Dr. Al-Dubayan Remembers and Pays Tribute to Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi

Dr Dubayan Remembers and Pays Tribute to

Shaikh Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi

Dr. Mozammel Haque

A Seminar on Remembering Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi,(popularly known as Maulana Ali Miah) sponsored by Dr. Ahmad al-Dubayan Director General of the Islamic Cultural Centre, London and initiated the event by Shaikh Masroor Ahmad, was held at the Conference Library Hall of the ICC on Saturday, 26^th of October, 2019.

The Islamic Cultural Centre, London, organised the Seminar to remember, commemorate and acknowledge the life achievements and contributions to Islam and Muslims.

The Seminar was attended by scholars, Ulemas, intellectuals and many others. According to the programme, the following speakers were supposed to speak at the Seminar. Sh. Mohammad Rabey Hasani Nadwi, Rector, Nadwatul Ulama, India, on the Topic: Sh. Abul Hasan Nadwi & his political thoughts; Maulana Khalid Nadwi (India); Topic: Sh. Abul Hasan Nadwi & his message for humanity; Dr. Farhan Ahmed Nizami, Topic: the idea of 'Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies'; Dr. Khalifa Ezzat, Topic: Sh. Abul Hasan Nadwi & his publications and contributions and Sh. Saeedur Rehman (Canada), Topic: Sh. Nadwi's contribution to Adab e Arabi.

Dr. Ahmad al-Dubayan

It is very important; to remember and to cast some lights on His Eminence Abul Hasan Nadwi Rahimullah. He passed away in 1999. Dr. al-Dubayan said, “I believe it is important for new generation of Muslims, everywhere,  not only here in the UK, to remember always and to talk about their scholars, about their great figures, especially those who influenced the societies, peoples’ minds, of course in the positive way.”

Maulana Abul Hasan Nadawi

Dr. Ahmad al-Dubayan Director General of the Islamic Cultural Centre, London, started remembering Maulana Abul Hasan Nadwi saying, “Here we are talking about Maulana Abul Hasan Nadawi Rahimullah who is one of the great scholars in India; not only in India, he started in India but he became one of the great scholars of the Islamic world. I still remember in the 1980s when we were in the Universities; I used to hear and listen Abul Hasan Nadawi. He used to come in the Imam Muhammad bin Saud University in Riyadh on different occasions in one of the conferences, seminars in Makkah on Islamic fiqh etc.”

Speaking about the prizes and awards presented to Maulana, Dr. Al-Dubayan mentioned, “Abul Hasan himself received many prizes. He was awarded many times. He was a member of many Councils and Forums; for example; he was a member of Arabic Language Council in Damascus; he was also member of Arabic Council in Amman in Jordan; he was also member of many organisations in Saudi Arabia. He was member and Chairman of Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in 1983. He is something like an international man who played main role in many things everywhere.”

Personality and Culture:

Building connection between east and west

Talking about his personality and culture, Dr. Al-Dubayan said, “This is not the most important of Abul Hasan’s positions and how many prizes he had. The main thing is Abul Hasan’s personality and culture. As far as I know Abul Hasan was busy with some issues; one of these issues, for example, is to build good connection between east part of the Islamic world and the west part of the Islamic world. He actually travelled many times attending conferences, talking about Muslims in general in many areas of the world. He was involved also in many issues about Muslim minorities, Islamic literature, Arabic language and many things.”

His Father: Syed Abdul Hai

Talking about his father, Syed Abdul Hai and his contributions, Dr. al-Dubayan mentioned, “The question of the connection is very important I assume for him. I found this in his works. I have this link together with his father Abdul Hai Rahimullah. His father wrote a very remarkable important work in seven or eight volumes. That is actually a big book collection of biographies. He himself wrote it; it is only about the biographies of scholars in India; not outside of India. And it’s amazing. You will be surprised when you will find in eight volumes just short biographies of Indian Muslim scholars. He did not cover everybody. He covered, may be, three or four centuries.”

Opened a big window for us

After mentioning about his father Abdul Hai and praising his contribution Dr. Al-Dubayan said, “His father Abdul Hai Nadawi Rahimullah (may Allah shower him mercy and his son and all Muslims everybody and anybody). He actually opened a big window for us, for those who speak Arabic to know exactly about India. In India Muslims led about three centuries all the Islamic studies, Hadiths Sharifs, Traditions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) about three hundred years actually mostly in India.

Indian scholars had special attention

And dedication to Sunnah of the Prophet

Speaking about the scholars of India who had a special attention and dedication for the Sunnah of the Prophet peace be upon him, Dr. Al-Dubayan said those students who wanted to study and read Hadiths he must go to India; of course in between Iraq, Egypt, Syria, in Saudi Arabia there were also ways to read and learn Hadiths. He said, “Those people in India had something like special dedication for the Sunnah of the Prophet ( peace be upon him).

Recollecting from his memory Dr. al-Dubayan said, “I remember, even though I came from the heart of Saudi Arabia, the Shaikh of my Shaikh having about two generations or three generations between us, they went to India looking for book of Sunnah. And that’s why, we had Sanad from them. It goes to those who went to India and came back to Hejaz Makkah and Madinah. Why, because the scholars of India gave special attention to the Sunnah of the Prophet (peace be upon him). You will find Sanad from India throughout the world, even in Morocco, so far; sometimes it goes so far back to India. Why? As I said to you, scholars of India gave special attention to the Sunnah.”

“Alhamdolillah, one of the greatest aspect of Allah Subhanahu wa Taala; when it is down somewhere in the Islamic world, it’s up somewhere else. May be, some people in the east do not pay that much attention for Islamic studies; you will find in the west do it. If the people in the west do not do it, then the other people new generation start in the east to do it. It is like a scaling going up and down,” observed the ICC Chief.

Abdul Hai wrote in Arabic

And opened a window for Arabs

Talking about building connection Dr. Ahmed al-Dubayan mentioned Abul Hasan’s father’s contribution. He said, “I think the book of his father, Abdul Hai Nadwi played a role too to build this connection. Abul Hasan Nadwi himself had followed his father. The father wrote the books in Arabic. He did not write in Persian, and he did not write in Urdu. Many of the scholars in India used to write in Persian; because Persian was the language of literature; the language of teaching. India used to have three languages, Persian is very important; and Arabic is also very important and Urdu too; but when the Indian scholars write about knowledge, about Hadiths, about Qur’an, about Madhabs, about something; usually in early days it was Persian. Sometimes they used Arabic but not in all the cases. But this book of Abdul Hai was in Arabic. So it opened a window to see really; oh my God, this is the case in India for us.”

Allama Abul Hasan wrote in Arabic

“Abul Hasan kept himself busy with this for some time. He wrote book about Allama Sirhindi in India. About him, not many Arabs know that much; about his struggling for the Sunnah and also the information about the 19^th century India, about Shaheed also. We know from the writings of Abul Hasan Nadwi about the Revolution of Muslims in the 19^th century. Abul Hasan wrote something about this in Arabic,” said Dr. al-Dubayan and added, “So this connection between, let’s say, I am using here the language term, using between the Arabic world and to India. That’s one.”

Special attention to Arabic language

Speaking about the special attention by Maulana Abul Hasan Nadwi to Arabic Language, Dr. al-Dubayan mentioned, “The second point is to give special attention to Arabic language. Abul Hasan was one of those scholars in India, who paid special attention to Arabic language. He masters Arabic very good; very well. His Arabic was very very good. Some times when you read about him you don’t feel this man learnt Arabic. You think his Arabic is his native language. Why? Because he gave lot of attention to Arabic when he was young; and one of his teachers, Sheikhs, advised him to concentrate more and more on Arabic; because Arabic is the key to the Qur’an. Whenever any translation you use it could never be like the text, Arabic; you taste the language itself. This is something different. All those who understand Qur’an in Arabic, noticed that. That’s the second point.”

The Question of a Century:

The Question of Renaissance

Talking about the third point, the question of a century, the question of Renaissance, Dr. al-Dubayan mentioned, “Abul Hasan kept himself so busy with what the Arabs called the Question of Renaissance. What is the Question of Renaissance? In the beginning of the last century, in the 20^th century, somebody named Shakeeb Arslan in Syria, raised the questions: ‘why the Muslims are backward?’ ‘What happened to the Islamic civilisation to have this decline?’ What happened? Who is going to answer this question? It’s a question of century, they called. It is really the question of the century. Many thinkers everywhere starts trying to answer this question. Starting from Shakeeb Arslan himself he started to answer the question. Why are Muslims backward?”

“Seven hundred years ago we had what we called the Golden Age of the Islamic Civilisation. What happened after that? How is the situation today? By the way, that question still valid. Till today many people try to answer that question. That’s why, the question was called the question of the century. And the question was raised about in 1910. Shakeeb Arslan himself tell he was the first one to answer this question. He wrote about it and many of the answers he gave you will find in his book. His book is translated from French into Arabic:  Hadir-Al-Alam Al Islami, the Present Situation of the Muslim World. He put many very rich footnotes which may be very valuable than the book itself. Shakeeb Arslan. Then you will find he was trying to answer lots of things of history,” explained Dr. al-Dubayan.

Syed Abul Hasan tried to answer the Question

Speaking about Abul Hasan’s attempt to answer the Question of a Century, Dr. al-Dubayan mentioned, “Abul Hasan tried to answer this question also and he wrote also a very famous book with the title in Arabic, Madha Khasir Al-Alam bi-inhitat Al-Muslimeen. ‘What has the Muslim lost to them decline of the Islamic civilisation?’ What has the world lost?  Or the World lose after the decline of Islamic civilisation? What happened? He tried to answer the question. Of course, the question was dealt with many thinkers: Malik bin Nabi, Tayyib Tizini; M. Abid Al-Jabiri; Muhamed  Jabir Al-Ansari - all these thinkers and all these philosophers tried to answer this question and wrote about this question and the question still valid as I said.”

What is Islamic Literature?

Fourthly talking about Abul Hasan’s contribution to Islamic literature, Dr. Al-Dubayan mentioned, “Abul Hasan kept himself busy with what we call Islamic literature. What is Islamic literature? He did not mean any kind of literature written by Muslims. No. He did not mean that. It is a new term actually. Now there are many arguments about this Islamic literature among the Arab themselves. Should we have something we call Islamic literature? We should not. Some people think that we should not because literature is free. That means any prose or any prose-writer he can write whatever he can; we can criticise that; this is good text; this is a good nice piece of literature or we can say this is not good, just leave it. If we go back to the Abbasid time, there were lots of literature; wrote about Ghazal, praising women and their beauty etc. Sometimes they used words which are a bit of problematic when we talk about religion. In the level of literature, they were accepted; even scholars used that some time. That’s why, some people raised the question we should leave the literature free; we cannot control it.”

“And there are those we call Islamic literature; that means in any kind of literature, prose or poetry anything that really supports Islamic values; for example, when we talk about Mercy of Allah, when we talk about Taqwa, when we talk about fears of Allah Subhanahu wa Taala, when we talk about encouraging people to be good Muslims; this is what we call Islamic literature. Abul Hasan actually believed in this type of Islamic literature. And he supported this. They formed during their lifetime something they called it Rabita at Alam Al-Islami; which is something like Union of Islamic Literature and many novelists, many short story writers, many poets from Egypt, Syria, from Iraq, from Saudi Arabia, from Morocco, from Tunisia, from Algeria, and from everywhere, participated in this and actually they tried to highlight the works they called in their term Islamic literature. Abul Hasan had paid a lot of support to this kind of literature and he expected a time for it and he wrote about it. He supported, say like organising seminars and conferences about it,” elaborated by Dr. Al-Dubayan.  

Picture of Mosaics of Abul Hasan Nadwi

Speaking about the image of Syed Abul Hasan Nadwi’s all kinds of contributions; Dr. al-Dubayan summarizes the picture of this mosaic thesis. He said, “Now to bring all these together I want to say the whole picture of this mosaic thesis. i) A man who tried to build connection between East and West; ii) a man who highlighted lots of histories in India and outside of India especially in India; iii) a man who supported Arabic language; iv) a man who supported Islamic literature; v) a man who talked about the Question of the Century; that means this man is carrying in his heart the worriers about the Ummah, all about it. Not only someone who think about his Institute, his University or his country; he is a man of like international person who thinks of the whole Islamic world and the whole Islamic civilizations. And I think this kind of thinking we should have today.”

Think civilizations as a whole

and not think  into pieces

Speaking about the benefits of thinking humanity as a whole and warned a caution about nationalistic outlook, Dr. Al-Dubayan praised the international outlook of Maulana Abul Hasan Nadwi and encouraged his students to imitate the international character of great thinkers and philosophers. He said, “Humanity loose a lot or we lost a lot when we become very very nationalistic; when you think only of your city, when you think only of your country, when you think only of your people; when you think only of your tribe; it is not only for people; it is for humanity. You will not pay attention to some beautiful things around you, created by other people. You do not pay that much attention because they are not in your language, because they are not from your people; because it is written somewhere in Africa, in Asia, or somewhere in Europe, or in South America; you do not care about it. But it is beautiful. And it is related to you. I always say to our students you should think of others when you say about Islamic civilizations; don’t think of your own country; think from the borders of China till the border of France.”

“Now recently, of course in the last century there are Muslims in America, now they are everywhere. These Muslims created a lot of beautiful things. We know history; of course, there are atrocities; there are of course tragic stories; we cannot deny this; but the best thing we can do for all these things is to remember them and try to reform them but not to repeat them. But at the same time we should not forget the beautiful things made by the civilizations. You started in Central Asia, how many beautiful mosques are there, how many beautiful Islamic Art are there; how many beautiful manuscripts are there; how many Islamic scholars from there; including Imam Bukhari, Imam Termizi,” said Dr. Al-Dubayan and added, “Go back to India, see the mosques and the beautiful Domes of the Mughals. Their rule actually flourished in India; see how much they supported knowledge in India; how much Islamic literature in Persia which we had because of their support. It is the same in case of Persia, the same in case of Turkey, and the same in case of Balkans; the same in the heart of Europe - in Tatarstan, in Russia and in Poland.”

 “Of course when you go down south you will have Spain where you will have a great great civilizations. Till today the Jewish historians say the golden age of the Hebrew literature goes to Spain during the rule of Muslims. “Dr. al-Dubayan also mentioned and added, “North Africa you talked about something very rich. Everything, literature, even carpets, food, everything, all the arts. Go south to Africa, you will find influence of Muslims in Nigeria; in Ghana, in Senegal going down down till you reach South Africa. I have not talk about Pakistan about Bangladesh which is of course very rich. I have not talk about south India also; everywhere.”

Dr. al-Dubayan also said, “Such a civilization, which is very much international, must be remembered by the new generations. Don’t cut it into pieces, take it as a whole. There are those who support this stupid nationalism - that’s me, and I do not care about the rest. This is not Islamic at all. And this message of religion which of course Abul Hasan definitely based on Islam moved that’s one of his very basic principles. His pure Islamic principle. That is all these people are equal. There is no difference for colour, for languages, for tribes, for territories, where people come from. In Islam Allah does not see this. He sees this of course, but He does not recognize this. Allah recognizes the actions in your heart. It is not important that you come from South Africa, you come from Russia, or you come from the U.K. or from the United States, No. Who are you? It is what you are doing. What kind of contributions you are making.”

“This mixture of thinking, I think, after analysing as far as I know Abul Hasan This is actually a dynamic movement, as I know actually Abul Hasan brought about to think about other countries, to think about Muslims in India and  how to export   the message to other Muslim countries from India,”said Dr. al-Dubayan and added,”We are celebrating, we are remembering this great man today; because of this fact that he tried and spent all his life try to plant it everywhere. I would like to thank Sheikh Masroor Ahmad for giving us this chance . It was actually initiated from the Academy of Allama Abul Hasan Nadawi Rahimullah. We have this seminar today and I hope we can meet again to talk about other scholars particularly from India. I am not saying to talk about India only but also of the other parts of the Muslim world;”

Concluding his speech, Dr al-Dubayan advised everybody, saying, “I am calling everybody, Read about them, listen of them. Then you can make correct close judgement about their heritage, their thinking, what they call for and what they are doing.”