Role Of Ulema In Bringing Down Muslims From The Height Of Enlightenment To The Morass Of All-Round Backwardness: The Imperatives For Muslims Today
By
Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef, New Age Islam
19 May 2022
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Ulema in Khilafat-e-Osmania did not allow
printing presses to be imported from Europe for close to four centuries,
heralding Muslim backwardness in Education that continues till today. Even the
great scientists and philosophers and theologians of the Abbasid period and
Muslim Spain were often called heretics and their books burned and destroyed.
We do not find today any trace of rationalist theology of Islam that had
received patronage from a few caliphs in early 9th century CE.
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Islamic
Spain (Andalusia) was a unique state because it did marvellous things in its
zenith of political power. In particular, in the reigns of the caliphs; Abdur
Rahman Al-Salis, (the third) Hisham, Nasir, Al-hakam, and of course, caliph
Al-Mansoor the great. These were the great sultans of Islamic Spain politically
and on cultural and civilizational planes too.
During
their rule, Muslims (Arabs), the ruling minority of the country, had been
doing best to promote all kinds of
knowledge, religious and secular. This resulted in phenomenal advancement in
philosophy, logic, and translation, from Greek arts and sciences on the one
hand and a great leap in agriculture, trade, and industry. Bringing about an
era of prosperity, happiness and well-being in the lives of ordinary people.
They had built big and beautiful cities full of significant buildings, palaces,
grand mosques, seminaries, libraries, etc. For instance, Zahra city(مدينة
الزهراء) on the outskirt of Cordova (قرطبه), Granada ( غرناطه), and Seville can be cited. To their model
seminaries and great seats of learning, students and learners would flow and
come from neighbouring France, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Austria,
Holland, Florence, Italy, etc.
The
governments were spending much on promoting sciences and arts such as algebra,
history, geography, mathematics, medicine, fine arts, poetry, painting, songs,
and music. They spent much on artefacts, beautiful buildings, and palaces still
there, showcasing their reminiscent grenadier, such as Alhambra palace in
Granada and Jam e Qartaba (Cordova mosque) latterly converted into a cathedral
as monumental pieces to the world today. According to many historians the
European renaissance was a by-product of the rich cultural and civilizational
legacy of lost Muslim Spain. For, both of the fountainheads of the European
renaissance, France and Florence, directly benefited from exchanging ideas with
Muslim Spain.
Next to
Muslim Spain was Sicily (صقلية), wherein Arab arts, sciences, academic
adventures, and new findings had remained flourishing even after Arabs had lost
their political power. As new Christian Norman conquerors went on their
mentoring for that. Thanks to their generous guardianship, great scholars in
geography like Sharif Al-Edrisi, a prominent master in making graphics and
geographical maps, continued his work and could produce his magnum opus Ahsanut
Taqasim Fi Marifat Aqaalim dedicating it to the great Norman ruler Roger the
second.
Likewise
was the Abbasid caliphate also, which had established a Darul Hikmat (Wisdom
house) in the reign of Al-Mamoon, the learned and intellectual caliph, very
fond of Greek knowledge. In the first phase of the Abbasid caliphate, Baghdad
was the abode of philosophers, translators, writers, and experts in medicine,
astronomy, geography, mathematics, geometry, trigonometry, physics, chemistry,
history, literature, etc. Scholars and experts in various branches of human
knowledge come from India, Egypt, Rome, Greece, Anatolia, Syria, etc. Their
academic works were welcomed, translated into Arabic, and applauded.
Furthermore, because of all that, Baghdad gained fame and accolade throughout
the world as a multicultural and multinational legendary city wherein had been accomplished
the timeless literary works of Arabian Nights(الف
ليلة وليلة) and Kalila w Dimna an Arabic
rendering of original Indian Panjtanrta. Along with government-sponsored good
hospitals called Beemaristanat in Cairo, Damascus, Samarkand, Bukhara, etc.
Muslim
Spain and Abbasids were rivals and had no loved lost, yet both were good
competitors in rich mosaic culture and development. After the Mongol invasion
on Muslim world and destruction spree in ninth century, there was a growing fascination
with occult sciences, astrology, sorcery, black magic, witchcraft,
superstition, and incantation among the Muslims. Experimental medicine was
replaced with occultism and divination. Therefore, the movement of rational
sciences among the Muslims under this wizardry shadow died down. They burned
the books of great philosophers and great minds of rational sciences, as
happened with Ibn Hazm and others.
This
Andalusian and Mid-Eastern rich legacy is the only thing Muslims can proudly
present to the world today as an enormous contribution to world civilization.
For, unlike both of them, the Ottomans, unfortunately, in their four
century-long sultanate and the great Mughals in their three century-long rule,
did not contribute much to world civilization. Under the influence of Ulema,
they built only mosques, mausoleums, forts, splendid palaces, and pompous
superfluous things such as the Taj Mahal, Red Fort, and Jama Masjid Delhi in
India and similar many monumental Ottoman palaces, forts, and grand mosques in
Istanbul and Ankara. Both the empires did not leave good examples of human
civilizational works as good seminaries, great seats of learning, best
libraries, wisdom houses, research centres, and observatories. Contrary to
that, the Ottomans blindly following their rigid and narrow-minded Shaikh ul
Islam committed the crime to shutting down in 1580, an observatory established
by a noted astronomer Taqiuddin in Istanbul. It was the world's largest
observatory. It was demolished due to the insistence of traditional Ulama and
public support. Due to their strong notion that
this unnecessary interference in the Divine secrets because of the
existence of the observatory, there has been an outbreak of great plague, so in
order to prevent this, it is necessary to demolish the observatory brick by
brick. (Rashid Shaz Kitab-ul-Arooj, p. 2 Milli Publications New Delhi 2012) And
their counterparts in India, Bakhtiyar Khilji, to be more specific, is accused,
rightly or wrongly, of setting ablaze the ancient Nalanda Vidyalaya (mini
university ).
Many
mosques built by Mughals in India are vulnerable now to being demolished,
ransacked, recaptured, or modified as temples by right-winger Hindutva forces
ruling the country nowadays. Since, after Babri, now they are hell-bent on
snatching Gyanvapi masjid in Varanasi and Mathura Shahi Eidgah. They are not
even in a mood to spare secular monuments like Taj Mahal at Agra and Qutub
Minar in Delhi too. In coming days the threats are looming large upon these
monumental Mughal constructions because the vulnerable Muslim community is not
in a position to defend and protect them from vandalism if done in connivance
of state machinery and national media.
Had Mughals
and other Muslim dynasties before them invested their resources in the
promotion of scientific research and technological advancement, instead of
their great expenditure on construction, fine arts; poetry, paintings, and
dance and music parties, their heirs and the Muslim community at large would
have been in better standing in India and in the world today. Ulema in
Khilafat-e-Osmania did not allow printing presses to be imported from Europe
for close to four centuries, heralding Muslim backwardness in Education that
continues till today. Even the great scientists and philosophers and
theologians of the Abbasid period and Muslim Spain were often called heretics
and their books burned and destroyed. We do not find today any trace of
rationalist theology of Islam that had received patronage from a few caliphs in
early 9th century CE.
Muslims can
not revive their past glory to which they keenly aspire only by wishful
thinking. Instead, for that purpose, they have to have once again revive,
revisit, revise and rethink their civilizational legacy.
This is the
law of nature as revealed by the holy book:
"Then as for scum, it departs as rubbish,
and as for that which benefits mankind, it lasts on the earth."Quran-13:16)
Moreover,
this sublime task cannot be done without rejuvenating, moderating, and revising
the rotten educational system taught in seminaries, madrasas, and even
community-run schools and colleges.
Today,
among Muslims the most desirable and most wanted theme is the conspiracy
theories or the baseless concepts of the coming of Mahdi and the messiah. A lot
has been written in both Arabic and Urdu on this theme. Dr. Asrar Ahmad, Mufti
Abu Lubaba in Pakistan, and Asrar Alam in India, along with so many Saudi
Salafi scholars, are most sought after writers in this regard among the new
generation. Asrar Alam is keen to seek the hidden Jewish hand behind every past
or present mis-happening in the Muslim world. He has even very absurdly seen
that hand behind the holy prophet's demise. This conspiracy literature leaves
very bizarre imprints on young Muslim minds impending their intellectual growth
and rational credibility.
There are
thousands of antichrists among them at all times, yet Muslims are looking for
the antichrist like many orthodox Jews and Christians. Similarly, most Muslim Ulama
and mullahs are waiting for the false Mahdi and messiah and doing nothing.
Because, among the Ummah, they have spread the idea that Mahdi and the messiah
will come and take away all their sorrows, resolve all their issues, making
them victorious over the world.
Centuries have gone waiting for the Mahdi and
messiah to come, yet the Mahdi and messiah do not seem ready to come yet.
Furthermore, many false Mahdis have proclaimed their arrival and still keep
claiming to be Mahdi in different times and places.
Yes, colonialism
was the source of many problems and agonies, yet the "colonialism
acceptance mentality," to quote the Algerian writer Malik Bin Nabi is the
most lethal disease. We have to shun the victimhood mentality and get out of
conspiracy theories altogether to eliminate this disease.
Because of
negative thinking, Muslims cannot learn from others to go on the development
path. Their religious superiority complex is another hurdle. They have to give
up the bad habit of living in the past and not accepting new realities. Their
sectarian divide is also a significant root of suffering as we see there is no
Islamic mosque or Islamic madrasa per se. Instead, there are Sunni mosques,
Sunni madrasas, Shia mosque Shia madrasa, Hanafi mosque, Hanafi madrasa, Ahle Hadis
mosque, and Ahle Hadis madrasa! There is anarchy in the world of Fatwas. Takfir
(declaring someone as a disbeliever) is on its high speed. Muslims have been
waging an uncalled-for jihad against their real or imagined enemies for the
past two centuries, to which Ulama and community leaders had pushed and led
them in, so now they are on the wrong side of history. Because it is the age of
dialogue and interfaith and intra-faith understanding. Muslims have to
eliminate this battle cry mentality. Without that, Muslims, or any other
nation, cannot go ahead with other nations and cannot walk side-by-side with
others in modern world.
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Dr.
Mohammad Ghitreef is a Research Associate with the Centre for Promotion of
Educational and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India, AMU Aligarh.
URL: https://newageislam.com/the-war-within-islam/ulema-muslims-enlightenment-backwardness-/d/127041
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