Ibn Sînâ memorial annual lecture held
By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: Dr. Syed Shahid Mahdi (IAS), Ex-Vice Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia and vice president, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), while delivering the annual Ibn Sînâ Memorial Lecture on Saturday, very sequentially and era by era reviewed the attitude of many European scholars towards Islam and Islamic Scholars. He said, “there is a need to reply back scholastically the anti-Islam communiqué of European scholars and not to retaliate emotionally”.
Dr. Mahdi assessed the historical analysis of many European scholars towards Islam. He quoted at least 50 English European scholars and their change in attitude towards Islam particularly after loss of wars for Islamic revolution. He also expressed the philosophy of Muslim Spain and other parts of Europe including the great impact of Jamaluddin Afghani. He categorically informed the progress of Islamic culture in the Islamic world especially in the Indian scenario of Sir Syed Ahmad, Allama Iqbal, Deoband, Aligarh and Nadwa.
While presiding over the function, the renowned scholar Prof. Riazur Rahman Khan Sherwani, president Muslim Educational Conference, stated the contributions of Ibn Rushd, Ibn Baja, Ibn Tufail, Farabi, Alkindi and Ibn Sînâ and their impact over the philosophy of European scholars. He also shared few of the view points of European scholars.
Prof. Hakeem Syed Zillur Rahman, Founder President of Ibn Sînâ Academy of Medieval Medicine & Sciences, said the memorial Ibn Sînâ lecture is being organized with full cooperation of National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language (NCPUL), Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India. The first and second lectures were delivered by Saiyid Hamid (Chancellor, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi) in 2006 and Professor Syed Mushirul Hasan (Vice Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi) in 2007, respectively. For the third lecture, it was requested to Dr. Syed Shahid Mahdi, who is now delivering the lecture on “Ahad ba ahad Maghrib, Islam aur Musalmanon”. He further stressed the need and relevance of such topic to be discussed in the present environment.
In the end, Prof. SM Razaullah Ansari, General Secretary, Ibn Sînâ Academy, proposed vote of thanks. Several teachers of Aligarh Muslim University including many senior professors such as Masoodul Hasan, Ather Husain Siddiqi, Asloob Ahmad Ansari, Iftikhar Alam Khan, Shan Mohammad, Ali Mohammad Naqvi, Ishrat Hussain Farooqi, Ahmad Khalil Jafri, Syed Hashim Rizvi, etc. also attended the memorial lecture. ([email protected])