Today’s Topic of Discussion: JAMALUDDIN AFGHANI AND INDIAN ULEMA

JAMALUDDIN AFGHANI AND INDIAN ULEMA
Now that Jamiatul Ulema in its thirtieth conference at Deoband has warned the government to desist from grafting modern subjects into the Madrasa syllabus, I wish to recall the advice given by Syed Jamaluddin Afghani, the Pan-Islamist icon of the nineteenth-century who is greatly revered by the traditional Ulema of India.
Afghani born in 1838 was an eminent Islamic scholar who devoted most of his active years to mobilizing Muslims in various countries against Western colonialism. He adroitly used religion as the rallying force to fight imperialism and has been acknowledged as the first Pan-Islamist in the modern world. He lived many years in Iran. Persia, Turkey, and spent some time in France. From 1880 to 82. he stayed in India and engaged himself in making public speeches and writing long articles (Risalas) pursuing his political agenda. He became very popular with Indian Muslim clergy both for his anti-British activities and vehement denunciation of Sir Syed in his article titled ‘The truth about the Necharis (materialists).

But despite this opposition. Afghans like Sir Syed stressed the benefits of philosophy and modern science He passionately pleaded with the Ulema to embrace modern sciences and divide not knowledge on Islamic and Western lines.
In his Calcutta lecture titled ‘On Teaching and Learning,’ he said that ‘all great empires had been supported by science, up to and including the European conquerors of his time. Ignorance is always subjugated by science, which is the basis of advanced technology in all fields.
Further, he said that it was not the French or the English who had colonized the non-European world, but the great power of science Extolling the merits of philosophy he said ‘the science that has the position of a comprehensive soul and the rank of a preserving force is the science of philosophy because its subject is universal. It applies to each of the sciences in its proper place.
In this remarkable lecture, he criticized the Indian Ulema for their obsession with Mulla Sadra and Mulla Mahmood Jaunpuri and his seventeenth-century classic Shamsi Bazegha. He censured them for portraying themselves as sages though they lack scholarship and show no inclination to move forward in the vast ocean of knowledge He said they never ask how the electricity is generated nor do they inquire about the steamboats and railroads.

Afghani said that he was surprised that this Ulema had divided science into Muslim science and European science and had banned the teaching of some of the most useful knowledge in their institutions. He further said that ‘those who forbid science and knowledge in the belief that they are safeguarding the Islamic religion are really the enemies of religion’
Afghani believed that Islam as a religious system is not incompatible with modern sciences. According to him ‘the culprits were the Maulvis, who need to change their attitude not only towards science but the world in general, which had made rapid strides in the past few hundred years He described the ‘Muslim Ulema as a very narrow wick topped by a very small flame that neither lights its surroundings nor gives light to others
In Maqalati Jamaliya, he warned the Ulema against their ‘misplaced religious zeal that has created hatred for knowledge and sciences and turned Muslims away from industry and innovation’
Will the Ulema of the twenty-first century heed this nineteenth-century voice of sanity and reason?
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