
madrasas and its implications on the community resources, which the madrasas
are now accessing for their finances, need to examine.
Islam is
not a monolith and madrasas owe allegiance to diverse schools of thought, which
are hybridising into further new strains. The government’s understanding and
strategy for dealing with madrasas need to evolve and transform from a
black-and-white perception to a more wholesome one.
The
policymakers need to be more sensitive to the sentiments of Islamic clerics and
attempts must be made against allowing the discussion to get reduced to
“Secular versus Non-secular” and “Pro-Hindu versus Anti-Muslim” debates. The
deep reservations of madrasa managers about the government are all not
ill-founded and several of the duplicitous actions and policies of the state
give enough ground for a creeping scepticism.
Efforts to stay, “politically correct” have
obfuscated the debate and discussion on how best to make modern education
accessible to millions of poor Muslim youths so that they join the mainstream.
The government understands that a proper strategy for dealing with madrasas
needs to evolve from a black-and-white perception to a more wholesome one.
Madrasas
are multi-layered institutions and have a depth and diversity that requires a
much-nuanced understanding on part of policy wonks. The government machinery
needs to be properly sensitized to the sentiments of madrasa custodians and
should refrain from reducing the whole issue to “Secular versus Non-secular”
and “Pro-Hindu versus Pro-Muslim” debates. Madrasas are however not immune to
change. Many of them are trying to forge a Muslim identity that is compatible
with modern culture and resistant to the blandishments of radicalisation.
What we
should attempt is to make new madrasas, as well as universities, be patterned
on ancient Samarkand or Bokhara rather than stressing only madrasa
modernization. Let us take madrasas centuries back in history to their glorious
traditions of the Islamic Golden Age. That may be more successful in winning
the hearts and minds of the custodians of madrasas.
Indeed the
very idea of a university in the modern sense ‒a place where students congregate to
study a variety of subjects under eminent scholars, is generally regarded as an
innovation first developed at al-Azhar.
Since the students are schooled in classical and modern science as well
as secular and religious thought, they are better able to spot scriptural
distortions. They also tend to be more connected to their communities as well
as to the mainstream society and their stable sense of identity, religious and
otherwise, shield them against radicalism. These madrasas are allies in India’s
transition to modernity.
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Moin
Qazi is the author of the bestselling book, Village Diary of a Heretic Banker.
He has worked in the development finance sector for almost four decades.
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-society/madrasas-monolith-diverse-thought/d/126993
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