Sir Syed Promoted Scientific Temperament and Interfaith Dialogue

By S. Arshad, New Age Islam 27 October 2022 He Promoted Study of Comparative Religion Main Points: 1. Sir Syed was s rationalist. 2. He promoted scientific temperament among Muslims. 3. He founded Aligarh Muslim University. 4. He established scientific society. 5. He wrote the exegesis of Quran and Bible. ------ Sir Syed Ahmad Khan ------ One of the greatest personalities India produced in the 19th century was Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. He had acquired both Islamic and western education and influenced the thought of the contemporary Muslims in a big way. His greatest contribution is the establishment of Aligarh Muslim University in 1877. Sir Syed had seen the failure of the 1857 revolution led by the Muslims and participated largely by Ulema. He also watched the subsequent persecution of Muslims by the British government. He therefore, decided to work for the educational and scientific progress of the Muslims. He was of the view that Muslims could come out of the miserable condition only with the help of modern and scientific education. He adopted a policy of establishing good relationship with British government and worked towards reducing the hatred of the British government towards the Muslims. He had realised that driving out the British was now not possible and so the only way forward was to have good relationship with them and take advantage of the services and resources of the government to make progress. --------------------------------- Also Read: Moving Beyond Sir Syed --------------------------------- He himself joined the administrative and judicial services. During this period, he also started educational movement among the Muslims. He wrote a number of books to promote modern education and scientific way of thinking among Muslims. He issued the magazine Tahzeeb ul Ekhlaque and founded an organisation named the Scientific Society. Sir Syed was a rationalist with an Islamic spirit. Though he favoured modern education and English language, he had deep faith in his religion Islam and reverence for the holy prophet pbuh. Since he had a correct understanding of religion of Islam and the Quran, he also had respect for Christianity and Judaism. Therefore, he also deeply studied the Bible, the Torah and other religious scriptures. He endeavoured to bridge the cultural and religious gap between the Muslims and the People of the Book. Therefore, he wrote the exegesis of the Bible and Torah which was published in three volumes 1862, 1865 and 1887. In this exegesis he also quoted verses from the Quran and hadiths corroborating the verses of the Bible. This helped in a comparative study of the Quran, Bible and Torah. Therefore, his exegesis is a rare book in Urdu which helped shed misconceptions of the Muslims and the Christians about each other. During his time and even today, Muslims had the view that many changes have occurred in the Bible. Sir Syed wrote that the Christian scholars have made many efforts to preserve the authenticity of the Bible. He even detailed those efforts in the exegesis. Therefore, he wrote the exegesis of the Bible not ith the purpose of proving the Christians wrong but to prove the fact that the Quran, the Bible and Torah were the parts of the chain of divine revelations and all the four books were equally respectable. He wrote in a letter: "Muslims have always considered the books of Christianity useless, absurd and a collection of false tales. And their views have got strength from illogical and imprudent arguments of some Christian priests. The result of these arguments was nothing except bias, acrimony and differences between the two communities." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also Read: Remembering Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as a Proponent of Hindus and Muslims Being One Nation: His Religious Reform Is As Relevant As His Educational Reform ------------------------------------------------------------------------- As an exegete of the Quran, he removed the misconception about the verses on slave girls. Sir Syed was had a rational and logical way of thinking and so whenever the enemies of Islam made an attack on Islam through their writings, instead of issuing fatwas of death against him, he would write an academic reminder against them. This happened when Sir William Muir wrote a book Mahomet and Islam in which he made blasphemous remarks against Islam and the prophet, he wrote an argumentative book in defence oc Islam and thd prophet pbuh. This book cleared the doubts of the western world but of Indians about Islam and Muslims. Sir Syed had visited England in 1869 in connection with the admission of his sons in a college. During his stay there, he studied the political and educational system of England very closely and deeply. After returning home, he made up his mind to establish a modern college. In 1877 he laid the foundation stone of M.A.O. College which later became Aligarh Muslim University. The college imparted both modern and Islamic education but the religious section became apprehensive of the true intent of Sir Syed. They thought that Sir Syed had become a Christian and was actually promoting Christianity under the guise of promoting modern and scientific education. To remove their doubts, Sir Syed appealed to them supervise the religious education in the college. But they refused to do so. One Maulvi declined the appeal saying: "Since Shias also attend the school, we will not participate in this exercise." --------------------------------------------------------------- Also Read: Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: Man with a Mission --------------------------------------------------------------- The Ulema started a campaign against Sir Syed and his college. They called Sir Syed a kafir, a Dajjal and a Dahriya. Sir Syed's biographer Maulana Altaf Hussain Hali writes in his book Hayat-e-Jawaid: "One Maulvi Imdad Ali obtained fatwas of Kufr from 60 Ulema against him. One Maulvi Ali Bakhsh went to Makkah and obtained fatwas of Kufr against him from the muftis of the four sects of Islam. In their fatwas they had issued fatwa preventing financial assistance to and suggesting the demolition of the college." Magazines were published to counter the scientific and modern thoughts promoted by Tahzib ul Ekhlaque. Some of the magazines are Nurul Afaque from Kanpur, Nurul Anwar from Agra and Lauh-e-Mahfuz from Punjab. One businessman from Calcutta had even planned to kill Sir Syed but a Maulvi dissuaded him from doing so. Though some of his political thoughts cannot be accepted and defended because sometimes he sided with the British government and criticised the freedom fighters, the motive behind it was to act as a safety valve to save the Muslims from the wrath of the government. While criticising the Muslims, he would also subtly point out the repressive and injustice of the British government as the reasons behind the revolt and resentment among Indians, particularly Muslims. As is the policy of all great men, Sir Syed also ignored the contemporary political developments and fixed his eyes on his future goal. He made some compromises with the then government to achieve his goal. Today Sir Syed's farsightedness is being appreciated and praised as he achieved what he aspired and struggled for. ----- S. Arshad is a columnist with NewAgeIslam.com. URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-personalities/sir-syed-scientific-interfaith-dialogue/d/128276 New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism