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\n <\/p>\nA Rememberance on his 152nd birth anniversary:<\/em> <\/p>\n
By Kaleem Kawaja,<\/p>\n
\n\u201cYeh maana tum ko talwaron ki tezi aazmani haiy,
\n<\/em><\/p>\nHumari gurdanon pur ho gaa is ka imtihaan kub tuk\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n
( We know you want to display your military might,<\/em><\/p>\n
But for how long will it be at our cost.)
\n<\/em><\/p>\n<\/em><\/p>\n
\u2026\u2026\u2026..Shibli Nomnai in \u201cShahar-e- Aaashob-e-Islam\u201d (The ruined city of Islam\u201d ) <\/p>\n
In recent years whenever I have enquired from well educated
\nnorth-Indian Muslims about Allama Shibli Nomani, they have told me that
\nI should talk to someone from Azamgarh, because that is where he was
\nfrom, and that is where the Shibli Academy and Shibli National College
\nare located. So recently I traveled to Azamgarh, visited both
\ninstitutions and Shibli\u2019s grave there and talked to a few of Shibli\u2019s
\ndescendents. What I discovered is that despite his awesome services and
\ncontribution in furthering the causes of the Indian nation, the culture
\nand heritage of the Musalmans of South Asia and his yeoman services in
\nspreading education in the community, the Qaum has relegated him as a
\nremote figure in the pages of history. Further some people do grave
\ninjustice when they say that Shibli was a personality largely from
\nAzamgarh and easten U.P.<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3583\/3343733530_7b7ee1f2ed.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe fact is that from the young age of 25 Shibli lived away from
\nAzamgarh, serving in institutions all over the country and abroad and
\nreturned to live in Azamgarh only a couple of years before his untimely
\ndeath at age 57 in 1914. It is injustice to Shibli that the Aligarh
\nMuslim University, Nadvat ul Uloom and Osmania University where Shibli
\nspent thirty-one years of his life have done little to retain his
\nmemory. Next only to Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Shibli was a crusading
\npioneer in the Aligarh movement to spread modern education in the
\nMuslim qaum that was badly ravaged by the 1957 war of independence.
\nIndeed Shibli, who was a child of India\u2019s first war of independence,
\nwas born on June 3, 1857 in Azamgarh. <\/p>\nShibli completed his education in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Usul
\n(Islamic principles), Hadith (traditions of prophet Mohammad), Munazra
\n(comparative religious debate), Maqulat (rational science) and
\nastronomy under illustrious scholars like Maulana Farooq Chiryakoti,
\nHakim Abdullah Jairajpuri and Maulana Irshad Hussain of Rampur. Shibli
\nbegan his career by first working as a lawyer in Azamgarh and Jaunpur.
\nBut starting in 1878 Shibli was increasingly drawn to scholarship,
\ncomprising of learning and teaching. Thus he started writing discourses
\nin \u2018Awadh Panch\u2019 and \u2018Payam-e-yaar\u2019, two contemporary newspapers of
\nU.P. that talked of retaining the established values of the Muslim
\nsociety.<\/p>\nAt Aligarh College:<\/b><\/p>\n
In 1881 Shibli visited Aligarh to meet Sir Syed Ahmed Khan.
\nSubsequently as the then Anglo-Mohammedan Oriental College , then also
\nknown as \u2018Madrasat al uloom Musalman\u2019 needed a teacher for Eastern
\nlanguages, Shibli applied for the position. Shibli\u2019s interview for that
\nposition by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan is an interesting anecdote. On the day
\nof his interview Shibli was asked to seat himself in the college\u2019s
\nlibrary. In the library Shibli found that the book-shelves were
\nunlocked and a few chairs were placed; he proceeded to browse through
\nthe books. The whole day passed but Sir Syed never came. Instead he
\nsent word to Shibli to come to the library the next day. Again on the
\nnext day Shibli waited, browsing through books the entire day but again
\nSir Syed never came. Instead he again sent word to Shibli to come the
\nnext day. The same occurred on the third day. At the end of the third
\nday, Sir Syed came to the library and told Shibli, \u201c Maulvi Shibli, the
\ninterview is over, go and start your teaching work\u201d. On February 1,
\n1883, at the young age of twentyfive Shibli was appointed Assistant
\nprofessor of Arabic and Persian at a monthly salary of forty rupees.
\nTwo years later he was promoted as professor and his monthly salary
\nincreased to seventy rupees.<\/p>\nThus began the father-son like partnership of Shibli Nomani with Sir
\nSyed Ahmad Khan who was forty years older than Shibli, to develop the
\nAnglo Mohammedan college to impart modern education to the Mussalmans
\nof India. Shibli was immensely popular among the students at Aligarh;
\nsome of them being Maulana Zafar Ali Khan, Mohammad Nazir, Sajjad
\nHaider yaldram, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar. Soon Shibli became the
\nfirst editor of the Urdu version of Aligarh Institute Gazette. He
\nbrought in distinguished writers of the period like Altaf Hussain Hali
\nand Munshi Mohammad Zakaullah. In the events at the college, Shibli
\noften spoke eloquently about the crestfallen position of Muslims and
\nthe importance of the Aligarh movement. To raise funds for the nascent
\ncollege he will often participate in events along with Thomas Arnold,
\nKennedy, Smith, Anthony and Yusuf Vakil. At Aligarh he also established
\nstudents\u2019 societies like \u2018Akhwan ul safa\u2019 and \u2018Lajinatul Adab\u2019.<\/p>\nShibli Steps Out<\/b><\/p>\n
In 1892 Shibli took leave from the Aligarh College and left for a
\nsix month travel through various countries in the middleeast. In this
\ntravel Shibli visited Aden, Syria, Cyprus, Turkey, Istanbul, Jerusalem,
\nBeirut and Cairo. He met luminaries like Saiyad Tahir, Maulana Ali
\nPasha, Sheikh Abduh, Sheikh Hamza Fathullah, Syed Raza Misri among
\nothers. In these countries he studied the system of education in a
\nvariety of madrasas and colleges and became familiar with the
\nliterature of those countries. Upon his return from this travel Shibli
\nintroduced common boarding houses, common dining halls and uniform
\ndress for students at the Aligarh school.<\/p>\nAlso upon his return the British Indian government awarded Shibli
\nwith the honorific title of \u2018Shams ul Ulema\u2019. Shibli was also appointed
\na fellow of the then illustrious Allahabad University, member of the
\nBombay branch of Royal Asiatic Society, and he attended the Government
\nOriental conference in Shimla (1910), and the Coronation Durbar (1911)
\nwhere he was introduced to King George V. In 1912 the Indian Government
\naccepted many of Shibli\u2019s recommendations for the reform of the
\nsyllabus in schools.<\/p>\nIn Hyderabad and Turkey<\/b><\/p>\n
In 1901 the Nizam of Hyderabad invited Shibli to Hyderabad to help
\nset up the syllabus and systems at the new Oriental university that in
\ntime grew into the Osmania University. Shibli wrote the plan for the
\nuniversity entitled \u2018Hyderabad ki mashraqi universirty\u2019. In Hyderabad
\nShibli was appointed the secretary of Education and Arts at a monthly
\nsalary of five hundred rupees. In this position in Hyderabad, Shibli
\ncompleted many works such as Al Ghazali (1902), Ibn al Kalam (1903),
\nSawaneh Maulana Rumi (1904). Also during his stay in Hyderabad he
\ncomposed \u2018Sher al Ajam\u2019 and \u2018Muwaznah Anis o Dabir\u2019.<\/p>\nIn 1913 Shibli was invited by the Ottoman Sultan of Turkey to develop the text books for the proposed university at Madina. <\/p>\n
Shbli departs Aligarh for Nadvat ul Uloom, Lucknow<\/b><\/p>\n
Despite his long and dedicated service to the Aligarh College, in
\nthe late 1890s Shibli started getting uncomfortable with uncontrolled
\nmodernity at the college. In fact Sir Syed himself was uncomfortable
\nwith the growth of over-anglicized trends at the Aligarh College. It is
\nsaid that Sir Syed\u2019s appointment of his son Syed Mahmood, a highly
\nanglicized person as his successor as the secretary of the Aligarh
\nEducation Society, in preference to several of his staunch colleagues
\nlike Maulvi Samiullah, Karamat Hussain, Shibli Nomani etal led to a
\nsituation where several of these luminaries left the Aligarh college
\nultimately. It is said that a fortnight before his death in 1898 a
\nmajor quarrel occurred between Sir Syed and his son Syed Mahmood due to
\nthe later\u2019s very anglicized lifestyle, that caused Sir Syed to move out
\nof the house and start living with his friend Haji Ismail Khan, where
\nhe soon breathed his last.<\/p>\nIn 1896 Shibli first expressed a desire to leave the Aligarh college
\nbut was persuaded by the principal of the college, Theodore Beck to
\nstay. Finally after the death of Sir Syed Shibli Nomani resigned from
\nthe Aligarh college in 1899. It was in 1905 after return from Hyderabad
\nthat Shibli Nomani joined Nadvat ul Uloom at Lucknow as the secretary
\nof the institution. As at other institutions, Shibli threw himself with
\nall his zeal to build Nadva into a quality institution and introduced
\nnew subjects and curriculum. He also started the journal Al Nadva that
\nrevolutionized the thinking of Ulema and broadened their outlook. At
\nNadva some of Shibli\u2019s distinguished students were: Saiyed Sulaiman
\nNadvi, Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi, Maulana Masud Nadvi \u2013 the same
\npeople who later gave concrete shape to Shibli\u2019s dream of Dar ul
\nMuannifin at Azamgarh.<\/p>\nIt was during his decade long sojourn at Nadva that Shibli visited
\nBombay and the nearby princely state of Janjirah in 1907. That is where
\nhe wrote the classic \u2018Sher al ajam\u2019, the history of the Persian poetry,
\nand his treatise on \u2018Islam and tolerance\u2019. <\/p>\nHowever some of his critics at Nadva opposed Shibli for the modern
\nsyllabus that he institutionalized there as too modern. In fact for
\nsome of his compositions in \u2018al Kalam\u2019 some of his opponents charged
\nhim even with apostasy, just as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was similarly
\ncharged for his Aligarh College movement. It is an irony that at the
\nAligarh college some of Shibli\u2019s critics considered him as too
\nconservative, while at Nadva some of his critics considered him a
\nradical. Finally in 1913 Shibli Nomani resigned and left from Nadva
\nafter a decade of dedicated service to the institution.<\/p>\nShibli and Maulana Azad<\/b><\/p>\n
It was during his stay in Bombay that Shibli Nomani met the then
\nyouthful Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who was then the editor of the Urdu
\njournal \u2018Lisan-ul-sidq\u2019. Soon Shibli and Azad became close friends and
\ncolleagues and Azad spent some time at Nadva. Shibli invited Azad to
\njoin him in writing the magnum opus \u2018Sirat ul Nabi\u2019, considered Shibli
\nNomani\u2019s landmark achievement, even though he did not live long enough
\nto complete it. Such was Azad\u2019s devotion to Shibli that after Shibli\u2019s
\ndeath when Syed Sulaiman Nadvi asked Azad if he will like to serve as a
\nhonorary fellow at the Dar ul Musannifin, Azad is reported to have
\nsaid: \u201c I will willingly serve even as a porter\u201d. <\/p>\nShibli returns home to Dar ul Musannifin, Azamgarh<\/b><\/p>\n
In 1913 at the age of fiftysix, after being away from his hometown
\nof Azamgarh for thirtyone years, and having lived and worked all over
\nIndia and having travelled abroad extensively, Shibli Nomani returned
\nto settle down in Azamgarh. In Azamgarh he soon established Dar ul
\nMusannifin (abode of writers) – that is today also known as Shibli
\nAcademy. In the short time before his death in November 1914, despite
\npoor health Shibli did much to give a concrete shape to the new
\ninstitution. It is a tribute to Shibli\u2019s illustrious life and work that
\nhis students built his dream institution into a major center of
\nlearning and research related to Islam, Islamic civilization,
\nIndo-Islamic culture and the Indian culture itself.<\/p>\nShibli\u2019s legacy<\/b><\/p>\n
Shibli Nomani was a visionary and a restless soul who travelled wide
\nand lived in places remote from his home in pursuit of learning,
\nspreading knowledge, building institutions and bringing about a
\nrevolution in the thinking of Ulema, learened scholars and ordinary
\nMuslims. Shibli was one of the most ardent nationalists devoted to his
\nnation and to freeing it from the yoke of colonialism. At the Aligarh
\ncollege he dedicated himself to providing modern education to Muslims.
\nHis letters to sir syed Ahmad Khan from Istanbul, Cairo and other
\nplaces show his deep concern that Muslims study sciences. He admitted
\nthe importance of Western learning but was not prepared to ignore
\noriental subjects or belittle the merit of Islamic sciences. He
\ndisagreed with those who wanted to emulate the western ethos so much
\nthat it could destroy the identity of Muslims.<\/p>\nShibli\u2019s spirit of national integration is demonstrated by the
\nmanner in which he established a school in 1883 in his hometown of
\nAligarh, and named it \u2018National School\u2019; it is now a large
\npost-graduate college with an enrollment of about 9,000 students. He
\ninstructed that the students in this school speak English language by
\nthe time they reach Standard V. A century ago Shibli was of the opinion
\nthat much of the Muslim antipathy to Western learning arose because of
\ntheir ignorance of European languages. He was not satisfied with mere
\nwriting, learning and attending conferences, but also believed in
\naction. For example when in 1912 Burn, the chief secretary of United
\nProvinces government initiated a move to introduce Urdu in Devnagri
\nscript, Shibli opposed it stoutly and fought for the preservation of
\nUrdu in Nastaliq script. Also in 1912 he introduced a resolution in
\nDelhi demanding withdrawl of books that created discord among Indians
\nof diverse faiths from schools and colleges.<\/p>\nShibli praised the Congress party for raising the demand of
\nself-government. While Shibli believed that the Congress party may not
\nbest represent the interests of the Muslim community, at the same time
\nhe dismissed the claims of Muslim League as the exclusive
\nrepresentative of Muslims. He did not subscribe to the fears expressed
\nby Muslim League that by virtue of their numerical superiority Hindus
\nwould overwhelm Muslims. Indeed men like Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar
\nand Maulana Azad who were Shibli\u2019s close younger colleagues and who
\nwere considerably influenced by Shibli may be viewed as his political
\nsuccessors.<\/p>\nHave we forgotten Shibli?<\/b><\/p>\n
In the aftermath of Shibli Nomani\u2019s death his favourite pupil
\nincluding the renowned Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, dedicated themselves to
\nnurturing and building on his legacy. Syed Sulaiman Nadvi completed
\nShibli\u2019s unfinished \u2018Seerat un Nabi\u2019 and together with others built Dar
\nul Musannifin in Azamgarh into a most illustrious institution of
\nlearning, research and publications in the area of Islamic thought and
\ncivilization that it became in the next few decades.<\/p>\nHowever, after 1947 Shibli Nomani\u2019s name has suffered neglect by
\npeople outside his close circle and outside the Muslim community of
\nEastern U.P. For instance the Muslim qaum has not given Shibli the
\nall-India stature that others like Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, Maulana
\nMohammad Ali Jauhar, Maulana Azad with whom he cam be easily ranked
\namong the Muslim luminaries of the last 150 years. Aligarh Muslim
\nUniversity and Nadvat ul Uloom, Lucknow, the two institutions that he
\nserved for so long with so much untiring zeal and devotion and where he
\nmade so much contribution have not done much to perpetuate his memory. <\/p>\nIt was only recently that Aligarh Muslim University built a students
\nhostel in his name; but they did not name any of their better
\ninstitutes, eg the library or one of the colleges after Shibli.
\nSimilarly Nadvat ul Uloom did not name any of its significant organs
\nafter him. Hardly any Muslim community university has named any major
\nawards in Shibli\u2019s name. And hardly any alumni of AMU memorialize
\nShibli by organizing annual lectures in his memory. The unkindest cut
\nis that when you enquire about Shibli from north Indian Muslims they
\nindicate that he is a historical figure from eastern UP and Azamgarh.
\nThis despite the fact that Shibli spent 31 of his 57 years serving
\neducational institutions of the Muslims all over India, away from his
\nhome base. Today we need to make up for lost time and take steps to
\ngive Shibli a place of pride among the all-India luminaries of the
\nMuslim qaum of the last two centuries.<\/p>\n_________________________________________________<\/p>\n
The writer a community activist in Washington DC, can be reached on kaleem kawaja@hotmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n
Link:<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.shibliacademy.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Have we forgotten Shibli Nomani ? Submitted by admin4 on 3 June 2009 – 10:29pm. Articles Indian Muslim A Rememberance on his 152nd birth anniversary: By Kaleem Kawaja, \u201cYeh maana tum ko talwaron ki tezi aazmani haiy, Humari gurdanon pur ho gaa is ka imtihaan kub tuk\u201d ( We know you want to display your…
Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/venusimportexport.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} - Indian Muslim<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n