Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: Vision And Mission; Edited by Shahabuddin Iraqi, Manohar,Rs.750.
Islam is all about ‘Ilm’, knowledge; not just of religion but the science of the times, as Prof Mushirul Hasan points out in the keynote address. In fact, the word ‘Quran’ itself is derived from qara’a which means to read. The Quran then is a collection to be read.
Many centuries before scientists came to terms with it, the Holy Quran had talked of scientific processes of the universe, the dawn of the day, the setting of the sun, even that the earth revolves around the sun. Unfortunately, in the 19th and 20th centuries, Muslims neglected this harmony between faith and reason. For instance, much before Keppler, the Quran stated, “And it is He Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon: All (the heavenly bodies) go along, each in its rounded path.”
Free enquiry
As obscurantism ruled, they slipped into the cesspool of learning by rote rather than enquiry, and everything was interpreted in a manner convenient to a patriarchal society. Until there came Sir Syed who sought to inculcate a spirit of scientific temper and free enquiry across the barriers of gender.
Widely given credit for founding the Mohammedan Anglo Oriental College, later to be Aligarh Muslim University, in 1875, Sir Syed was a master of many-layered approach and pluralism of thought. This book here is a compilation of 14 papers presented at an international seminar on the legendary socio-educational reformer, who saw no conflict between science and religion.
If on one side, Sir Syed Ahmad came up with a three-volume commentary on the Old and the New Testament, as pointed out by Gulfishan Khan, and Tafsir al-Quran, a seven-volume Urdu translation of the holy book till Surah 20, he was also largely responsible for pointing out the decline of our heritage monuments in Asarus Sanadid. Incidentally, this volume opens with S.M. Azizuddin Husain’s review of the book that Sir Syed first wrote in 1846, then revised seven years later. More than 150 years later, the same monuments in Delhi continue to be pillaged and plundered with impunity.
If Husain talks of Sir Syed’s contribution to history and Khan to religion, Shafey Kidwai, an academic of no mean scholarly accomplishments, throws light on Sir Syed’s lesser known forays into journalism. And along the way rubbishes some easy stereotypes with his lucid remarks and easy wit. A skilled practitioner of juxtaposition of parallel thoughts, Kidwai comes up with a few eye-openers. In the chapter on Sir Syed’s early journalistic endeavours, he points out that Syed Mohammad Khan, elder brother of Sir Syed, launched a weekly, Sayyidul Akhbar in 1837. It was “erroneously described by Margarita Barns as the first newspaper in Urdu”. Similarly, it is pointed out that the name of the paper had little to do with Sir Syed directly but all to do with his lineage.
It is here that Kidwai deserves more credit. Rather than slip into eulogy, he points out that Sayyidul Akhbar, rather than being a forum of a free discourse, was “regarded as the organ of the Sunnis, as sometimes the writings…were partial and bordered on polemics”.
Another notable and profound chapter comes from Tabir Kalam who points out the width of Sir Syed’s vision by reproducing his welcome address at the Indian Association of Lahore session. However, the book is not an uncritical appreciation. The keynote address gently reminds us that Sir Syed preferred almost everything Western. Nazir Ahmad, no mean institution himself, said rather satirically, “There is no dress in the world superior to the body’s nakedness. That is a dress which has no inside out.”
Minor quibbles
Then there is a blip in Khan’s essay. Khan calls Prophet Mohammed the founder of Islam, which is erroneous, considering Islam makes it an article of faith to believe in all the earlier prophets, starting with the first man on earth, Adam. Mohammed was the last of the prophets of Islam. Similarly, there are avoidable editing errors. Some of the essays could have been better edited, and mistakes of grammar easily removed with more careful scrutiny.
But these are small blemishes in what is otherwise a praiseworthy work. It tells us that there was more to Sir Syed than merely the college he founded. And he deserves greater attention than an annual recalling of his contribution on his birthday every October, as AMU, so religiously does.
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