Molana Mohd. Qasim Nanautvi's Contribution to Islamic Thought with Special Reference to Al-Kalam
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Molana Mohd. Qasim Nanautvi's Contribution to Islamic Thought With Special Reference to Al-Kalam THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy IN Islamic Studies BY MOHD. AZAM QASMl Lecturer DEPARTMENT OF ISLAMIC STUDIES ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH [INDIA] 19 8 8 ABSTRACT ABSTRACT The wide range and highly rational and academic scope of his Kalami works remains so far a great challe nge to dedicated study. There are very few among Muslim Scholars much less non-Muslim academicians who know of this fact even. At the completion of this work my genuin feeling is that I have done nothing than having seen and shown the tip of an iceburg. Assessments regarding details may differ but the fact of his being a rational giant and his interpretation of Islamic faith being a harmonious rational whole is indisputable. The Present study has been divided into two parts. The first part deals with the Qur'anic basis and a brief history of 'ilm al-Kalam, followed by a brief survey of Kalami thoughts in India before and during the 18th century. Then comes what is directly related and forms the immediate perspective and the more important part of the study. It includes a closer study of the 19th cen tury with a biographical sketch of Maulana Mohd.Qasim, his Kalami response to missionary challenge, and finally the main features of his Kalami system and classification of his works. The second part is fully devoted to the presen tation of Maulana Nanautvi's system of Al-Kalam. It - 2 comprises of 8 chapters, each with 3 sub-titles (even more at times but these are left un-numbered). Our struggle regarding realistically chapteri- sing this study has been the most painstaking and time-consuming one. For the ultimate scope of Maulana Nanautvi's al-Kalam could not be conveniently determined and realised without proper chapterization. This is so because of the fact that most of his works are devoid of any chapter-wise break-up, proper con tents, titles, sub-titles and paragraphs. This nece ssitated in the first stage extensive notes and studies and then abridgements and summaries in certain cases and detailed list of contents in certain others not to speak of the problems faced due to the brevity of language and style and terminological difficulties while rendering his ideas into English. The second part of this work is not a transla tion of the text. My aim was to transmit the ideas and not to translate the text. Nor it was necessary or advisable either. Thus, if a discussion appeared rather too lengthy, I preferred to abridge that - skipping several lines or pages even - but still keeping strictly to his statement. However, I did not - 3 try to elaborate upon in case an idea seemed to need that. I stopped almost half way his book (Taqrir-e-Dilpazir = T.D.) where his theological al-Kalara came to an end and his philosophical al- Kalam began. Although I have spared not a drop of perspiration/ any omission/ conmission, mistakes or even blunders cannot be ruled out/ and it will be only obliging for me if these are franlcly pointed out. Although the scope of his Kalami thought is much wider if we include in it such of his discussions as time and space, motion and change/ distance and dimension etc. which he deals at length in respect of divine attributes and essence• Nonetheless since these problems are essentially related to philosophy proper and as such deserve to be treated separately/ therefore we have rather confined ourselves to his ' theological al-Kalam' rather than extend this study to his 'philosophical al-Kalam'. We have also left over such discussions in the process as are mainly related to a separate field of al-Kalam/ i.e. compara tive religion, e.g. refutation of Tanasukh (transmigra tion of souls) and sonhood of Jesus Christ. - 4 Kalami thought of Maulana Mohd. Qasim Nanautvi seems to have special relevance to the modern times' academic values of rational view, scientific outlook and objective criticism. Maulana Mohd Qasim is gene rally known as the founder of Darul 'Uloom of Deoband rather than for his intellectual and rational contri bution towards understanding Islam. The present study is an humble effort to determine and bring to the lime light the rational scope of his Kalami thought. The real worth of his Kalami thought lies not only in its rational value/ but greater still in the totality of its harmonious whole. Although his Kalami ideas are scattered in his various works yet the most important/ systematic and complete in this sphere among them is Taqrir-e-Dilpazir and as such it forms the basic source in this study. We have tried our best to derive from his other works and point out in them whereever to relevant discussions. This is, however, perhaps one of the most difficult task in his works for anyone pursuing an in-depth study. It is rather paradoxical to realise that Maulana Mohd. Qasim has been cast to oblivion as much for his - 5 contribution to Islamic thought - particularly al-Kalam - as he is we11-remembered for his foun ding Deoband Institution. One of the reasons, generally stated in the learned circles of Deoband itself for his books remaining un-attended is that the language of his writings is a little too diffi cult for the average scholars even. This, however, is not the fact. Ironically it is the subtle reasoning, scientific approach and the logical sequence of his arguments - revealing in the process the fallacious grounds of certain misconcep tions or distortions, regarding a truth - which are rather discouraging for the escaping attention. Not the language ~ which is fluent, easy and spontaneous in general. Exception may be made of a few places, however, where the brevity of style or abundant use of technical terms seem to-conspire against easy comprehension and fluency of style, particularly in the case of his treatise Ab-e-Hayat or some sections of Taqrir-e-DilpazIr, Hadith al-'Ima and Qibla Numa. Another reason of neglecting his rationalistic genius in outer circles on academic grounds is related to a misconception of the academic worth of his contri- - 6 bution. Generally classed as Munaziranah or pole mical/ his works have been ignored by the less infor med as the product of a debalist environment created by the aggressive Missionaryism and revivalist Hinduism, shaikh Mohd. Ikram writes : "JyJaulana Mohd Qasim did.not live long enough. Whatever time of this borrowed life he was granted/ much of that too was spent in pole mical debates and other commotions. He never had time enough in the true sense of the word to write and compile. The few short exposi tions that he left behind carry a pre-domi- nantly debatist element." The above statement like several other state ments contained in the book about Maulana Mohd Qasim is far from the facts - indicating only an unauthentic and a casual treatment of the subject. As for his writings the Maulana in spite of his rather brief span of life wrote more than 25 books running into over 1500 printed pages - even if we exclude the unprinted 1. Mawj-e-Kauthar/ pp.199-200. - 7 pages as well as his orations and speeches reported by others such as Mubahitha-e-Shah Jahanpur, Brahi-e- Qasmiyyah and Guftugu-e-Madhhabi etc. as we shall shortly see« As regards "Pre-dominantly a debatist element" - the statement reflects a partial truth and technically refers the motivating force only. For in the first place/ the above mentioned and certain other of his books are partially a debater's pride no doubt. For instance/ Intisar al-Islam and Qibla Numa/ written by himself contain replies to 11 objections to Islamic faith and shari'ah raised by Pandit Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaji cult. These books however, are not fully a debater's exposition. Both comprise of two answers to each question, which are in fact two different levels of treating the same subject. The first of each set of answers certainly is in the nature of a 'tit for tat' necessitated by the implies disdain in the question or the inner folly of the objection itself. The second answo: in reality represents a much higher level/ particularly in Qibla Numa .where the debater or polemic is left far below and Muta]<allim par excellent takes over. - 8 Equipped though with a thorough knowledge of Islamic sciences/ the Maulana yet hardly refers an ayah of Qur'an or Hadith of the Prophet in his Kalami expositions. On the other hand/ he builds up his theorization on the basis of inferences drawn ffom his systematic reflections. This is a continued and equally spontaneous process of subtle reasoning - initially difficult to understand but for another charactearistic of his writings : his unique exempli fication and extremely vivid illustrations. To this aspect we shall return shortly after. But to call him Mutakallim is to bring him down from his true and still higher place of the Philosopher of Islamic faith. He is a philosopher not in the general sense of the word, but a philospher who has knit together the ingredients of Islamic faith in a rational whole. No doubt when he spoke or wrote on questions Islamic beliefs in response to some query or challenge/ he appeared a Mutakallim. But when he theorises the issues of Islamic faith one by one into a harmonious whole in the perspective of his broad vision, equitable treatment, piercing mind and above all his surprisingly subtle and yet clear reasoning.