Ulema Never Opposed Modern Sciences & Education

By Saquib Salim, New Age Islam

5 April 2023

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What will you say if I tell you that Maulana Qasim Nanautavi, the founder of Darul Uloom at Deoband, actually favoured the idea of learning English and modern sciences? Will it not be against the popular perception if I tell you 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? In fact, most of the respected Ulema who started the present Madrasa system around 150 years back held similar views.

You will ask, and rightly so, that if this is the case then why do we know that Ulema, as a class, are opposed to the modern English education. The answer is explained by Muhammadullah Khalili Qasmi of Darul Uloom in his book Madrasa Education: Its Strength and Weakness, where he writes, and I quote “There is a very famous idiom ‘bad news travels fast’. It clearly befits on 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 fatwa of Jihad against the English never prohibited people from learning English.”

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 1857 founded Darul Uloom in Deoband. 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, and I quote, "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."

URL:   https://newageislam.com/multimedia/ulema-modern-sciences-education/d/129494

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