Thursday, December 22, 2016

Darul Uloom Deoband’s Fatwa on Maulana Saad Kandhlawi

Due to the letters and questions regarding some of the incorrect ideologies and thoughts and the questionable Bayaans of Janaab Moulana Saad Saheb Kandhelwi received from within the country as well as from beyond, with the signatures of senior Asaatizah Kiraam and the panel of Muftis, an official stance has been taken.

However, before releasing this document, it was brought to our notice that a delegation wishes to come to Darul-Uloom and discuss matters on behalf of Moulana Muhammed Saad Saheb. Hence, the delegation came and delivered the message on behalf of Moulana Muhammed Saad Saheb that he is ready to make Rujoo’ (retract). Therefore, the unanimous stance was sent with the delegation to Moulana Muhammed Saad Saheb. A reply was then received from him, however, Darul-Uloom Deoband was not satisfied with his reply completely, upon which some explanation was sent to Moulana Muhammed Saad Saheb in the form of a letter.
In order to protect the blessed effort of Tableegh started by the Akaabir Ulema of Darul-uloom Deoband from becoming mixed up with incorrect ideologies, to keep it on the pattern of the Akaabir and also in order for its benefit and to keep the reliance of the Ulema-e-Haq upon this effort, it is regarded as a Deeni responsibility to present our unanimous standpoint to the Ahl-e-Madaaris, Ahl-e-Ilm and the unbiased people. May Allah Ta’ala protect this blessed effort in every way and grant all of us the ability to remain ideologically and practically on the path of truth.
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
الحمد لله رب العالمين، والصلاة والسلام على سيد الأنبياء والمرسلين، محمد وآله وأصحابه أجمعين. أما بعد:
Recently a request has been received from many Ulema and Mashaaikh that Dar-uloom Deoband present its stance regarding the ideologies of Moulana Muhammed Saad Saheb khandhelwi. Very recently, letters have been received from the reliable Ulema of Bangladesh and some Ulema from our neighbouring country (Pakistan), together with which various Istiftaas [requests for Fatwas] have come to the Darul-Ifta at Dar-uloom Deoband from within the country.
Without getting involved in the disagreements within the Jamaat and the administrative matters, we wish to say that since the last few years, the ideologies of Moulana Muhammed Saad Saheb khandhelwi were received in the form of letters and Istiftaas. Now, after investigation, it has been proven that, in his Bayaans, incorrect or unfavourable explanation of the Qur’aan and Hadeeth, incorrect analogies and Tafsir bir Ray’ [interpretations based on self-opinion in conflict with Qur’an and Hadith] are found. Some statements amount to disrespect of the Ambiyaa’ (alayhis salaam) whilst many statements are such, wherein he moves beyond the bounds of the majority and Ijmaa’ of the Salaf.
In some Fiqhi matters also, without any basis, he contradicts the unanimous Fatwa of reliable Darul-Iftas and emphasises his new view upon the general people. He also stresses upon the importance of the effort of Tableegh in such a manner that other branches of Deen are criticised and belittled.
The method of doing Tableegh by the Salaf is also opposed, due to which the respect of the Akaabir and Aslaaf is lessened, rather, they are belittled. His conduct is in stark contrast to the previous Zimm-e-Daars of Tableegh, viz; Hazrat Moulana Ilyas Saheb (rahmatullahi alayh), Hazrat Moulana Yusuf Saheb (rahmatullahi alayh) and Hazrat Moulana In’aamul Hasan Saheb (rahmatullahi alayh).
Hereunder are some of the quotations we have received from the Bayaans of Moulana Muhammed Saad Saheb which have been proven to have been said by him:
“ Hazrat Moosa (alayhis salaam) left his nation and went in seclusion to engage in Munaajaat with Allah Ta’aala, due to which 188 000 individuals went astray. The Asl was Moosa (alayhis salaam), he was the Zimme-Daar. The Asl was supposed to remain. Haroon (alayhis salaam) was a helper and partner.”
“Naql-o-Harkat is for the completion and perfection of Taubah. People know of the three conditions of Taubah, they don’t know the fourth. They have forgotten it. What is it? Khurooj! [i.e. coming out specifically for Tabligh]. People have forgotten this condition. A person killed 99 people. He first met a monk. The monk made him despair. He then met an Aalim. The Aalim told him to go to a certain locality. This killer did Khurooj, therefore Allah Ta’aala accepted his Taubah. From this it is understood that Khurooj is a condition of Taubah. Without it, Taubah is not accepted. People have forgotten this condition. Three conditions of Taubah are mentioned. The fourth condition, i.e. Khurooj is forgotten.”
“There is no place for getting Hidaayat except the Masjid. Those branches of Deen where Deen is taught, if their connection is not with the Masjid, then, by the oath of Allah Ta’aala there will be no Deen in it. Yes the Ta’leem of Deen will take place, not Deen.”
(In this quotation, by connection with the Masjid, his intention is not going to perform Salaah in the Masjid. This is because he said this while talking about the importance of the Masjid and talking about Deen only after bringing a person to the Masjid. He said it while speaking about his specific ideology, the details of which is in the audio. His ideology is thus: to speak about Deen outside of the Masjid is contrary to the Sunnah, and contrary to the manner of the Ambiyaa’ (alayhis salaam) and the Sahaabah (radhiyallahu anhum))
“To teach Deen for a wage is to sell Deen. People who commit Zina will enter Jannah before those who teach Qur’aan for a wage.”
“According to me Salaah with a camera phone in ones’ pocket is invalid. Get as many Fatwas as you want from the Ulema. Listening to and reciting Qur’aan on a camera phone is a disgrace to the Qur’aan, there will be no reward for it. A person will be sinful by doing so. No reward will be attained. Because of doing so Allah Ta’aala will deprive one from the ability of practising on the Qur’aan. Those Ulema who give the Fatwa of permissibility in this regard, according to me they are Ulema-e-Soo, Ulema-e-Soo’. Their hearts and minds have become affected by the Christians and Jews. They are completely ignorant Ulema. According to me, whichever Aalim gives the Fatwa of permissibility, by Allah Ta’aala his heart is devoid of the greatness of the Kalaam of Allah Ta’aala. I am saying this because one big Aalim said to me: “What is wrong with it?” I said that the heart of this Aalim is devoid of the greatness of Allah Ta’aala even if he knows Bukhari. Even non-Muslims may know Bukhari.”
“It is Waajib upon every Muslim to read the Qur’aan with understanding it. It is Waajib. It is Waajib. Whoever leaves out this Waajib act will get the sin of leaving out a Waajib act.”
“I am astonished that it is asked: “With whom do you have Islaahi Ta’alluq?” Why is it not said, that my Islaahi Ta’alluq is with this effort? My Islaahi Ta’alluq is with Da’wat. Have Yaqeen that the A’maal of Da’wat is not just enough for reformation, rather, it guarantees reformation. I have contemplated deeply, this is the reason why those involved in the effort do not stay steadfast. I am saddened over those people who sit here and say that six points is not complete Deen. The person who himself says his milk is sour cannot do business. I was completely shocked when one of our own Saathis asked for leave for a month saying that he wanted to spend I’tikaaf in the company of so and so Sheikh. I said that until now you people have not joined Da’wat and Ibaadat. You have spent at least 40 years in Tableegh. After spending 40 years in Tableegh a person says that he wants leave because he wants to go for one month I’tikaaf. I said that the person who requests leave from Da’wat in order to do Ibaadat, how can he improve his Ibaadat without Da’wat? I am saying it very clearly that the difference between the A’maal of Nubuwwat and the A’maal of Wilaayat, the difference is only that of not engaging in Naql-o-Harkat. I am saying it extremely clearly that we do not make Tashkeel to merely go out to learn Deen, because there are other avenues of learning Deen. Why is it necessary to go out in Tableegh only? The object is to learn Deen. Learn in a Madrasah. Learn in a Khaanqah.”
Some quotations from his Bayaans have also been received from which it becomes apparent that Moulana Muhammed Saad Saheb khandhelwi regards the vast meaning of Da’wat to be confined to the current form present in the Tableegh Jamaat. Only this form is expressed as the manner of the Ambiyaa’ (alayhis salaam) and the Sahaabah (radhiyallaahu anhum). Only this specific form is regarded to be Sunnah and the effort of the Ambiyaa’ (alayhis salaam), whereas it is the unanimous viewpoint of the majority of the Ummah that Da’wah and Tableegh is a universal command, regarding which the Shariah has not stipulated any specific form, which, if left out, will equate to leaving out the Sunnah.
In different eras Da’wat and Tableegh took on different forms. In no era was the divine command of Da’wat completely ignored. After the Sahaabah (radhiyallahu anhum), the Taabi’een, Tab-e-Taabi’een, A’immah Mujtahideen, Fuqahaa’, Muhadditheen, Mashaaikh, Awliyaa’ of Allah and in recent times our Akaabir made an effort in different ways to bring Deen alive on a global scale.
In order to maintain brevity we have only mentioned a few things. Besides these, many other points have been received that go beyond the scope of the Jumhoor Ulema and have taken the shape of a new ideology. These things being incorrect is very apparent, therefore, a detailed treatise is not required here.
Before this, on numerous occasions, attention was drawn to this in the form of letters sent from Darul-Uloom Deoband. It was also brought to the attention of the delegations from “Bangla Wali Masjid” on the occasion of the Tableeghi Ijtimaa’. To date no reply to the letters was received.
Jamaat-e-Tableegh is a purely Deeni Jamaat, which cannot be left to operate in a manner that is ideologically and practically apart from the majority of the Ummah and the Akaabir (rahmatullahi alayhim). The Ulema-e-Haq can never be unanimous nor can they adopt silence over disrespect to the Ambiyaa’ (alayhis salaam), deviant ideologies, Tafsir Bir Raay and whimsical explanation of the Ahaadeeth and Aathaar, because, these types of ideologies will later on cause the entire group to deviate from the path of truth as has happened to some Deeni and Islaahi Jamaats.
This is why we consider it our Deeni responsibility to inform the Ummah in general and the Tableeghi brothers specifically in light of these points that:-

Moulana Muhammed Saad Saheb khandhelwi Saheb, due to a lack of knowledge has strayed from the path of the majority of the Ulema of the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jamaa’ah in his ideologies and his explanation of Qur’aan and Hadeeth, which is undoubtedly the path of deviation. Therefore, silence cannot be adopted regarding these matters, because, even though these ideologies are those of a single person, they are spreading with great speed among the general masses.
The influential and accomplished Zimme-Daars of Jamaat who are moderate and composed also wish to turn our attention that an effort needs to be made that this Jamaat which was established by the Akaabir be kept upon the pattern of the majority of the Ummah and that of the previous Zimme-Daars. An effort also needs to made so that the incorrect ideologies of Molvi Saad that have spread amongst the general masses may be rectified. If immediate action is not taken, there is fear that a great portion of the Ummah, which is affiliated to the Tableegh Jamaat will succumb to deviance and take on the form of a Firqah Baatilah.
We all make Du’aa that Allah Ta’aala protect this Jamaat and keep the Jamaat-e-Tableegh alive and flourishing with Ikhlaas upon the manner of the Akaabir. Aameen. Thumma Aameen.
Note: These types of inappropriate statements were made previously by some individuals connected to the Tableegh Jamaat, upon which the Ulema of that time, for example, Hazrat Sheikhul Islam (rahmatullahi alayh) etc. cautioned them after which those individuals desisted from such statements. Now, however, the Zimme-Daars [i.e. the leaders of Tabligh Jama’at] themselves are saying such things, rather, even worse things are being said, as is apparent from the above quotations. They were cautioned, however, they did not heed the caution, due to which this decision and Fatwa is being approved, in order to save the people from deviance.
[END OF STATEMENT FROM DARUL ULOOM DEOBAND]
The original Urdu version is available at this link:
http://www.darulifta-deoband.com/home/ur/Dawah–Tableeg/147286
THE KUFR IDEOLOGY OF MOLVI SA’D  (Detailed Analysis by Majlisul Ulama)
QUESTION: Maulana Sa’d of the Tablighi Jamaat, had in a bayaan made some serious claims which have caused some consternation and confusion. Kindly listen to his bayaan and guide us. Are the views expressed by him in conformity with the belief of the Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jama’ah? He claimed: 
1. Khurooj (emerging and travelling in Tabligh) is the Asal (actual objective). He basis his view on the Hadith of Hadhrat Ubay Bin Ka’b (Radhiyallahu anhu).
2. Allah and His Rasool are displeased with those who do not make khurooj in Tabligh.
3. The greatest calamity of this age is that Muslims do not consider it a crime to abstain from khurooj.
4. Hidaayat is not in the Hands of Allah Ta’ala. He had therefore sent the Ambiya to impart Hidaayat.
5. Hidaayat is the effect of mehnet (effort). People had received hidaayat because of the mehnet of the Ambiya.
6. The Ambiya did not spread hidaayat with their tawajjuh and roohaaniyat.  
ANSWER 
Ghulu’ (nafsaani extremism) is a satanic affliction bringing bid’ah and even kufr in its wake. A person suffering from the affliction of ghulu’ disgorges any rubbish without applying his mind and without reflecting on the consequences of his stupidities.  
Molvi Sa’d is guilty of ghulu’ (haraam extremism). Unfortunately, the Tabligh Jamaat in general has slipped into ghulu’.  He believes that the specific methodology of the Tabligh Jamaat is Waajib whereas it is not so. The Tabligh Jamaat’s method is mubah (permissible), and will remain mubah as long as ghulu’ and bid’ah do not overtake and destroy the Jamaat by deflecting it from its original path. 
He is confusing or intentionally misusing the Jihaad campaigns of the Sahaabah with the Tabligh Jamaat’s specific methodology, especially of its ‘khurooj’ method. He is equating Tabligh Jamaat khurooj to the Khurooj of the Sahaabah whose Khurooj was for JihaadQitaal –  to subjugate the lands of the kuffaar and to open and prepare the way for the conversion of the kuffaar nations of the world.  In contrast, the methodology of the Tabligh Jamaat excludes non-Muslims. Its field of activity is limited to Muslims. While there is nothing wrong with this, it is wrong and not permissible to find a basis for the specific method of the Tabligh Jamaat in the Jihaad campaigns of the Sahaabah. There is no resemblance. The analogy is fallacious. There is no resemblance between the Tabligh Jamaat’s khurooj and the Jihaad campaigns of the Sahaabah. The Tabligh Jamaat’s khurooj groups do not encounter a thousandth of the hardships, dangers and trials which the Sahaabah had to face and bear in their Jihaad campaigns. The Tabligh Jamaat’s khurooj groups move and live in comfort and even luxury.
The claim that Allah and His  Rasool are displeased with those who do not make khurooj in  Tabligh, is a monstrous lie  fabricated on Allah Ta’ala and  Rasulullah (Sallallahu  alayhi  wasallam). Did Molvi Sa’d receive  wahi with which he could back  up his preposterous falsehood?   This contumacious claim comes within the purview of the Hadith:
“He who intentionally speaks a lie on me, should prepare his abode in the Fire.”  
His ghulu’ has constrained him  to disgorge this haraam flotsam. The baseless premises on which  he has raised this palpable falsehood is that the only method of tabligh is the Tabligh Jamaat’s methodology. Allah Ta’ala and  Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi  wasallam) are not displeased  with anyone who does not adopt the methods of the Tabligh Jamaat.Sa’d has absolutely no Shar’i evidence for substantiating his preposterous claim of ghulu’.
His claim: The greatest calamity  of this age is that Muslims do not consider it a crime to abstain  from khurooj, is nafsaani drivel disgorged without applying  the  mind. The greatest calamity of the Ummah is gross disobedience fisq, fujoor, bid’ah and even kufr.  This is the actual cause for the  fall and disgrace of the Ummah,  not non-participation in Tabligh  Jamaat activities. The Shariah has not ordained Tabligh Jamaat  participation as an obligation.    The Jamaat’s specific methodology is mubah as long as it is not disfigured with ghulu’  and  bid’ah. Presenting it as ‘waajib’  and even ‘fardh ain’, is ultimately  destroy the dangerous. This ghulu’ will original Tabligh  Jamaat. It will then become a deviant sect. With the Sa’d character, the process of deviation has gained much momentum. The Tabligh Jamaat elders have the incumbent obligation of arresting the slide of the Jamaat into deviation. 
His claim: Hidaayat is not in the Hands of Allah Ta’ala. He had therefore sent the Ambiya to impart Hidaayat is tantamount to kufr. This is the most dangerous of Sa’d’s claims. He is clearly espousing an entirely new concept of kufr. The Qur’aan Majeed is replete with aayaat which categorically state that Hidaayat comes from only Allah Ta’ala. Some random Qur’aanic aayaat follow to show the gross and dangerous deviation which Sa’d has introduced under cover of the Tabligh Jamaat.  
(a) “Verily you (O Muhammad!) cannot give hidaayat to those whom you love. But Allah gives hidaayat to whomever He wills, and He knows best who are to be guided.”  
This Aayat explicitly negates the ability of granting hidaayat from Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam). 
(b) “And, We have  guided them (given them hidaayat) to Siraatul Mustaqeem. This is Allah’s Huda (guidance/hidaayat) with which He guides whomever He wills from His servants.  [Al-An’aam, Aayat 89]      
It is Allah, Alone who provides hidaayat.
(c) “If Allah had willed, then they would not have committed shirk. And, We did not make you (O Muhammad!) a protector over them nor are you over them a guard.”      
The obligation of the Nabi (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) was to only deliver the Message – the Deen. Providing hidaayat was beyond the capability of the Ambiya, hence the Qur’aan repeatedly instructs them to say: “Upon us is only to deliver the Clear Message.”  
(d) “Thus, Allah leads astray whomever He wills, and He guides (gives hidaayat) to whomever He wills.”  [Ibraaheem, Aayat 4] 
(e) “Therefore, on the Messengers it is only the Clear Delivery (of the Deen) Verily, We have sent for every Ummat a Rasool so that they (their people) worship Allah and abstain from (worshipping) the devil. Thus, from them are those whom Allah guided, and among them are those upon whom dhalaal (the deviation of kufr) has been confirmed.”  [An-Nahl, Aayats 35 and 36] 
(f)  “(Even) if you (O Muhammad!)  ardently desire that they be guided, then too, verily Allah does not guide those whom He has caused to go astray, and for them there is no helper.”  [An-Nahl] 
(g) “If  Allah had so wished, He would have made you all one Ummah, but He misleads whoever He wills and He guides whomever He wills.”  [An-Nahl, Aayat 93]
(h) “And, if your Rabb had willed, He would have made all mankind one Ummah, then they would not have differed.”  [Hood, Aayat 118] 
(i) “If Allah had willed, He would have gathered them on guidance. Therefore never be among the jaahileen (believing that you can guide them all).”  [An-Aaam, Aayat 35] 
(j) “Whomever Allah wishes, He leads him astray, and whomever He wishes, he establishes him on Siraat-e-Mustaqeem.”  [An-Aaam, Aayat 39] 
(k) “If Allah had so desired, they would not have committed shirk. And, We did not make you (O Muhammad!) a guard over them, nor are you for them a protector.” [An-Aam, Aayat 107] 
(l) “If He had willed, then most certainly He would have guided you all.”   (An-Aam,  Aayat 150) 
(m) “If your Rabb had desired, then all people on earth would have accepted Imaan. What! Do you want to compel people until they become Mu’mineen?” [Yoonus, Aayat 99]
(n) “And, whomever Allah misleads, there will be no guide forhim.”  [Ra’d, Aayat 33]
The aforementioned are merely  some Qur’aanic Aayaat chosen at  random for the edification of  Molvi Sa’d. The Qur’aan, replete with Aayaat of this kind,  categorically confirms that Hidaayat is a prerogative  exclusively of Allah Azza Wa Jal. Hidaayat is in entirety reliant on Allah Ta’ala, NOT on mehnet (effort) as Molvi Sa’d contends. Apportioning Hidaayat  to human beings is ordained by Allah Ta’ala. It is not the effect of the effort of the Ambiya, and to a greater extent not the effect of mehnet of the Tabligh Jamaat. 
While all people are required to  strive and struggle in whatever occupation/profession they are  involved, the end result, its success or failure, is the decree  of Allah Azza Wa Jal. Thus, a man  makes mehnet in the quest of his  Rizq; in the quest of Knowledge,  and in many other pursuits. But  the final result is Allah’s decree.  The Rizq we received is not on  account of our effort. It is not  permissible, and it is nugatory of  Imaan to believe that the  consequences of Taqdeer are  reliant on personal and not on  Divine Directive.
The Qur’aan repeatedly declares  that Hidaayat effort, is Allah’s prerogative, not the effect of the was mehnet of the Ambiya. If mehnet is the criterion and imperative requisite for Hidaayat, Rasulullah’s uncle Abu Talib,  Hadhrat Nooh’s wife and son, Hadhrat Loot’s wife, Hadhrat  Ibraaheem’s father and innumerable others closely  associated with the Ambiya would not have perished as kuffaar.
They would all have acquired the treasure of Imaan as a direct  effect of the supreme Ambiya.  Thus, Sa’d’s contention that mehnet of the Hidaayat is not in  the control of Allah Azza Wa Jal  is blatant kufr. He must renew his Imaan. It is haraam for the Tabligh Jamaat elders to tolerate such a deviate within the ranks of the Jamaat.  
Molvi Sa’d with his jahaalat, pivots hidaayat on mehnet (struggle/striving). This is a capital blunder which is the effect of ignorance. If the basis of hidaayat was mehnet, then his argument will imply that Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) had, nauthubillah, failed in his duty of mehnet because there were many who did not accept Imaan despite all the efforts of Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam). And the same ‘failure’ stemming from the kufr view of Sa’d, will apply to all the Ambiya.  
On the death occasion of his beloved uncle, Abu Taalib, Rasulullah (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) pleaded with all his heart in the effort to guide his uncle. But Abu Talib rebuffed Rasulullah’s mehnet, and died without Imaan. Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) spared no effort – he left no stone unturned in his mehnet to guide people. But, many remained mushrikeen and rebuffed all his efforts. It is palpably clear that hidaayat is not the consequence of the muballigh’s mehnet. It is the effect of Allah’s Will. He guides whomever He wills. The Qur’aan is categorical in this averment. 
This Sa’d character is incapable of understanding even simple Qur’aanic aayaat and the facts of reality. The Nabi was Allah’s Messenger. His duty was to only discharge the obligation of delivering the message of Allah Ta’ala. Hence the Qur’aan repeatedly instructs the Ambiya to say: “Upon us is to only deliver the Message.”  
The Maqsood is not mehnet. The Maqsood (Objective) is to discharge the obligation with which the Bandah has been entrusted. Whether a person will be guided or not, is beyond the control and ability of the muballigh. Hidaayat is the prerogative of Allah Ta’ala. 
Molvi Sa’d claims that the deception of Muslims is their belief that change in the Ummah will occur by way of the spiritual state (Roohaaniyat) of the Auliya. This is obviously wishful thinking and the charge is false. No one entertains this idea. It is merely Sa’d’s hallucination. The Ummah’s condition will change only if Muslims obey Allah’s Shariat whether they make Tablighi Jamaat type of khurooj or not. The Ummah’s rotten state is not because Muslims do not participate in Tabligh Jamaat activities. It is because of the flagrant transgression of fisq, fujoor, bid’ah and kufr in which the Ummah is sinking.  
Abstention from Tabligh Jamaat activities is not sinful. Participation is not Waajib. Non-participation in Tabligh Jamaat activities never was the cause of the fall and humiliation of the Ummah. In fact, the Ummah had scraped the dregs of the barrel of disgrace and degeneration many centuries before the birth of the Tabligh Jamaat.   
The Khurooj during the era of the Salf-e-Saaliheen and even thereafter was always only for the purpose of Jihaad – Qitaal Fi Sabeelillaah. There never ever was mass khurooj for tabligh. While khurooj for tabligh is permissible and meritorious, it is not Waajib and the idea of it being waajib is haraam ghulu’ which culminates in Sa’d type dhalaal and kufr.  Applying to the Tabligh Jamaat activities the narrations which relate explicitly to Jihaad, is dangerous deviation. The thawaab of tabligh –i.e. tabligh of any method, not of only the Tabligh Jamaat, is immense. But to mislead the masses by presenting the Jihaad narrations as if they apply to the specific methodology of the Tabligh Jamaat is not permissible. It is a fabrication for which there is no basis in the Shariah
Molvi Sa’d’s istidlaal from Hadhrat Ka’b’s Hadith is utterly baseless. His interpretation of the Hadith is baseless and erroneous. He is gumraah (astray) and leading others into gumraahi. Firstly, his claim that Khurooj whether it is khurooj in actual Jihad, or khurooj for Tabligh Jamaat activity, is the asal (i.e. actual objective), is manifestly baatil, baseless and corrupt. The objective of Jihaad is I’laa Kalimatullah for the sole purpose of gaining Allah’s Pleasure. This is the Asal, not khuroojKhurooj is merely a method for the acquisition of the Asal. But, Sa’d has placed the cart in front of the horse. 
The displeasure incurred by Hadhrat Ka’b (Radhiyallahu anhu) for failure to participate in the specific Jihad campaign of Tabook, was ‘disobedience’. He had failed to observe the command to emerge. He had unilaterally without valid reason decided to remain behind. This was his error for which Rasulullah (Sallallahu alayhi wasallam) had ordered the boycott. 
Furthermore, Hadhrat Ka’b’s error pertained to Khurooj related to actual JihaadQitaal fi Sabeelillaah. It was not a khurooj for the specific method of tabligh which the Tabligh Jamaat had innovated some decades ago.  If Sa’d’s logic is to be accorded  any credibility and validity, it will  follow that the Hadhrat Ka’b’s  failure to make Khurooj consequences of should be  extended to all those who refuse  to make khurooj for Tabligh  Jamaat activity. The logical result  would be to boycott the almost  3 billion Muslims of this era who  not only do not participate in  Tabligh Jamaat khurooj,  but they  also deny  the essentiality  of participation in the specific methodology of the Tabligh Jamaat.
A grave error of the Tabligh Jamaat is the predication  of all the Jihaad narrations to their specific method of tabligh, whilst there is absolutely no  affinity between the Tabligh  Jamaat and Jihaad, i.e. the type  of Jihaad of the Sahaabah.  Whilst the absence of this affinity is not sinful, the appropriation of  the Hadith narrations pertaining  to Jihaad is inappropriate and  not permissible. The Tabligh  Jamaat has as its goal the  reformation of Imaan and the impartation of the basic teachings of the Deen. Qitaal in our era for  the  acquisition of  these  fundamental requisites is not a condition as it was during the era  of the Sahaabah. Qitaal was imperative to subjugate the lands of the kuffaar for removing the obstacles in the path of  establishing the Deen. But this  method of Qitaal does not form  part of the Tabligh While  the  Tabligh Jamaat’s methodology. Jamaat may not be criticized for  this, the criticism for misusing the Jihaad narrations is valid.
Molvi Sa’d’s claim:“In this age  people do not regard as a crime and a sin reduction in  emerging  in the Tabligh Jamaat’s way  (of khurooj).”, is another stupid  fallacy. There is no Shar’i basis  for believing that it is a crime and sinful to refrain from the specific khurooj methodology of the  Tabligh Jamaat. Sa’d has no  affinity with the Ilm of the Deen,  hence he acquits himself as do  the juhala, disgorging just any  drivel of his nafs.
He presents the fallacious analogy of gheebat,  speaking lies, theft, zina and riba  in his ludicrous attempt to liken  the so-called ‘sin and crime’ of  non-participation in Tabligh Jamaat khurooj the  aforementioned kabeerah sins.
This is a monstrous lie fabricated  against the Shariah. The major  sins of zinariba, liquor, etc.  are substantiated by Nusoos of  the Qat’i category, while the  contention of abstaining from Tabligh Jamaat khurooj being a crime and a sin is the horrid  product of corrupt personal opinion stemming from ghulu’.   
He finds fault with those who say  that it is sinful to indulge in zina,  liquor and gheebat, but not  sinful to abstain from the Tabligh Jamaat khurooj. This haraam  opinion is scandalously baatil. Sa’d’s ideology is scandalous. He constitutes a grave danger for proper functioning of the Tabligh  Jamaat. The deviation from the  Jamaat’s original principals  bodes evil for the Tabligh Jamaat. It is Waajib for the elders of the  Tabligh Jamaat to eradicate the evil and eliminate the rot which  is gnawing at the foundations of the Jamaat.

source : another Blog

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Monumental Stupidity called Demonetization




This sinner was in a conference at the Physics Department of the Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. My better half, that is the fashionable euphamism for wife, received a hectic call from her sister around nine pm on November 8, 2016. The Prime Minister of India, Mr Narendra Modi, had declared that the highest denomination currency notes, Rs 500 and Rs 1000, will no longer be legal tender.

The great demonetization juggernaut of India rolled out. And brought India to a near stand still and the condensation continues unabated. Here are few of the current head lines.

Things are getting worse : Vegetable Venders (Indian Express, December 19, 2016)
Demonetization to Effect Foreign students (Forbes)
India's Demonetization Debacle (Wall Street Journal)
Demonetization Shows India's Parliamentary Oversight Failure (Asia Times)
Impact of Demonetization Fiasco (Forbes)
All Pain, No Gain : India's Failed Demonetization (Coin Telegraph)
Currency Demonetization Hits India's Mobile Sales (PC World)
Cure Worse Than Disease (Forbes)

India's abrupt demonetization 'seems completely silly'
(Deutsche Welle)
India's Botched War on Cash (Harvard Business Review)
Man Made Disaster (Forbes)
And on and on.

If you wanted a worse CV you would be hard pressed.

The intended purpose was to leave the the corrupt people, hording literally tons of cash in their houses, with useless paper in their hands.

It did not work. Plus negative effects have already been serious enough to stop talking of gains.

Prime Minister's home state of Gujrat (remember that?) was top most in googling about how to convert black money into white.

Since no one was ready for the sudden shock we can suppose that internet was not of much help to the corrupt.

They themselves were of immense help for themselves.
Bank managers must have made a fortune by dispensing the new currency to the corrupt.
There have been about fifty arrents of people with huge amounts of new currency with them.
Millions and billions of rupees, incredible as it may sound.
All of these people happened to be from BJP, Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People's Party), the ruling party.

What must have happened is the following. The black money don walks upto the bank manager. Hands him over the old currency. Walks away with new currency, minus the manager's commission. That commission could begin with ten and end up with thirty or more. But less than fifty. Fifty was government rate. This fifty percent government commission was one of the umpteen `micro'-management measures implemented by the government to control the fall out of the demonetization measure.

Clearly the `greedy' black money don who did not want to depart with fifty percent of his `hard' earned money had to go through another hardship because the government, or the RBI, the Reserve Bank of India, the monetary authority, was clamping down on managers who must have already made their fortunes. The dons simply hired large number of common people to deposit a quarter of a million rupees each in their account to change old currency into new. This too with the range of ten to thirty percent commission.

This ended in obscenely long queues out side the banks - who could differentiate between the genuininely suffering cashless populace from the minions of the black money dons?

Of course neither the RBI nor the government was sleeping. They issues rule number 9584 that accounter that deposited about quarter of a milllion after demonetization move will be frozen.

India in the meantime came to a stand still, a slow death. First thing to dry was the kitchen cash. Then came the supply sector. The truck drivers ran out of the teb rupee notes they had to give to the policeman at every corner to pass through populated areas and at the hundred rupee notes to have a meal on the cheap road side hotel and the five hundred rupee notes to give at the tolls. Government intitially focussed on printing Rs 2000 note. No one had the change to return after small purchase.

Then the goverment discovered cashless economy. Use PayTM and debit and credit cards and use e-commerce, they said. Strange in a country where all of these things comined account for a miniscule of economy.

It was weeks before the RBI governor could be seen in public and talking about the problems that brought India to a halt.
It turned out that he was all the time in the know. In fact he was amongst the few who were trusted by the Prime Minister. The RBI Governor, Mr Urjit Patel, happens to be a Gujrati, just like the Prime Minister. The chemistry was so designed that the most effective people in the task force that was supervising the move were from that state and they would talk in Gujrati. whatever synergy it might have created was not enough to ease the pain of the common people, industry, economy, finance and business. News from big industry is yet to filter in.

By now about hundred fifty people have died either in queues or because of the stress generated by demonetization. Most of the India is functioning on credit. Banks are dispensing only that money that the traders have been depositing from their greatly reduced volumes of trading.

The Primie Minister intially thought it would be over in few days. One wonders what the task force saw and analysed to miss such a long term debacle. Then he asked for fity days. Then his finance minister informed the public about the grand news that the things will be alright in a quarter or two. Paul Krugman gave a very caliberated, cautious and controlled non-assessment. ( Thanks for the concern Nobel Laureate.)

Private banks intially gave the allowed Rs 24000 to their customers at the first come first serve basis and these were the first ones to go dry. Queues were the longest on State Bank of India counters. They initially dispensed Rs 10000 per customer but very quickly came down to Rs 2000. Queues became longer. ATMs, that had the country wide initial problems of caliberation for new curreny, soon went cashless. The bank staff would move around and try to put cash in the ATM randomly and very quickly the first three or four people will drain the precious Rs 15000, the total in the ATM, for all of them are now moving with multiple credit cards - largest one reported was a man with 24 ATM cards. The customer code is written in the form of a telephone number of ten digits. Which four numbers are the real code is of course known only to the bearer.

The BJP goons, these are called Bhakts in India today, the devotees, intimidated anyone in the queue who tried to complain about the demonetization pain and sorrow. Sorrow for there have been heart rending episodes of people ending their lives for want of cash.

One of the much touted goals of demonetization was to control terrorism. How does that come into picture? Easy-peasy. Pakistan was sending terrorists into India with counterfeit currency. The new currency would put an end to that sabotage of Indian currency.


Source : MuftiSays

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Latest on Syria

Has the ennui set in about Syria?

People are still suffering.

Here is an update by Abdullah Andlusi.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

27 Life Changing Books

I have written a lot about a friend, late Dr Farhan Mujib, on this blog. Once, while browsing books in a section of the Maulana Azad Library of the Aligarh Muslim University, he said that Maripat don't you think that one I shall get a book that will change my life. He had spoken the truth. I was always looking for such a book. I did not know that the same was the case with him.

Only much later I realized that the most relevant book in that category is the Noble Qur'an. I also did not know that any other book will be far behind of the divine revelation. These two points must be kept in mind before exploring the type of lists that this blog post is about.

Such lists are not entirely useless. These do serve a purpose but your grounding in Islam must be strong enough before you can take optimum advantage of such offerings.

For the moment I offer my views of the books in the linked list - 27 books that can change your life for ever.

 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy

 This book at the moment has 4223 customer reviews on Amazon. That says a lot about a book. It is a Pulitzer Prize winning book that also was classified as a notable book by the New York Times. It is about how a father an son duo face life in war ravaged America when the civilization is destroyed and lawless bands prowl.


America is just five centuries old for us and it has gathered in that small duration of time enormous amount of experience that it aspires to dominate the human social psyche. Hence every experience from there is supposed to be ultimate and the last word in that walk of life about which they choose to talk. Muslim experience never comes to their radar, same for Indian experience or Asian experience. Even European experience is a second grade loser. They certainly assert universality for their experience combined with superiority. their universality is tempered by the fact that they borrowed orientalist mindset about the Muslim world from Europe. Their superiority is their own biased construct.

Moreover the US is superpower in an advance state of decline. Keeping that in mind we can always have a look at their experience. They had no right to dominate the world for half a century but the fact remains that they did. Even today we do not have a substitute for what they have been. For a 2006 book the present novel is hugely successful. On my part I do not wish to change my life for ever on the basis of a depressing narrative of devastation even if it full of love's dedication and the narrative is lyrical.


The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff

This one has more than five hundred Amazon reviews. Not bad at all. Tao of Something can be taken as a synonymous of Secrets of Something. It is about Chinese wisdom. As seen by the west. You see the west is so magnanimous. They are ready to take wisdom even if it lies with Asia, including China. Of course Islam is a big no.

So what is the wisdom here?

Well there are calculating people amongst us. Like the Rabbit.
Then there are Piglets amongst us who hesitate. You see what a disarming and charming way to call you a pig.
Then there Eeyores who fret.
Owls amongst us pontificate.

But the day is saved by Winnie-the-Pooh who just is.

So just be.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 

In War and Peace Leo Tolstoy destroyed the historical process for us.

Whatever you do historically it becomes irrelevant very soon.

In Anna Karenina he makes an argument for being moral and better person. 

We know Immanuel Kant told us that morality is good in itself.

But this does not take us much farther. Purposeless morality is blind. You need Islam to give direction to your life.

Nonchalant About World

Are you nonchalant about the worldly blessings?

To some extant I am. But it is very difficult to be that.
Mostly people are not.

What is the ideal or the optimal or the practical or the pragmatic level of nonchalance? My personal impression is that tis can be decided experimentally.
Make effort for worldly blessings and then see how much He gives you.

Theologically we know the answer. Apart from a place to live, clothes to wear and a dry bread to eat a believer has no rights. That, of course, is scary. It is more so because we simply do not pay due attention to demands that Islam makes on our attitudes. I, for one, feel ever so lonely in these matters.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Thus Wrote Lord Macaulay

Minute by the Hon'ble T. B. Macaulay,

Dated the 2nd February 1835.
 
        [1] As it seems to be the opinion of some of the gentlemen who compose the Committee of Public Instruction that the course which they have hitherto pursued was strictly prescribed by the British Parliament in 1813 and as, if that opinion be correct, a legislative act will be necessary to warrant a change, I have thought it right to refrain from taking any part in the preparation of the adverse statements which are.now before us, and to reserve what I had to say on the subject till it should come before me as a Member of the Council of India.
        [2] It does not appear to me that the Act of Parliament can by any art of contraction be made to bear the meaning which has been assigned to it. It contains nothing about the particular languages or sciences which are to be studied. A sum is set apart "for the revival and promotion of literature, and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories." It is argued, or rather taken for granted, that by literature the Parliament can have meant only Arabic and Sanscrit literature; that they never would have given the honourable appellation of "a learned native" to a native who was familiar with the poetry of Milton, the metaphysics of Locke, and the physics of Newton; but that they meant to designate by that name only such persons as might have studied in the sacred books of the Hindoos all the uses of cusa-grass, and all the mysteries of absorption into the Deity. This does not appear to be a very satisfactory interpretation. To take a parallel case: Suppose that the Pacha of Egypt, a country once superior in knowledge to the nations of Europe, but now sunk far below them, were to appropriate a sum for the purpose "of reviving and promoting literature, and encouraging learned natives of Egypt," would any body infer that he meant the youth of his Pachalik to give years to the study of hieroglyphics, to search into all the doctrines disguised under the fable of Osiris, and to ascertain with all possible accuracy the ritual with which cats and onions were anciently adored? Would he be justly charged with inconsistency if, instead of employing his young subjects in deciphering obelisks, he were to order them to be instructed in the English and French languages, and in all the sciences to which those languages are the chief keys?
        [3] The words on which the supporters of the old system rely do not bear them out, and other words follow which seem to be quite decisive on the other side. This lakh of rupees is set apart not only for "reviving literature in India," the phrase on which their whole interpretation is founded, but also "for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories"-- words which are alone sufficient to authorize all the changes for which I contend.
        [4] If the Council agree in my construction no legislative act will be necessary. If they differ from me, I will propose a short act rescinding that I clause of the Charter of 1813 from which the difficulty arises.
        [5] The argument which I have been considering affects only the form of proceeding. But the admirers of the oriental system of education have used another argument, which, if we admit it to be valid, is decisive against all change. They conceive that the public faith is pledged to the present system, and that to alter the appropriation of any of the funds which have hitherto been spent in encouraging the study of Arabic and Sanscrit would be downright spoliation. It is not easy to understand by what process of reasoning they can have arrived at this conclusion. The grants which are made from the public purse for the encouragement of literature differ in no respect from the grants which are made from the same purse for other objects of real or supposed utility. We found a sanitarium on a spot which we suppose to be healthy. Do we thereby pledge ourselves to keep a sanitarium there if the result should not answer our expectations? We commence the erection of a pier. Is it a violation of the public faith to stop the works, if we afterwards see reason to believe that the building will be useless? The rights of property are undoubtedly sacred. But nothing endangers those rights so much as the practice, now unhappily too common, of attributing them to things to which they do not belong. Those who would impart to abuses the sanctity of property are in truth imparting to the institution of property the unpopularity and the fragility of abuses. If the Government has given to any person a formal assurance-- nay, if the Government has excited in any person's mind a reasonable expectation-- that he shall receive a certain income as a teacher or a learner of Sanscrit or Arabic, I would respect that person's pecuniary interests. I would rather err on the side of liberality to individuals than suffer the public faith to be called in question. But to talk of a Government pledging itself to teach certain languages and certain sciences, though those languages may become useless, though those sciences may be exploded, seems to me quite unmeaning. There is not a single word in any public instrument from which it can be inferred that the Indian Government ever intended to give any pledge on this subject, or ever considered the destination of these funds as unalterably fixed. But, had it been otherwise, I should have denied the competence of our predecessors to bind us by any pledge on such a subject. Suppose that a Government had in the last century enacted in the most solemn manner that all its subjects should, to the end of time, be inoculated for the small-pox, would that Government be bound to persist in the practice after Jenner's discovery? These promises of which nobody claims the performance, and from which nobody can grant a release, these vested rights which vest in nobody, this property without proprietors, this robbery which makes nobody poorer, may be comprehended by persons of higher faculties than mine. I consider this plea merely as a set form of words, regularly used both in England and in India, in defence of every abuse for which no other plea can be set up.
        [6] I hold this lakh of rupees to be quite at the disposal of the Governor-General in Council for the purpose of promoting learning in India in any way which may be thought most advisable. I hold his Lordship to be quite as free to direct that it shall no longer be employed in encouraging Arabic and Sanscrit, as he is to direct that the reward for killing tigers in Mysore shall be diminished, or that no more public money shall be expended on the chaunting at the cathedral.
        [7] We now come to the gist of the matter. We have a fund to be employed as Government shall direct for the intellectual improvement of the people of this country. The simple question is, what is the most useful way of employing it?
        [8] All parties seem to be agreed on one point, that the dialects commonly spoken among the natives of this part of India contain neither literary nor scientific information, and are moreover so poor and rude that, until they are enriched from some other quarter, it will not be easy to translate any valuable work into them.  It seems to be admitted on all sides, that the intellectual improvement of those classes of the people who have the means of pursuing higher studies can at present be affected only by means of some language not vernacular amongst them.
        [9] What then shall that language be? One-half of the committee maintain that it should be the English. The other half strongly recommend the Arabic and Sanscrit. The whole question seems to me to be-- which language is the best worth knowing?
        [10] I have no knowledge of either Sanscrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their value. I have read translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanscrit works. I have conversed, both here and at home, with men distinguished by their proficiency in the Eastern tongues. I am quite ready to take the oriental learning at the valuation of the orientalists themselves. I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. The intrinsic superiority of the Western literature is indeed fully admitted by those members of the committee who support the oriental plan of education.
        [11] It will hardly be disputed, I suppose, that the department of literature in which the Eastern writers stand highest is poetry. And I certainly never met with any orientalist who ventured to maintain that the Arabic and Sanscrit poetry could be compared to that of the great European nations. But when we pass from works of imagination to works in which facts are recorded and general principles investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasurable. It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanscrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in England. In every branch of physical or moral philosophy, the relative position of the two nations is nearly the same.
        [12] How then stands the case? We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother-tongue. We must teach them some foreign language. The claims of our own language it is hardly necessary to recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even among the languages of the West. It abounds with works of imagination not inferior to the noblest which Greece has bequeathed to us, --with models of every species of eloquence, --with historical composition, which, considered merely as narratives, have seldom been surpassed, and which, considered as vehicles of ethical and political instruction, have never been equaled-- with just and lively representations of human life and human nature, --with the most profound speculations on metaphysics, morals, government, jurisprudence, trade, --with full and correct information respecting every experimental science which tends to preserve the health, to increase the comfort, or to expand the intellect of man. Whoever knows that language has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and hoarded in the course of ninety generations. It may safely be said that the literature now extant in that language is of greater value than all the literature which three hundred years ago was extant in all the languages of the world together. Nor is this all. In India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of Government. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the East. It is the language of two great European communities which are rising, the one in the south of Africa, the other in Australia, --communities which are every year becoming more important and more closely connected with our Indian empire. Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature, or at the particular situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects.
        [13] The question now before us is simply whether, when it is in our power to teach this language, we shall teach languages in which, by universal confession, there are no books on any subject which deserve to be compared to our own, whether, when we can teach European science, we shall teach systems which, by universal confession, wherever they differ from those of Europe differ for the worse, and whether, when we can patronize sound philosophy and true history, we shall countenance, at the public expense, medical doctrines which would disgrace an English farrier, astronomy which would move laughter in girls at an English boarding school, history abounding with kings thirty feet high and reigns thirty thousand years long, and geography made of seas of treacle and seas of butter.
        [14] We are not without experience to guide us. History furnishes several analogous cases, and they all teach the same lesson. There are, in modern times, to go no further, two memorable instances of a great impulse given to the mind of a whole society, of prejudices overthrown, of knowledge diffused, of taste purified, of arts and sciences planted in countries which had recently been ignorant and barbarous.
        [15] The first instance to which I refer is the great revival of letters among the Western nations at the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. At that time almost everything that was worth reading was contained in the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Had our ancestors acted as the Committee of Public Instruction has hitherto noted, had they neglected the language of Thucydides and Plato, and the language of Cicero and Tacitus, had they confined their attention to the old dialects of our own island, had they printed nothing and taught nothing at the universities but chronicles in Anglo-Saxon and romances in Norman French, --would England ever have been what she now is? What the Greek and Latin were to the contemporaries of More and Ascham, our tongue is to the people of India. The literature of England is now more valuable than that of classical antiquity. I doubt whether the Sanscrit literature be as valuable as that of our Saxon and Norman progenitors. In some departments-- in history for example-- I am certain that it is much less so.
        [16] Another instance may be said to be still before our eyes. Within the last hundred and twenty years, a nation which had previously been in a state as barbarous as that in which our ancestors were before the Crusades has gradually emerged from the ignorance in which it was sunk, and has taken its place among civilized communities. I speak of Russia. There is now in that country a large educated class abounding with persons fit to serve the State in the highest functions, and in nowise inferior to the most accomplished men who adorn the best circles of Paris and London. There is reason to hope that this vast empire which, in the time of our grandfathers, was probably behind the Punjab, may in the time of our grandchildren, be pressing close on France and Britain in the career of improvement. And how was this change effected? Not by flattering national prejudices; not by feeding the mind of the young Muscovite with the old women's stories which his rude fathers had believed; not by filling his head with lying legends about St. Nicholas; not by encouraging him to study the great question, whether the world was or not created on the 13th of September; not by calling him "a learned native" when he had mastered all these points of knowledge; but by teaching him those foreign languages in which the greatest mass of information had been laid up, and thus putting all that information within his reach. The languages of western Europe civilised Russia. I cannot doubt that they will do for the Hindoo what they have done for the Tartar.
        [17] And what are the arguments against that course which seems to be alike recommended by theory and by experience? It is said that we ought to secure the co-operation of the native public, and that we can do this only by teaching Sanscrit and Arabic.
        [18] I can by no means admit that, when a nation of high intellectual attainments undertakes to superintend the education of a nation comparatively ignorant, the learners are absolutely to prescribe the course which is to be taken by the teachers. It is not necessary however to say anything on this subject. For it is proved by unanswerable evidence, that we are not at present securing the co-operation of the natives. It would be bad enough to consult their intellectual taste at the expense of their intellectual health. But we are consulting neither. We are withholding from them the learning which is palatable to them. We are forcing on them the mock learning which they nauseate.
        [19] This is proved by the fact that we are forced to pay our Arabic and Sanscrit students while those who learn English are willing to pay us. All the declamations in the world about the love and reverence of the natives for their sacred dialects will never, in the mind of any impartial person, outweigh this undisputed fact, that we cannot find in all our vast empire a single student who will let us teach him those dialects, unless we will pay him.
        [20] I have now before me the accounts of the Mudrassa for one month, the month of December, 1833. The Arabic students appear to have been seventy-seven in number. All receive stipends from the public. The whole amount paid to them is above 500 rupees a month. On the other side of the account stands the following item:
        Deduct amount realized from the out-students of English for the months of May, June, and July last-- 103 rupees.
        [21] I have been told that it is merely from want of local experience that I am surprised at these phenomena, and that it is not the fashion for students in India to study at their own charges. This only confirms me in my opinions. Nothing is more certain than that it never can in any part of the world be necessary to pay men for doing what they think pleasant or profitable. India is no exception to this rule. The people of India do not require to be paid for eating rice when they are hungry, or for wearing woollen cloth in the cold season. To come nearer to the case before us: --The children who learn their letters and a little elementary arithmetic from the village schoolmaster are not paid by him. He is paid for teaching them. Why then is it necessary to pay people to learn Sanscrit and Arabic? Evidently because it is universally felt that the Sanscrit and Arabic are languages the knowledge of which does not compensate for the trouble of acquiring them. On all such subjects the state of the market is the detective test.
        [22] Other evidence is not wanting, if other evidence were required. A petition was presented last year to the committee by several ex-students of the Sanscrit College. The petitioners stated that they had studied in the college ten or twelve years, that they had made themselves acquainted with Hindoo literature and science, that they had received certificates of proficiency. And what is the fruit of all this? "Notwithstanding such testimonials," they say, "we have but little prospect of bettering our condition without the kind assistance of your honourable committee, the indifference with which we are generally looked upon by our countrymen leaving no hope of encouragement and assistance from them." They therefore beg that they may be recommended to the Governor-General for places under the Government-- not places of high dignity or emolument, but such as may just enable them to exist. "We want means," they say, "for a decent living, and for our progressive improvement, which, however, we cannot obtain without the assistance of Government, by whom we have been educated and maintained from childhood." They conclude by representing very pathetically that they are sure that it was never the intention of Government, after behaving so liberally to them during their education, to abandon them to destitution and neglect.
        [23] I have been used to see petitions to Government for compensation. All those petitions, even the most unreasonable of them, proceeded on the supposition that some loss had been sustained, that some wrong had been inflicted. These are surely the first petitioners who ever demanded compensation for having been educated gratis, for having been supported by the public during twelve years, and then sent forth into the world well furnished with literature and science. They represent their education as an injury which gives them a claim on the Government for redress, as an injury for which the stipends paid to them during the infliction were a very inadequate compensation. And I doubt not that they are in the right. They have wasted the best years of life in learning what procures for them neither bread nor respect. Surely we might with advantage have saved the cost of making these persons useless and miserable. Surely, men may be brought up to be burdens to the public and objects of contempt to their neighbours at a somewhat smaller charge to the State. But such is our policy. We do not even stand neuter in the contest between truth and falsehood. We are not content to leave the natives to the influence of their own hereditary prejudices. To the natural difficulties which obstruct the progress of sound science in the East, we add great difficulties of our own making. Bounties and premiums, such as ought not to be given even for the propagation of truth, we lavish on false texts and false philosophy.
        [24] By acting thus we create the very evil which we fear. We are making that opposition which we do not find. What we spend on the Arabic and Sanscrit Colleges is not merely a dead loss to the cause of truth. It is bounty-money paid to raise up champions of error. It goes to form a nest not merely of helpless placehunters but of bigots prompted alike by passion and by interest to raise a cry against every useful scheme of education. If there should be any opposition among the natives to the change which I recommend, that opposition will be the effect of our own system. It will be headed by persons supported by our stipends and trained in our colleges. The longer we persevere in our present course, the more formidable will that opposition be. It will be every year reinforced by recruits whom we are paying. From the native society, left to itself, we have no difficulties to apprehend. All the murmuring will come from that oriental interest which we have, by artificial means, called into being and nursed into strength.
        [25] There is yet another fact which is alone sufficient to prove that the feeling of the native public, when left to itself, is not such as the supporters of the old system represent it to be. The committee have thought fit to lay out above a lakh of rupees in printing Arabic and Sanscrit books. Those books find no purchasers. It is very rarely that a single copy is disposed of. Twenty-three thousand volumes, most of them folios and quartos, fill the libraries or rather the lumber-rooms of this body. The committee contrive to get rid of some portion of their vast stock of oriental literature by giving books away. But they cannot give so fast as they print. About twenty thousand rupees a year are spent in adding fresh masses of waste paper to a hoard which, one should think, is already sufficiently ample. During the last three years about sixty thousand rupees have been expended in this manner. The sale of Arabic and Sanscrit books during those three years has not yielded quite one thousand rupees. In the meantime, the School Book Society is selling seven or eight thousand English volumes every year, and not only pays the expenses of printing but realizes a profit of twenty per cent. on its outlay.
        [30] The fact that the Hindoo law is to be learned chiefly from Sanscrit books, and the Mahometan law from Arabic books, has been much insisted on, but seems not to bear at all on the question. We are commanded by Parliament to ascertain and digest the laws of India. The assistance of a Law Commission has been given to us for that purpose. As soon as the Code is promulgated the Shasters and the Hedaya will be useless to a moonsiff or a Sudder Ameen. I hope and trust that, before the boys who are now entering at the Mudrassa and the Sanscrit College have completed their studies, this great work will be finished. It would be manifestly absurd to educate the rising generation with a view to a state of things which we mean to alter before they reach manhood.
        [31] But there is yet another argument which seems even more untenable. It is said that the Sanscrit and the Arabic are the languages in which the sacred books of a hundred millions of people are written, and that they are on that account entitled to peculiar encouragement. Assuredly it is the duty of the British Government in India to be not only tolerant but neutral on all religious questions. But to encourage the study of a literature, admitted to be of small intrinsic value, only because that literature inculcated the most serious errors on the most important subjects, is a course hardly reconcilable with reason, with morality, or even with that very neutrality which ought, as we all agree, to be sacredly preserved. It is confined that a language is barren of useful knowledge. We are to teach it because it is fruitful of monstrous superstitions. We are to teach false history, false astronomy, false medicine, because we find them in company with a false religion. We abstain, and I trust shall always abstain, from giving any public encouragement to those who are engaged in the work of converting the natives to Christianity. And while we act thus, can we reasonably or decently bribe men, out of the revenues of the State, to waste their youth in learning how they are to purify themselves after touching an ass or what texts of the Vedas they are to repeat to expiate the crime of killing a goat?
        [32] It is taken for granted by the advocates of oriental learning that no native of this country can possibly attain more than a mere smattering of English. They do not attempt to prove this. But they perpetually insinuate it. They designate the education which their opponents recommend as a mere spelling-book education. They assume it as undeniable that the question is between a profound knowledge of Hindoo and Arabian literature and science on the one side, and superficial knowledge of the rudiments of English on the other. This is not merely an assumption, but an assumption contrary to all reason and experience. We know that foreigners of all nations do learn our language sufficiently to have access to all the most abstruse knowledge which it contains sufficiently to relish even the more delicate graces of our most idiomatic writers. There are in this very town natives who are quite competent to discuss political or scientific questions with fluency and precision in the English language. I have heard the very question on which I am now writing discussed by native gentlemen with a liberality and an intelligence which would do credit to any member of the Committee of Public Instruction. Indeed it is unusual to find, even in the literary circles of the Continent, any foreigner who can express himself in English with so much facility and correctness as we find in many Hindoos. Nobody, I suppose, will contend that English is so difficult to a Hindoo as Greek to an Englishman. Yet an intelligent English youth, in a much smaller number of years than our unfortunate pupils pass at the Sanscrit College, becomes able to read, to enjoy, and even to imitate not unhappily the compositions of the best Greek authors. Less than half the time which enables an English youth to read Herodotus and Sophocles ought to enable a Hindoo to read Hume and Milton.
        [33] To sum up what I have said. I think it clear that we are not fettered by the Act of Parliament of 1813, that we are not fettered by any pledge expressed or implied, that we are free to employ our funds as we choose, that we ought to employ them in teaching what is best worth knowing, that English is better worth knowing than Sanscrit or Arabic, that the natives are desirous to be taught English, and are not desirous to be taught Sanscrit or Arabic, that neither as the languages of law nor as the languages of religion have the Sanscrit and Arabic any peculiar claim to our encouragement, that it is possible to make natives of this country thoroughly good English scholars, and that to this end our efforts ought to be directed.
        [34] In one point I fully agree with the gentlemen to whose general views I am opposed. I feel with them that it is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern,  --a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.
        [35] I would strictly respect all existing interests. I would deal even generously with all individuals who have had fair reason to expect a pecuniary provision. But I would strike at the root of the bad system which has hitherto been fostered by us. I would at once stop the printing of Arabic and Sanscrit books. I would abolish the Mudrassa and the Sanscrit College at Calcutta. Benares is the great seat of Brahminical learning; Delhi of Arabic learning. If we retain the Sanscrit College at Bonares and the Mahometan College at Delhi we do enough and much more than enough in my opinion, for the Eastern languages. If the Benares and Delhi Colleges should be retained, I would at least recommend that no stipends shall be given to any students who may hereafter repair thither, but that the people shall be left to make their own choice between the rival systems of education without being bribed by us to learn what they have no desire to know. The funds which would thus be placed at our disposal would enable us to give larger encouragement to the Hindoo College at Calcutta, and establish in the principal cities throughout the Presidencies of Fort William and Agra schools in which the English language might be well and thoroughly taught.
        [36] If the decision of His Lordship in Council should be such as I anticipate, I shall enter on the performance of my duties with the greatest zeal and alacrity. If, on the other hand, it be the opinion of the Government that the present system ought to remain unchanged, I beg that I may be permitted to retire from the chair of the Committee. I feel that I could not be of the smallest use there. I feel also that I should be lending my countenance to what I firmly believe to be a mere delusion. I believe that the present system tends not to accelerate the progress of truth but to delay the natural death of expiring errors. I conceive that we have at present no right to the respectable name of a Board of Public Instruction. We are a Board for wasting the public money, for printing books which are of less value than the paper on which they are printed was while it was blank-- for giving artificial encouragement to absurd history, absurd metaphysics, absurd physics, absurd theology-- for raising up a breed of scholars who find their scholarship an incumbrance and blemish, who live on the public while they are receiving their education, and whose education is so utterly useless to them that, when they have received it, they must either starve or live on the public all the rest of their lives. Entertaining these opinions, I am naturally desirous to decline all share in the responsibility of a body which, unless it alters its whole mode of proceedings, I must consider, not merely as useless, but as positively noxious.
     T[homas] B[abington] MACAULAY
     2nd February 1835.
     I give my entire concurrence to the sentiments expressed in this Minute.
     W[illiam] C[avendish] BENTINCK.

Source : Columbia

Monday, February 8, 2016

Giving Honorary Degree

To whom should AMU give honorary degrees?

Alig are mulling over this question. The starting salvo has the following assertion:
Earlier Honoris causa were awarded to persons of eminence like C.V. Raman, Shah of Iran, King Saud, Obaid Siddiqi, but now it is being awarded to Nouveau riche whose only claim to fame is that they donated a piece of land or some money. What a downfall.
If university decide to honor people like Narayanmurthy, Harsh Mander, Teesta Setalvad, Salman Khan (USA) of online tutorial fame, Sania Mirza, Raghuram Rajan, Sam Pitroda, Mukesh Ambani then it will enhance the prestige of AMU also.
I am puzzled at these views.

What was so praiseworthy with Shah of Iran? Or King Saud? Unless these are used to balance against each other. Somehow some sort of colonial mindset dominates Aligarh thinking even today to pathetic levels. AMU is a university and its prime concern must remain academics. It is not the Caliphate of Aligarh to think in terms of Shahs and Kings. Even Governors and Chief Ministers should never feature in our list of honorary degrees, unless these have made their mark in some other field that is worth recognizing by us. In this regard a few honorary degrees dished out by Mahmoodur Rahman regime were the most pathetic ones.

Then again why Mukesh Ambani? Of course if he is desirous of building bridges with the huge minority community of India by donating funds to our university I am not the one to withdraw my hand. I shall not bother about those who do bickering about degrees for sale and the like.

But why Sania Mirza? May be to inspire girl athletes of AMU. I am sorry they already remain inspired by Sania. I am not going to waste my precious honorary degree on her. Sorry to be in-your-face-pragmatic.

AMU is a precious resource that Muslims of India have with them. It must be used judiciously. The writer of above remarks is certainly concerned with a fruitful utilization of this blessing of God. I do not doubt that even for a moment. But I am not convinced by the overall wisdom of his choice. In last seven decades, of independent India, Muslims have shown a singular lack of an accurate understanding of the ground reality and hence they have not taken steps to remedy their miserable state. Aligarh, being an intellectual hub of Indian Muslims, should have been a better place in this regard. unfortunately that is not true.

AMU should have been a place, from day one after Independence, to make an accurate assessment of overall political, economic, social, cultural, business, industrial and scientific and technological state of the country. we should also have taken requisite steps to improve the lot of Indian Muslims in all of these fields so that we would have been contributing to the nation building at something like equal level. Here I must clarify that this includes the possibility that we should have by now achieved equity with the rest of the country.

Identifying suitable honorary degree candidates is merely a cog in that wheel.

Unfortunately we simply do not think in a comprehensive manner.

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Professor Muhammed Zillur Rahman Khan

It was the monsoon season of 1985 when I arrived in the Physics Department of the Aligarh Muslim University to pursue my masters degree course. A myriad pleasant memories clog my mind and my feelings when it comes to the first impression.

For the first time I saw that people have personal chambers with their respective names written on a plate hanging at the door. For the first time I saw that many of the names were Muslim. Soon I would see that the British and US text books were actually being used in the class rooms. For the first time I saw that men in Muslim beard would talk of current Physics with ease.

One of the peculiarities was that some teachers had up to four letters in the abbreviations of their names. Could names be that long? I did feel like Alice in Wonderland. One of these long names was of Professor Muhammed Zillur Rahman Khan. MZRK.

Soon I got the fortune to attend his class. few minutes before the class I asked my new classmates who was MZRK and they told that he was former head and something called Dean. Then he came for the class. A pot bellied man who looked impressive. For next two years and more he was not only a prime academician around but also a man who had a cultural presence of some class - the culture that makes a society not only cultured but at some sort of royal proportions. The elegant Muslim style of Salam was not a fable from movies but a day to day affair. Good Physics, good ambiance and a beautiful campus. Life has both positive and negative and sometimes a negative can overwhelm all positives but in the rest of the time one has to focus on positives only and this was as good a combination as one can get. Yours truly was in a state of trance for those two years of post graduation. Professor Khan was one of the pillars.

Mine was not a very close relationship with him though I too went through many of the phases of the legendary aspects of interaction with him. I always enjoyed good Physics and Professor Khan had lots of it with him. I had a joy ride but it would derail his joy. The psychological dynamics was as follows. When a concept unfolded before me or when I understood a finer point in the class, and there were ample moments of this sort in his class, then a spontaneous smile came to my face. The joy ride. This he did not understand. He assumed the worse, as if I am upto some mischief or distraction or even worse - caught a mistake. It was nothing like that. It was academics of highest level. A teacher offering the most exquisite pieces of pure knowledge and me, the grateful student, lapping it up, hook, line and sinker. Academically things can not be better than that. But he would be in a different state of mind. "Understand these things properly, even big guns don't know these things", he would repeat so often. I was psychologically not mature enough to calm down his fears and hence till his end I did nothing. I suppose I should have done but I suppose it will be fine with him if I smugly use the privilege of a favourite student. He was a man who rarely kept a grudge.

This last point he himself made explicitly when he came, decades later, to take part in the centenary celebration of our Department in 2011. Aligarh has its strengths but grudge is a nasty weakness around here. In view of that one can only feel bad at a higher level after having lost  him on 24th of January, 2016.

I was thinking that others will write about him in sufficient detail and I shall be spared the birth like pain of extracting the emotions from the narrow corners of memory. It has not happened. I suppose people will do the needful later.  but my fears are worse. Apart from good things of Aligarh its bad things too are legendary. Thanklessness is one of them. I do remember that in case of another teacher of mine, late Professor Israr Ahmed, due attention to his contributions was not accorded after his demise. I did read an article on him by Professor Kabir Ahmed Jayasi in Tehzeeb-ul-Akhlaq, an Urdu monthly published by our university, but that piece can not do justice to his Physics career. Professor Israr Ahmed, in my view, was most illustrious research student of Professor Khan, though I did witness very high praise for another student Professor Qamar Nasir Usmani by Professor Khan himself. But this comparison should not distract us from the actual academics. I I have personally seen even Russian physicists citing Dr Q.N. Usmani's work on many body physics.  Every single research student of Professor Khan is a serious academician in his own right. Apart from the above names I personally know, in a sort of reverse order, Dr Habibul Haq Ansari who specializes, apart from Nuclear physics, on philosophical aspects of Physics including interpretation of quantum mechanics, environmental science, reactor physics and he is a scholar of Urdu far better than so many known signatures. Dr Nasra Neelofer serves in the Women's college of our university while Dr Fauzia Mujib had retired after serving the same college for decades. Dr Muhammed Shoeb is a professor in our department. Dr Mahmood Mian is a professor of physics at the Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar while Dr J.H.Naqvi has retired as a professor from our department itself.

The last named one had done part of his research work with Professor A.N.Mitra who then shifted to Delhi university. His dissertation, hence, was completed under Professor Khan's supervision. His name is associated with Naqvi-Mitra nuclear potential and I heard Professor Mitra himself saying, "I call it Naqvi potential".

Being from the local fiefdom family of Shahjahanpur he carried that erstwhile royal blood and was known by a nick name reserved for the off-springs of such families. He was married to a daughter of late Dr Zakir Hussain, former president of Republic of India. In his time he had done mentoring of hockey players of AMU and his name is associated with that glory which brought Olympic Gold Medal to India - Moscow Olympics 1980.

People say that an elephant has no idea about its size and strength. Be that as it may Professor Khan was like that - he had rather high levels of humility. His irritation with some students, like  yours truly and many others, was a manifestation of this characteristic. He never knew that his students smiled in the class because he was opening up the knots in their respective minds. I have had a number of excellent students but he was the person who untied the largest number of knots of technicalities of physics.

I personally learned quantum mechanics and nuclear physics from him. It was well known that he will enjoy teaching so much that inordinately large amount of time will be spent on explanations and inevitably there would be syllabus crisis even after extra classes someone or other from his former students would be scrambled to finish the course.

His extra classes too were legendary. In these classes there was no natural time limit and hence these could extend even up to five hours. For me too many evenings were consumed by such classes. Two years ago  I told one of my classes that as a one time demonstration I am going to implement MZRK long extra class routine for them. And I did that. Calling them on Sunday morning and leaving them at lunch time with two breaks in between. That was for BSc final year students. Students must have enjoyed it in their own way for I also arranged refreshments for them. Students relish it when they get even a cup of tea from their teacher. Soon the other two classes, first and second years of MSc, also tasted the same experience.

Quantum Mechanics is real physics and it is an involved formalism. Even the west, where it all originated, is still awed by this subject. Professor Khan had a flare for it. generations of Aligarh physics students owe their quantum mechanics to him. During 2011 centenary celebrations Professor Tariq Aziz, an alumni of the department, said that Professor Khan is the God of quantum mechanics in India. We shall ignore both the theological and historical exaggeration but this statement does give some perspective on Professor Khan stature in teaching of that difficult and glorious subject.

Many times our own teachers would come from the back door and sit in Professor Khan's quantum mechanics class. this too was a different experience. This too should be taken as a manifestation of highest academic traditions. I shall leave the task of acknowledgement of his teaching by Dr P.K.Ayengar in universities in general to another colleague.

When Professor Khan joined the department as a Reader after returning from Mancester  the then Head was not so perceptive about actual value of quantum mechanics in the scheme of things in Physics and he had the idea to make it an optional paper. Dr Khan would not have anything of that sort. Quantum mechanics can not be optional paper, it has to be in the core papers - he asserted. Not only that, he banged the door on the Head of the Department - an extremely rash thing to do in those days. But he had his way ultimately.

Apart from quantum mechanics I was fortunate enough to take two courses on nuclear physics by him. The story in this topic was a continuation of the one in quantum mechanics. He was as lucid about concepts in one topic as in other. Years later he wanted to write a text book of graduate level on nuclear and particle physics with a young faculty member. Latter one was well aware of the fact that Professor Khan was not as up to date in particle physics and hence the project didn't come to a fruit. On second thoughts I feel that they should have gone ahead with the book for they had enough to tell. One of the past pleasant, in fact romantic, feelings of physics department of AMU for me is that even before coming to Aligarh I knew that there is a physicist there who has written a book on Transistor Physics, Dr D.C.Sarkar. Lately Professor J.P.Srivastava has written a book on Condensed Matter Physics and so has Professor R.J.Singh while Professor R. Prasad has written one on Nuclear Physics. This adds to the dignity of the department and same would have been the case if above mentioned book had come out. I am personally aware of another still born book - Professors S.M.A.Hashim Rizi and S.K.Singh were working on a book on Modern physics but they too did not finish it.

One of the characteristics of physics mentoring by Professor Khan was his long walks with his students and sometimes with young physics faculty members. these walks would be inside the campus but these could go out, on Anupshahr Road, for kilometers. everybody doesn't have that kind of stamina but that is what it takes to do the mentoring of a modern scientific tradition.

Even for a physics department nuclear physics is usually not everybody's cup of tea. Consequently only a handful of departments in the country have this specialization. Among the universities Aligarh at one time had the biggest nuclear physics group and even today it is one of the biggest ones. In fact there was a time when the heads of the physics departments in north India were all Aligarh products. Professor Khan lived and worked in those times and he established an academic culture that added to the credit of not only the Sir Syed's Aligarh Movement but even the country as a whole.

There are a myriad more things that I can say but this emotional journey is getting out of control and hence I shall put a lid on it and conclude by paying my most sincere tributes to a very loving teacher with utmost feelings of gratitude.

Verily we are for our Lord and unto him is our return.

Nami gardeed kotah rishta-e-ma'ni riha kardam
Hikayat bood bepayan, bakhamoshi ada kardam

When this thread of interpretation did not shorten I released it
There were a countless stories to be told, these I narrated silently