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, 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.
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 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 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 20th 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.”
