Ulema Didn’t Forbid Modern Education in Madrasa
By
Saquib Salim, New Age Islam
09-09-2022
Many readers may not believe it, but the fact
remains that Maulana Qasim Nanautavi, the founder of Darul Uloom at Deoband,
favoured the idea of learning English and modern sciences. Again, it may be
against the popular perception to know that Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, one of
the most revered Ulema from Deoband, and Shah Abdul Aziz, one of the father
figures for Deobandi Ulema, had expressed a desire that Muslims should learn
English and modern Education. Most of the Ulema who started the present Madrasa
system around 150 years back held similar views.
Students receiving vocational training at Darul Uloom, Deoband seminary
----
Here the
question arises: Why, as we feel the Ulema are opposed to modern English
education? Muhammadullah Khalili Qasmi of Darul Uloom has answered this in his
book Madrasa Education: Its Strength and Weakness. He writes,
“There is a
very famous idiom ‘bad news travels fast. It befits the propaganda that Ulama
have prohibited learning English and modern sciences. Like Gobbles’ saying
‘repeat lie so much that it becomes true, some people have floated this idea
into the air and it became undeniable. Many people still believe and quote now
and then in public that Ulama asked Muslims to shun English and modern
sciences….Ulama who issued a fatwa of Jihad against the English never
prohibited people from learning English.”
The present
system of Madrasa education though undoubtedly has its foundations in the early
Islam propagated by Prophet Muhammad but its present form owes a lot to the
rise of the British Colonial Empire in India. The Madrasa system as we
understand it today was established by Ulema after the defeat of the Indian
revolutionaries during the First War of National Independence of 1857. Maulana
Qasim Nanautavi, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, and others who fought the British in
West Uttar Pradesh in 1857 founded Darul Uloom in Deoband.
Students at Darul Uloom, Deoband (Image Courtesy: Darul Uloom web)
-----
In years to come thousands of Madrasas were
established on the same model with affiliations from Deoband. The objective was
to create a class of educated Indian Muslims free from the pollution of the
education designed by Thomas Macaulay to create loyal servants of the Empire.
One of the earliest students at Darul Uloom, its illustrious teacher, and
freedom fighter, Maulana Mahmood Hasan said, “Did Maulana (Qasim Nanautavi)
build this Madrasa just to learn and teach? The Madrasa was established before
my eyes. As I know the institution was established after the defeat of 1857 to
prepare some people to recover from the loss of 1857."
The idea
was to impart religious and cultural knowledge which was being threatened by
Christian Missionaries being promoted by the British Government in India in the
garb of modernization.
Did Darul
Uloom teach only Islamic texts and banned modern education? For the answer, let
us turn to an English officer’s testimony. In 1875, within a decade of the
establishment of Darul Uloom, the Lt. Governor of United Province (now, Uttar
Pradesh) sent John Palmer, an English official, to inspect the madrasa. Palmer later
wrote that the Lt. Governor had ordered him, “The Muslims here, at Deoband,
have started a madrasa against the government. Go there incognito and find out
what is taught there and what Muslims are after.”
In his
report, Plamer noted that students at madrasa were being taught Persian,
Arabic, and Urdu literature. In one classroom he witnessed students studying
‘difficult theorems’ of trigonometry while in another he saw a teacher, Maulana
Sayyid Ahmad Dehalvi, teaching Euclid with such an authority “that it appeared
as though Euclid’s soul had entered his body”. He was amazed to see that young
students were able to solve equations from Todhunter’s Algebra books. At
another place, he noticed blind students solving problems of physics while
Hadith and Quran were being taught as well.
In fact, Dars-e-Nizami,
the standard curriculum prepared by Mullah Nizamuddin, of Lucknow, in the 18th
century included a book on engineering for madrasa students along with
mathematics and astronomy. Coming back to Darul Uloom, introduced medical
sciences as one of the subjects in 1878.
Its annual
report read, “we, trusting in Allah, have now started instruction in Tibb (medicines)…….
arrangements will be made in future to train students in clinical method, the
art of surgery and pharmacology.”
Two decades
later in another ambitious move, the management asked people to donate for a
fund to fix “stipends for those students who after finishing their courses in
the Dar al-Uloom, wished to acquire English education”. But the scheme couldn’t
take off for a paucity of funds.
The Ulema
never shied away from adopting subjects other than theology in madrasa. Their
only concern was to produce specialized Islamic scholars like other
professionals. It is common knowledge that Jamia Millia Islamia was established
by Maulana Mahmood Hasan, one of the most respected scholars from Deoband, to
teach modern sciences and English education. Another respected scholar Maulana
Ashraf Ali Thanvi told that English and Hindi both should be studied as
languages are “the boon from Allah the Almighty”.
Maulana
Nanautavi, according to Muhammadullah Khalili, “expressed his intention to
learn English” during the Haj pilgrimage.
During the
1940s, Ulema realized that times had changed and all students at madrasas could
not be employed as teachers. Skill development and vocational training were
introduced at Madrasa. Initially, bookbinding, weaving, sewing, and leather
works were introduced which have now extended to computer courses as well.
However, it
must be accepted that madrasas are not keeping pace with the time but on the
other hand we modern educated have also failed to understand their perspectives
and accommodate them accordingly. Ulema should introspect why the system which
produced doctors, engineers, architects, writers, etc. is now unable to do so.
We should see to it that if a madrasa student wants to acquire modern education
the transition should be smooth. Religious scholars are needed but thousands of
Islamic scholars cannot be employed in every city, so madrasa students have to
be trained for other vocations as well.
The present
generation of Ulema should reflect upon the vision of Nanautavi who believed
that madrasa education would make it easier for the students to understand
modern sciences as well. He said, in 1872, “The alumni here, provided they
complete the curriculum, can easily acquire the remaining ancient and modern
sciences by dint of the power of their aptitudes”.
Source:
Ulema Didn’t Forbid Modern Education
in Madrasa
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-society/ulema-forbid-modern-madrasa/d/127911
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic
Website, African
Muslim News, Arab World
News, South Asia
News, Indian Muslim
News, World Muslim
News, Women in
Islam, Islamic
Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia
in America, Muslim Women
in West, Islam Women
and Feminism