The Role and Impact of Shaykh Shakier Gamieldien In
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The role and impact of Shaykh Shakier Gamieldien in the establishment of modern Rational Islam in the Western Cape, with specific reference to his educational endeavours, 1950 - 1996 EGHSAAN BEHARDIEN A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor Philosophy in the Faculty of Education, University of the Western Cape Supervisor: Professor A. Fataar November 2012 ABSTRACT This thesis discusses the impact of modern Rational Islam on the Muslim community of the Western Cape between 1950 and 1996. It is particularly concerned with the role of Shaykh Shakier Gamieldien in establishing and propagating this discourse in the region through the use of education as his means of propagation. The study defines modern Rational Islam as a discourse that emerged as a response to the incursion of modern Western culture into traditional Muslim regions during the 19th Century. The study further reflects on the local conditions in the Western Cape and assesses the progress that modern Rational Islam had made under Gamieldien’s guidance in the period immediately after the Second World War. It investigates the negative impact that the forced removals of the community of District 6 from their urban homes in Cape Town had on Rational Islam who had lived in this area. It explores the emergence of alternative interpretive and discursive tendencies in the Townships and the apathy of the rationalists during this period. Two issues come under critical scrutiny in the thesis in order to provide clarity on the changing strategy used by Rational Islam during period of forced removals. First, the creation of new structures that could be employed for purposes of Islamic education within the rational discourse. The second was its attempt to reach a wider audience because of the destruction of its primary base in District 6. In assessing the impact of Rational Islam on the community of the Western Cape consideration is given to the changing contexts that existed between 1950 and 1996. The thesis examines the effect of the disintegration of the Muslim community and then the emergence of other discursive tendencies in the townships on Rational Islam. It also considers the indirect influence that Gamieldien’s discourse had on the other Islamic discursive tendencies in its assessment of Rational Islam’s impact. The study is based on qualitative research methods, mostly oral interviews with groups of students who studied and worked with Gamieldien as well as with individual informants such as family members, friends and his leading students. This thesis investigates the emergence and impact of Rational Islam in the Western Cape and the contribution made by Shaykh Shakier i Gamieldien in its establishment in this region. It further investigates the role of education as used by Gamieldien as a means of propagating modern Rational Islam as an accepted local Islamic discourse. ii DECLARATION I declare that this thesis, ‘The role and impact of Shaykh Shakier Gamieldien in the establishment of modern Rational Islam in the Western Cape, with specific reference to his educational endeavours, 1950 – 1996’, is my own work, that has not been submitted before for any degree or examination in any other university, and that all the sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged as complete references. Eghsaan Behardien Signed………………………………………….November 2012 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I want to pay tribute to the following person who contributed in a variety of ways to the completion of the thesis: To Professor Aslam Fataar who encouraged me in the first instance to embark on this project and who, as my supervisor continuously encouraged me to work towards its finality even in my darkest hours. I am grateful for the insight and analytical assistance he provided throughout. To my wife, Zubeida, who so unselfishly and with great constance stood by me through the period of research. To my friends and colleagues, Inez, Sam, Sa-eed who listened to and commented on my discussions through the years of my research. To my children Ghaalid, Gouwa, Mogammad Yusrie, Aneesa, Ayesha, and their spouses Rushda, Whalleed, Shaheema and Unis. To my grandchildren Ziyaad, Ameer, Ihsaan and Imrah To my Creator who provided me with the sustenance to complete this work. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract i Declaration iii Acknowledgements iv Table of contents v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2 MODERN RATIONAL ISLAM IN EGYPT 7 2.1 Introduction 7 2.2 Taqlid 8 2.3 Ijtihad 11 2.4 Rational Islam 13 2.5 Shaykh Muhammad Shakier Gamieldien 15 2.6 Al-Azhar University 19 2.7 Rifa’a al Tahtawi 21 2.8 Jamal al Afghani 22 2.9 Muhammad Abduh 22 2.10 Al-Azhar’s Influence on Gamieldien 30 2.11 Gamieldien’s Return to Cape Town 33 2.12 Conclusion 35 CHAPTER 3 LOCALIZATION AND INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MODERN RATIONAL ISLAM IN THE WESTERN CAPE 38 3.1 Introduction 38 3.2 Rational Islam in Cape Town- from international roots to localization 39 3.3 A Project of Transformation 42 3.3.1 Socio-economic conditions in the Western Cape 42 3.3.2 Al-Azhar Mosque in District Six 44 3.3.3 The al-Hidayah Movement 50 v 3.3.4 The al-Hidayah Adult School 56 3.4 The Muslim Judicial Council 61 3.5 Majlisush Shura Al Islami 67 3.6 Assessment 68 3.7 Conclusion 73 CHAPTER 4 THE IMPACT OF THE DESTRUCTION OF DISTRICT 6 ON MODERN RATIONAL ISLAM 75 4.1 Introduction 75 4.2 The Destruction of District 6 78 4.3 A Process of Reconstruction 81 4.4 The Influence of Alternative Religious Tendencies 83 4.4.1 Deobandi movement 83 4.4.2 The Wahhabi movement 86 4.4.3 Fundamentalist Revivalism 88 4.4.4 Islamism in the Western Cape 92 4.5 Majlisush Shura al Islami and the Usuluddin College 95 4.6 Training for Religious Leadership 107 4.7 Interpretive Differences 108 4.8 Conclusion 113 CHAPTER 5 FURTHER INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF MODERN RATIONAL EDUCATION 115 5.1 Introduction 115 5.2 The Training of Potential Religious Leaders 117 5.3 An Analysis of the Tafsir Course 118 5.4 The Teaching of Hadith and the Sunnah 126 5.5 The Teaching of Theology 132 5.6 The Practice of Rational Propagation 137 5.7 Gamieldien’s Understanding of the Quran 141 5.8 Imams and Teachers 143 vi 5.9 The Western Cape in the Early Nineties 147 5.10 Conclusion 153 CHAPTER 6…CONCLUSION 155 6.1 Reflecting on the Emergence of Modern Rational Islam in Egypt 156 6.2 Reflecting on Modern Rational Islam Locally 160 BIBLIOGRAPHY 167 LIST OF INTERVIEWEES 174 vii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This thesis investigates the emergence of Rational Islam in the Western Cape and the contribution made by Shaykh Shakier Gamieldien in its establishment in this region. It is particularly interested in understanding the role of education as a means of propagation pivotal to the establishment of Rational Islam as an accepted local Islamic discourse. The organizing research question of the study is; What was the contribution and impact that Shaykh Shakier Gamieldien made in the development of modern Rational Islam in the Western Cape, with reference to his educational endeavours between 1950 and 1996? The main analytical steps of the theses are; tracing the international roots of Rational Islam and providing an account of its localization as a discursive tendency in the Western Cape; a historical account of Gamieldien’s life as it relates to his understanding of Islam; an attempt to explain his work in the Western Cape, focusing specifically on his educational practices as a means of propagation; a contextual analysis of the social environment in which he worked and the changing nature of this environment; and finally, attempting to provide an analysis of the impact of his work in the Western Cape, giving some attention to competing religious tendencies in the region. Modern Rational Islam emerged during the nineteenth century as a discourse in response to the impact of western modernism on Muslim society. The concept ‘modern Rational Islam’ is used in this thesis to explain this discourse that developed in a number of Muslim countries, in the first instance, as a self-conscious intellectual response to European imperial imposition in Muslim heartlands starting from the eighteenth century and, secondly, the attendant advancement in European science and technology and the rapid transformation in the organization of their societies along rational bureaucratic lines. Muslim discourse in Egypt saw the development of a modern Rational Islamic idiom in response to both impulses. Coterminous but not reducible to broader strategic ideological and political contests of the shape of state formation, a modern rational Islamic idiom was developed in response to the need for Egyptian modernization and development. ‘Rational Islam’ was the Islamic variant that provided the socio-political and religious framework for the Egyptian experiment with modernization. Not fully accepted as a legitimate Islamic discourse, especially opposed by a large section of Egypt’s traditionalists, the 1 Rational Islamic variant began to make an impact on various social sectors such as the establishment of modern government bureaucracies, health services and, importantly educational modernization in aspects of the country’s schooling and university sectors. These developments found intellectual and pragmatic resonance all over the Muslim world. In the Western Cape, it found expression in the theological and pragmatic approaches of Shaykh Shakier Gamieldien who was a student at the then modern reforming Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Here he was trained as an ’alim at a university that was beginning to implement a higher education Islamic curriculum founded on a modern rational Islamic framework.