Remembering Syed Abul Hasan Ali 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,
26th 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 by
Syed Abul Hasan Ali Al-Hasney Al-Nadwi (Died on Friday 22nd Ramadan 1420)
After the recitation of the Holy Qur’an,
Shaikh Masroor Ahmad welcomed the audience at this auspicious occasion. He
said, “Born on 5th December 1914 and passed away on 31st
December 1999, Shaikh Abul Hasan Ali Al-Hasany al-Nadwi to whom the
contemporary scholar Sheikh Yusuf al-Qardawi, in his obituary remembered as
Ustad, Rabbani – e-Umma, Islami, Dai e lillah, Arbi e Nasl, Hindi nizad, Hasni
annasab, Sheikh al-ummat, Dae illakhair, a descendant of Syedna Ali Murtaza
(RA). Shaikh Nadwi came from the family of scholars, literature, thinkers,
historians, nobility, morality and education. Inshaallah eminent scholars sitting
here will shed light on his characteristics, his services to the betterment of
mankind and his contribution to the renaissance of Islam and Ummah as a whole.”
Then
Shaikh Masroor took the gathering 56 years back when in October 1964, Shaikh
Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi came to London and addressed at this place. He mentioned,
“in October 1964, in this very place but in Regent Lodge, as this beautiful
structure had not even been conceived that time, Sheikh Nadwi addressing a
gathering of students, said: ‘I am neither a prophet, a seer, a saint, a
devinator, nor I have any desire to predict But I can see among you sitting
here future Prime Ministers, Ministers, Head of States, Scientists, Engineers
and lawyers and these positions and rank are waiting for your return in your
countries. You have not come here only to go back signing the song of Europe
like parrots and imitating like apes, you have definitely not here to walk on
the shoes of West, instead the countries you came here require such sagacious,
courageous, and bold soul who can point out the blunders made by Europe and
rise above the outlook, attitude and way of life which is plainly against the
teachings of Prophets and Islam.
“You
ought to become masters in the branch of Learning you have come here for, so as
to put them to the service of East and also understand the weaknesses and
ailments from which the West is suffering and which have sapped its moral
strength and vitality of West. You should thus be able to tell your people on
return, how out of shape west has become and bent with age it is likely to fall
away like yellow leaves. Your parents and countries have sent you in west that
having achieved its arts, sciences, and masters of technology Dig a new canal,
which could act as a channel for exchanging the goods and ideas between East
and West on the basis of equality and parity.
“A
channel which could transmit the Wealth of Faith and virtuous life of East to
the West and Harmless material development of West to East. You have not come
here in Europe to be cast on any mould like melting wax. You have come here in
West to build a brand New World, a World that can be built only by Sons and
followers of Syedana Ibrahim (AS) who erected the Edifice of Haram. The world
is calling you today in an anguish “Rise O Architects of Haram/Rise to
Reconstruct World a New.”
Shaikh Masroor
Ahmad quoted a lengthy speech of Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi in his welcoming
address. After the welcoming address by Shaikh Masroor Ahmed, Director Allama
Nadwi Academy, Dr. Ahmad Al-Dubayan, Director General, Islamic Cultural Centre,
welcome again the audience and gave an extensive introduction about Sheikh Syed
Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi.
Dr. Ahmad Al-Dubayan
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 are 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 and 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 words. 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.)
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 19th century India, about Shaheed also. We know from the
writings of Abul Hasan Nadwi about the Revolution of Muslims in the 19th
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 the India. That’s one.”
Special
attention to Arabic language
Speaking about the special attention paid 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 Sheikh Sauks
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 understands 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 20th century, somebody 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 started trying to answer this question.
Starting from Saqib Arsalan 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. Saqib
Arsalan 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: Hadar-e-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. Saqib Arsalan. 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, Maada Khasar al Alam
al-Muslimeen. ‘What has the Muslim lost to them decline of the Islamic
civilisation?’ What has the world lost? or the world loose after the decline of
Islamic civilisation? What happened? He tried to answer the question.”
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.”
Dr.
Khalifa Izzat
After this, Imam Khalifa Izzat of the
Islamic Cultural Centre, London, reviewed one of the books of Syed Abul Hasan
Nadwi and his contributions.
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