Remembering Indian Economist Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqi, the Father of Islamic Banking

By Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef, New Age Islam 28 November 2022 Dr. Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqui Firmly Believed That The Period During Which Islamic Movements Developed And Operated Was Unique And Different ------ Dr. Mohammad Nejatullah Siddiqi (August 1931 - November 2022) ----- Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqi was an economist, but he was also a man of wisdom and original thought. This succinct essay picks out a few important ideas from his views and musings. Professor Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqi, 91, passed away in San Jose, California, the United States, where he was staying with his three sons and two daughters, on November 12, 2022. He was receiving therapy for Parkinson's disease for four years. Born to a humble family in a small town, Padrauna in Gorakhpur UP in 1931. Siddiqi initially was educated in Gorakhpur and was exposed to Jamaat-e-Islami culture and literature at a young age. After earning a high school degree from Gorakhpur, he was admitted to AMU in 1949. However, very active, vigil, youthfully enthusiastic, and yet disillusioned with the college education, which religious zealots refer to as the "killing fields of nations," he met with the top brass of the Jamaat and persuaded them to open some sort of alternative education for him and his colleagues by saying, "We are all disillusioned by college education, have forsaken our careers and have come to you to educate us in the sources of Islam." On his insistence and persuasion, Sanwi Darasgah at Rampur, where the centre of the Jamaat was housed then, came into existence in 1950 and continued until 1960. In the first batch of it, there were Nejatullah Siddiqi, Abdulhaq Ansari, Qazi Ashfaq, Rau Irfan Ahmad Khan, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, et al. It was a unique and very fruitful crash course under which these enthusiastic youth went on learning and engaging with old as well as new realities. After five years of rigorous endeavours, Dr. Najatullah earned excellence in Arabic and Islamic sciences, and along with that, he studied for six months at Madrasa-tul-Islah Azamgarh too. Maulana Sadruddin Islahi, a prolific writer and ideologue of the Jamaat was among his teachers too. After the completion of this intensive course now, there was a question of how to adjust these brilliant young minds and how to utilize them. What the Jamaat was offering was not fulfilling their aspirations at all, so the young and bright Siddiqi did not hesitate to argue with the elders on this matter. When somebody among the Jamaat officials harshly commented, "you have no market value," he decided to go ahead on his own and re-joined AMU and earned his Master's and then Ph.D. in economics from this prestigious seat of learning in 1966. Furthermore, he got a lectureship at the department of Economic Studies and became a professor in Islamic Studies in 1977. In October 1978, he joined the prestigious King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia as a professor of Economics and retired from it in 1986. Dr. Siddiqi was awarded the Faisal prize in 1981 for his profound and pioneering works in Islamic Economy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Also Read: Violence, Islam And The Islamic Movement: Can Terrorism Be At All Justified In Islam? - Part 1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Works: Dr. Nejatullah's accomplishments include approximately 49 volumes in both English and Urdu, as well as some impressive translations from Arabic into Urdu. The most well-known is "Banking without Interest," which was released in over 30 different versions between 1973 and 2022. Ten further well-known seminal works in this area can be found among his other English writings. (For the details: see Aslam Abdullah: Dr. Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqi: The father of Modern Islamic Banking And in Urdu: Tehreek-e-Islami(Islamic Movement) in the Present Age, Islam in the 21st Century, Muslims and Tehreek-e-Islami, Maqasid Shariat (Objectives of Shariah), The Economic System of Islam, Implementation of Islamic Guidelines in Finance and Economy, Islam and Muslims, Theory of Property in Islam Interest-free Banking, Insurance in Islamic Economy, etc. have become very popular. He received two major awards for his work: King Faisal International Prize for service to Islamic Studies and Shah Waliullah Award by a New Delhi-based NGO, the IOS, for his contribution to Islamic Economics. Economics is an arid subject, but Najat Saheb also had the highest taste for literature, so he wrote many stories in Urdu. A collection of his fiction writings was also published. As I am not an economist and do not have factual information, I leave it to economists and researchers in this field to criticize, evaluate and analyse his achievements and flaws in this respect. Here what concerns me most is Nejatullah, the thinker, observer, and a man of ideas pertaining to current political situations. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Also Read: Violence, Islam And The Islamic Movement: Can Terrorism Be At All Justified In Islam? -Part 2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Najatullah the Thinker: Dr. Muhammad Nejatullah Siddiqui firmly believed that the period during which Islamic movements developed and operated was unique and different. They have completed their assigned tasks. The generation of today should think itself freely and should contribute its part of obligation. The time of Syed Qutub or Maulana Maududi is long past. The expectations of today are different. People today need to develop new methods of working with Ijtihad and an open mind while taking into account the exponentially changing conditions around the world. In the following lines, I want to draw the reader's attention to a few relevant points and issues of Islamic thought in which the thinker Najatullah gave his opinions utterly different from other scholars and Islamists. His intellectual connection indeed remained with Jamaat-e-Islami, but his point of view was never orthodox. He wasn't a supremacist either; rather, he believed in civilizational dialogues and interfaith understanding. This is why the Jamaat's most stubborn religious faction never accepted his views. Not only that, but when his book 'Maqasid-e-Shariat' (Objectives of Shariah) was published, some members of the top leadership of Jamaat campaigned against him secretly. The people of Jamaat-e-Islami do not even, by mistake, mention new ideas and opinions of Najat Saheb because they may harm the core agenda of the Jamaat. In my view, these are very important issues. Siddiqi was a charismatic individual. He conversed with scholars, laypeople, and intellectuals alike. He would pay close attention to any participant in events like seminars, symposia, or debates, read his mind, and then try to provide a satisfactory response. His interviews were published in Afkar e Milli, the news and views publication I edited back in Delhi until 2018. I conducted two Urdu interviews with him. In addition, I spoke with him, wrote emails to him, and met him several times. His arguments always were satisfying to me. On Islamic Thought, he has written on the behest of some Islamic Fiqh Academy India officials a booklet in Urdu called: فکراسلامی:چند توجہ طلب مسائل (Islamic Thought: Issues requiring attention ) printed several times with his revision and addition of new relevant points. Apart from this, another magnum opus of his writings is a Collection of Letters on Islamic Literature, Economics, and Islam, in Urdu.اسلام معاشيات خطوط اورادب In this book, he also argued on certain particular subjects with Maulana Maududi, Ali Miyan Nadwi, Wahiduddin Khan, Irfan Ahmad, and with a galaxy of writers, researchers, Ulama, muftis, and the common man. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also Read: Violence, Islam And The Islamic Movement: Can Terrorism Be At All Justified In Islam? - Part 3 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-Need to Address Common Concerns: To him, many issues and problems have become a common concern for humankind, such as global warming, climate change, poverty, disease, pandemics, etc. That is why all humanity is required to come to a platform and exchange their common concerns cutting across religious and cultural limits and party lines, as the life support system will be doomed in coming times, and the whole of humanity will suffer. 2-Consistency in Thought and Practice: He says that it is not proper that Muslims in minority countries, invoking secularism and human rights, always take one stand for themselves while deny these rights for non-Muslims in the Muslim majority countries. It is unethical and hypocritical. 3-His Stand on Nuclear Proliferation: Dr. Nejat vehemently opposed nuclear proliferation for purely Islamic, moral, and ethical reasons, regardless of any justifications. We must resist such actions since they are dangerous for all of humanity and go against what Islam stands for to possess such weapons. Other Ulama and thinkers defend having this kind of armament for Muslims on the grounds of deterrence. 4-New Cosmology: In light of the new cosmology, which is based primarily on the Darwinian theory of evolution, Siddiqi asserted that Muslim theology needs to take a fresh look at the relevant verses of the Quran, reconsider its position, and attempt to reinterpret the text to suit the times. This is because it is an academic issue related to search and research rather than a matter of dogmatic faith, and Muslims have debated all such questions in their brilliant intellectual legacy. For instance, we can trace the roots of evolution theory in the works of Ibn Misquwah, Rumi and others. 5-Women Empowerment: Dr. Nejatullah asks how can a people develop and go ahead in economic terms when half of its population (read women) is totally out of active participation in productive life. Referring to the active role Muslim women had played in the Prophetic era and the eras that followed, he strongly made a case for the empowerment of Muslim women in modern times. 6-Exploitation of Violence for Islam: In one of his rather lengthy Urdu essays published in monthly Zindagi-Nau Siddiqi deliberated on violence. Does it fit a Muslim or an Islamic organization to use violence as a tool to terrorize enemies, adversaries, and opponents and strategically kill innocent civilians? His answer was: absolutely not. In this respect, he condemned all the suicide attacks and extremists' assaults on innocent civilians. He was very categorical, while other Islamists use many ifs and buts regarding this tricky question, giving a sort of legitimacy to violence committed in the name of Islam. 7: Religious Freedom The late Siddiqi was all for religious freedom to everyone as the holy book itself sanctions it: (لكم دينكم ولي دين) For you, your religion, and for me mine. Hence, the penalty for mere apostasy should be reconsidered as there is sufficient evidence suggesting that the matter was also a debatable one among the holy companions and their followers (Tabieen). 8-Quran for All: Quran is addressed to everyone. It is an obligation of every individual to read and understand it. It is not privileged for only Ulama and scholars to understand and interpret the holy book as it is claimed by them in their vanity. However, the level of understanding of a layman certainly may differ from the level of Ulama. However, Ulama have no right to stop the average person from understanding the Quran and exploring its insights as they normally do. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Also Read: Violence, Islam And The Islamic Movement: Can Terrorism Be At All Justified In Islam? - Part 4 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Nejat was a unique individual who stood up for moral principles and rejected traditional dogmas. ------ A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Dr. Mohammad Ghitreef is a Research Associate with the Centre for Promotion of Educational and Cultural Advancement of Muslims of India, AMU Aligarh. 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