By M. Burhanuddin Qasmi,
There is a famous idiom “bad news travels fast”, it clearly befits the false propaganda that Ulama have prohibited Muslims from learning English and modern sciences. It is a lie repeated over times by the propagandists to sell their agenda to the commoners.
As far as my knowledge goes, I have never seen any decree or action that may support this claim. On the contrary, the fact is that the Ulama who issued fatwa of jihad against the British, had never prohibited people from learning English as a language. Shah Abdul Aziz (1746 -1823 CE), son of Shah Waliullah, who issued the first fatwa approving arm struggle against British rule in 1803 CE said, “go and learn English, it is allowed.” Sir Syed himself quoted this sentence in his book ‘Asbab-e Baghawat-e Hind’.
Similarly, Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi, founder of Deoband’s Darul Uloom not only wished to learn English but also he regarded modern sciences to be very helpful for madrasa students:
“Having completed the course of Darul Uloom Deoband if the students go to acquire the knowledge of modern sciences it will help them become perfect.” (Sawaneh-e Qasmi 2/281)
Maulana Anwar Shah Kashmiri, one of the leading Deoband alumni, studied modern philosophy and encouraged his students to do likewise. Maulana Syed Hussain Ahmad Madani who was although vehemently opposed to British colonialism, he stressed the need to study modern languages for the purpose of telling others about Islam. Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi, another stalwart of the Deoband school, viewed that madrasa students should also have general education till the Bachelor’s degree level. And above all Prophet of Islam Muhammad (peace be upon him) asked some of his companions like Zaid ibn Sabith (ra) to study foreign language and arts as Dawah and defense strategy.
Objectives of Madrasas in post-1857 era
To me the revolt in 1857 is a turning point for India where a history ended and a new one began. Since Muslims were in the forefront of this struggle that was branded by the colonial masters ‘a mutiny’ therefore, they faced dire consequence after the British army had defeated them. Apart from cleansing of Ulama, madrasas and Islamic institutions were pulled down. The British did not leave even a single madrasa in Delhi, which once had one thousand madrasas during the reign of Sultan Muhammad Tuglaq. The endowments and properties of Waqf on which the madrasas of those days depended financially were confiscated. So the educational institutions that survived British destruction remained closed and were later perished due to the devastating policies of the government. The Ulama who escaped British tyranny remained scattered and got mired in their problems.
After successive defeats since the ‘first war of India’s independence against British in 1857 prominent leaders of the freedom movement especially Ulama found it hard to save India from the cultural onslaught of the British. Side by side with the victorious British army Christian missionaries were active propagating their faith. Thus the Ulama came out with a strategy and established a new set of madrasas starting from Deoband in 1866.
Madrasas are of late the traditional seats of Islamic learning. The primary objective of a madrasa is to educate individuals with authentic Islamic knowledge and outlook towards life and society with an achievable aim at the ultimate life— hereafter. Source bases of madrasas are the teachings of the Glorious Qur’an and the Ahadith of Prophet Muhammad.
Simply speaking, the post-1857 madrasas were to produce scholars and Ulama who can appropriately respond to the religious challenges and work as missionaries and leaders who can explain religion in a contemporary idiom suitable to the present era.
Scholars must seriously ponder over, if the present-day madrasas are really in tune with the aforesaid objectives of the madrasas; if not why so, and if yes how much they have been successful?
Required reform and possibilities
In India today, there are basically three types of madrasas: (1) those controlled and sponsored by the states like in Assam, Bengal and Bihar etc, (2) those that follow a revised and redeveloped curriculum like Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, Jamia Salfia, Banaras, Madrasatul Islah, Sarai Mir and Jamiatul Huda, Jaipur etc and (3) those that follow the traditional Dars-e Nizami curriculum like Darul Uloom Deoband, Mazahirul Uloom, Saharanpur, Jamia Ashrafia, Azamgarh and so on.
When people speak about ‘modernization’ of madrasas they generally mean the third type of madrasas which are large in number, spread across length and breadth of the Indian subcontinent and are actually the only ones trying, rather claiming to fulfill the aforesaid objectives of post-1857 madrasas. These madrasas have a long history and with reasonable good production capacity and exercise a very great influence over the Muslim society across the world.
Dars-e Nizami system was considered dynamic and thus prescribed as curriculum for the madrasas nearly one and a half century ago which undoubtedly helped the community. But a century has passed since then and should we really not need to look in to it seriously and go through an honest introspection with prevailing conditions around us? Dars-e Nizami itself had undergone numerous changes in the past but this process is not quite the same today.
In these madrasas, ‘Greek’ logic and philosophy, which deal with many issues that are no longer relevant and replaced by modern philosophy and other disciplines in Greece itself, is still a part of mainstream curriculum. Our madrasas are stuck in the medieval jurisprudential (fiqhi) framework. No serious attention is paid to modern economic and socio-political issues that the human being face on regular basis or at least these issues have not been considered as part of curriculum so far. In the existing syllabus too much time is spent on the rules and intricacies of Arabic grammar, ignoring the teaching of the language through the more effective and less time consuming direct method. Furthermore, Farsi, a language no longer used in Indian subcontinent still exists a part of primary and in some cases secondary syllabus and Hindi the national language, English the international language and even local languages like Tamil, Telgu, Gujarati, Bengali and Assamese, unfortunately, get very little attention.
These are the areas where madrasa management and scholars can surely and I say must offer alternatives. I am not among those who support government sponsorship for madrasas or go with politicized sloganeers for ‘madrasa modernization’. To me the very definition of modernization is still debatable— it varies with prospects and differs from person to person. Nevertheless, a huge vacuum is already in the system and without any outer influence it needs urgent attention from the system mangers themselves.
Imam Muhammad (rah) used to walk around the market to explore new dealings and their explanation in Islam, today’s Ulama also should know the developments that are taking place in the field of business and economy. The modern age has brought about so many complex and unique ways of dealings that are beyond the reach of present-day Fiqh books taught in madrasas. The present capitalist world economy is of late sliding towards a virtual collapse. Some people say Islamic system of economy may offer an alternative structure of economy to the world but are the madrasa graduates – present Ulama – really capable to seriously think about it. If not then who should do it?
The new political and economic theories have divided the world into two opponent groups. Every underdeveloped and developing country is battling the two theories – capitalism and socialism. Ulama and Muslim intellectuals should come forward and offer the third option before the world with sound logic and wisdom. But to offer a new theory one must know the present ones in detail and then only one can compare the two honestly and offer a wise solution. Are our madrasa graduates capable of making an honest comparison between existing political and economic systems?
To me present-day madrasas need some urgent changes keeping intact with the founding ideologies and objectives in all three faculties – methodology of teaching, framing revised curriculum with children’s psychology, and considering modern day needs and management. And these can be started without any outside help, if not desired, with whatever scholarship and resources available within the madrasa – Insha’Allah.
(M. Burhanuddin Qasmi is a Darul Uloom Deoband graduate and Director of Markazul Ma’arif, Mumbai. [http://www.markazulmaarif.org])