By TwoCircles.net staff reporter
New Delhi: “Allama Shibli Nomani was a nationalist who tried to build a bridge between nationalism and Islam,” said Prof. Mushirul Hasan, vice-chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, at a seminar on Allama Shibli Nomani.
Speaking at the two-day seminar that began at Jamia’s CII Conference Hall on 25th March, Prof. Mushirul Hasan said this was an interesting aspect of his personality that he tried to evolve proper understanding between tradition and modernity. The seminar has been organized by Dr. Zakir Husain Institute of Islamic Studies.
Delivering his inaugural speech, Syed Shahid Mehdi, ex-vice chancellor of Jamia, said “Allama Shibli should be revisited as it is the need of the modern time, and his life and works should be researched thoroughly.”
In his keynote address, Kabir Ahmad Jaisi, ex-head of the Department of Islamic Studies at Aligarh Muslim University, said Shibli was far ahead of his age and he employed intellectual and academic Ijtihad (innovation) in all fields including education, history, literature and polemics. Prof. Akhtarul Wasey, convener of the program, said “Basically, Shibli was a protestant, but all the time he was the architect of renaissance of Indian Muslims.”