Sir Syed Ahmad Khan – Cover Story Dr. Haider Shah As advocates of rationalism we are often accused that we are the followers of western thinkers. Categorising thinkers and authors on the basis of west, east north or south itself is extremely unfortunate. From time immemorial we see a gradual development of human intellect to which thinkers of all lands have contributed in one way or another. If rationalist thinking can be identified as a discipline we have a rich legacy left behind by our own luminaries in the past. As a way of celebrating the contributions made by intellectual giants of our history we shall be paying tribute to one such thinker in our e-mag issue of The Rationalist. This time Sir Syed Ahmed Khan is our chosen personality. Five dimensions of Sir Syed’s personality are worth considering. One, he was a prolific author with a wide variety of interests that ranged from architecture to theology. Second, he was a community leader who used his position to provide guidance to the Indian Muslim community. Third, he was an employee in the judicial service of East India Company. Fourth, he was a social reformer and an activist and fifth, he was a rationalist who tried to introduce the Indian Muslim community to a new way of thinking about the world around us. The last two dimensions of Sir Syed’s personality are of greater interest to us. Sir Syed’s prominence rests on his role as a social reformer and promoter of a new discourse that centred on rationalism and free thinking. Like all humans he also had his share of imperfections. One can charge Sir Syed of racism and communalism if his speeches made at Lucknow (1887) and Meerut (1888) are keenly examined. In that role he is clearly influenced by his aristocratic family background. In his keynote speeches he advises the Muslim notables not to join political activities of Congress as they would lose their aristocratic privileges in the populist rule aspired by Congress. This kind of discourse was certainly not helpful in promoting political consciousness in an inert Muslim community. Sir Syed can therefore not be seen as an ideal hero to follow in the field of intra-communal relations. Unfortunately, in our syllabus, it is this side of his personality which has been greatly glamorised and presented to unwary students while other more important shades of his personality have been totally concealed. Sir Syed adopted a new logical approach for interpreting Quran. He rejected the generally prevalent argument of blind faith as he argued that in that case we Sir Syed did not restrict his efforts to mere theological issues. He used his pen for social reform purpose as well. He started the journal “Tehzibul Akhlaq” in 1870 soon after returning from England. The journal was used as a vehicle of social change as Sir Syed aimed at reforming social habits of Indian Muslims. ‘‘ COVER STORY The Rationalist October-December 2012 10 would reduce our faith to the same status as of a pagan African tribe. He contended that if we believed in divinity of our religion then we must not be afraid of going through the filter of rationality. Setting out a set of principles of interpretation of Quran he developed his basic paradigm of ‘tafseer’ on the notion of congruence between ‘Work of God’ and ‘Word of God’. The central focus of this argument is that if we believe in creation of the universe by one God then we can say that all laws that govern the universe are the laws of God which can collectively be known as ‘Work of God’. He further contends that as per our belief Quran is the ‘Word of God’. Since the ‘Word’ and ‘Work’ are from the same source therefore there can’t be any conflict between the two. In case of any conflict we can have two possible conclusions. Either the word is not from the creator of the world or that it is but we are unable to interpret the word correctly. In order to purge Muslims’ beliefs system of various irrational streams of thought Sir Syed argued that prophets had to deliver their lessons of morality to illiterate masses of very old times. He was of the view that prophets’ audience comprised illiterate people and men of very ordinary intelligence. Unlike Socrates or Plato who had academies and would discuss philosophical issues with a very learned audience prophets would rather address laymen. Holy Scriptures therefore used the folklore and metaphors to help them understand moral issues in their own language. According to Sir Syed, various stories in Quran should not be literally believed but should be seen as fables for the benefit of illiterate Arabs of those days. It is the responsibility of the educated ones to draw real meanings which can never be in conflict with the ‘Work of God’. Sir Syed did not restrict his efforts to mere theological issues. He used his pen for social reform purpose as well. He started the journal “Tehzibul Akhlaq” in 1870 soon after returning from England. The journal was used as a vehicle of social change as Sir Syed aimed at reforming social habits of Indian Muslims. Of the 459 articles published in the journal 208 were personally written by Sir Syed. Some examples of the topics in the first issue were ‘Pabandi-e-rasm-oriwaj’, ‘azadi-e-rai’,’taleem’ which clearly show that Sir Syed thought that Muslims as a community should not take self-gratifying comfort in being Muslims and instead diagnose their social problems and try to resolve them. It is believed that Sir Syed It is believed that Sir Syed gradually developed his interest in rationalist thinking as he was also a devout believer who like all others reproduced what he was told by his elders or the books he read in his early age. Ghalib seems to have been instrumental in inculcating rationalist thinking in Sir Syed. When asked to write introductory words for his book on ‘Aieen-Akbari’ Ghalib responded with a Persian poem in which he criticised Sir Syed’s reverence for Mughal administration and advised him to learn the British system of Governance. The conformist Sir Syed gradually turned into a pragmatic thinker who not only used his scholarship for creating a new kind of discourse in the Muslim world but also established the first ever educational institution i.e. M.A.O College that later became Aligarh University Sir Syed has been popularised as the founder of two nation theory in our national syllabus. It is high time his real message of rationalism was also shared with the youth of Pakistan. Dr. Haider Shah teaches public policy in a University and is based in UK. He is the founding member of Rationalist Society of Pakistan. He can be reached at hashah9@yahoo
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 13:27:01 +0000
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