Audiobook:
1. Context & Purpose
This is the note that was sent in reply to the queries of the Committee for the Reform of the Religious Curriculum at Aligarh Muslim University. Although in appearance it is addressed to Aligarh Muslim University, in reality all Muslim educational institutions are its addressees. The educational policy explained in this note is indispensable for Muslims to adopt. Whether it is Aligarh, Deoband, Nadwah, or Jamia Millia, the method of all of them has now become out of date. If they do not revise it, they will lose their usefulness altogether.
The Court of the Muslim University deserves the thanks of all Muslims for having turned its attention to the basic objective of its institution—namely, the development of a genuine Islamic spirit in the students—and for appointing your committee in order to put this into effect. I have examined, with full reflection and deliberation, the papers sent from the University office in this connection. As far as the present method of teaching religion and Islamic sciences is concerned, there is no doubt that it is unsatisfactory. The curriculum that is currently being taught is certainly defective. But from a study of the questions compiled by the respected members of the committee, it appears that at present the committee has before it only the question of revising the curriculum, and it is probably being supposed that by removing a few books and replacing them with a few others, an “Islamic spirit” can be produced in the students. If my inference is correct, then I would say that this is a very incomplete estimate of the real situation.
2. The Real Problem: Why ‘Islamic Spirit’ Is Not Produced
In fact, we should go deeper than this and examine why, despite the instruction in Qur’an, Hadith, Fiqh, and beliefs that is currently being given, a “true Islamic spirit” is not produced in the students. If merely the defect in the present religious curriculum is the cause of this, then removing that defect will indeed be sufficient to remedy the problem. But if its causes are wider, if some fundamental defect exists in your entire educational policy, then merely revising the religious curriculum will by no means be enough for reform. For that, you will have to widen the scope of reform, however laborious and however full of difficulties that may be. I have considered this issue from precisely this point of view, and I shall present, with as much brevity as possible, the conclusions at which I have arrived.
3. Structure of This Statement
My statement will consist of three parts:
- The first part will cast a critical glance at the University’s present educational policy, make clear its fundamental defects, and explain what our educational policy ought now to be for the real benefit of Muslims.
- The second part will present reform proposals.
- And the third part will discuss the measures for putting these proposals into practical effect.
4. Part One — Diagnosis: Fundamental Defects in Current Educational Policy
4.1 A Contradictory and Unintegrated Educational Mixture
At present, the method of education current in the Muslim University consists of such a mixture of modern education and Islamic education as possesses neither integration nor harmony. Two completely contradictory and ill-matched educational elements have been brought together as they are and placed side by side. They have not been endowed with the capacity to become one composite intellectual force serving a single culture. Despite being brought together and combined in one place, these two elements not only remain separate from one another, but also resist one another and pull the minds of the students in two opposite directions. Quite apart from the Islamic point of view, even if this is judged from a purely educational standpoint, one must say that such a mixture of mutually divergent and mutually conflicting elements in education is wrong in principle, and no useful result can emerge from it.
4.2 Why the Mixture Is Worse from an Islamic Perspective
From the Islamic point of view, this mixture has become even more blameworthy, because first of all the mixture itself is not sound, and on top of that there is the further defect that the mixture is not even equal. In it, the Western element is very powerful and the Islamic element, in comparison, is very weak.
4.3 How Western Influence Dominates the University Environment
The Western element enjoys the first advantage that it is a contemporary element, backed by the force of the age and the strength of a globally dominant civilisation. After that, it has been made a partner in our University’s education in exactly the same dignity and with exactly the same power with which it exists, and ought to exist, in those universities that were established for the service of Western culture. Here the teaching of Western arts and sciences is imparted in such a way that all their principles and theories become imprinted as articles of faith upon the clean and simple-hearted minds of Muslim boys, and their mentality is completely cast in the Western mould, to the point that they begin to see with Western eyes and think with a Western mind, and this conviction is imposed upon them that, if there is anything reasonable and of value in the world, it is only that which corresponds to the principles and premises of Western wisdom. Then these impressions are further strengthened by the training that is in practice being given in our University. Dress, social life, manners, conduct, style of living and speech, sports and games—what is there upon which Western civilisation and culture and Western tendencies do not predominate? If the University environment is not wholly Western, then it is certainly ninety-five per cent Western, and what effects such an environment can have and does have may be understood by every discerning person.
4.4 Why the Islamic Element Fails to Compete
Over against this, the Islamic element is extremely weak. In the first place, it has in any case already become weak through having lost its civilisational and political power. Then, in our University, the books through which its teaching is given were written centuries before the present age. Their language and their arrangement and composition are not of a kind that can appeal to contemporary minds. In them, the eternal principles of Islam have been applied to those conditions and those practical questions, most of which are no longer before us, whereas no attempt has been made to apply those principles to the questions that are before us now. Moreover, behind this teaching there is no training, no living environment, no practical conduct and way of life. In this way, the mixing of Islamic education with Western education becomes still more ineffective. The natural result of such an unequal mixture is that the Western element should come fully to dominate the minds and hearts of the students, and the Islamic element should remain merely as something to be laughed at, or at most to be respected as one respects relics of the past.
4.5 A Blunt Summary of the Outcome
I ask pardon for my plain-speaking, but I regard it as my duty to state without any concealment whatever I see. In my view, the University’s religious and worldly education, taken together, is exactly such that you make a person non-Muslim from head to foot, and then place under his arm a bundle of a few books on religion, so that you may not be accused of having made him a non-Muslim; and if he throws away that bundle (for which in reality your own education will be responsible), then he himself will be held blameworthy for that act. If from this method of education you expect that it will produce Muslims, then that means you are expecting a miracle and a violation of the normal course of things, because from the causes you have provided, such a result can never emerge under the law of nature. The fact that one or two or four students out of a hundred remain Muslims—that is, complete Muslims in belief and practice—is no proof to the contrary. This is not the result of the University’s educational influence; rather it is evidence that whoever succeeded in preserving his faith and Islam from that influence was in reality born upon the Abrahamic disposition. Such exceptions may be found among Aligarh graduates just as they may be found among the graduates of India’s government universities, indeed even among the graduates of European universities, though their curriculum contains no Islamic element at all.
4.6 If Curriculum Alone Is Strengthened: The Likely Outcome
Now, if you leave these conditions and this method of education exactly as they are, and merely replace the present religious curriculum with a stronger one, the only result of this will be that the struggle between Westernism and Islam will become more severe.
4.7 The Three Types of Graduates This System Produces
The mind of every student will become a battlefield in which these two forces will wage war with full strength, and in the end your students will be divided into three different groups:
One: those over whom Westernism will prevail, whether in the form of Anglicisation, or of Indian nationalism, or of atheistic socialism.
Second: those over whom Islam will prevail, whether its colour be deep or faded by the influence of Westernism.
Third: those who will be neither full Muslims nor full Westerners.
It is obvious that this result of education too is by no means a pleasing one. Neither from a purely educational point of view can this conjunction of opposites be called beneficial, nor from a national point of view can such a university justify its existence whose results are, to the extent of two-thirds, contrary to the national interest and tantamount to complete loss for the national culture. At the very least, for the poor Muslim community this bargain is far too expensive—that it should spend lakhs of rupees to keep running such a mint from which thirty-three per cent of the coins continue to come out permanently debased, and thirty-three per cent are prepared at our expense only to be thrown into the lap of others, indeed ultimately to be used against us.
4.8 Two Core Conclusions
From the foregoing discussion, two things become quite clear:
First: the mixing of contradictory elements in education is wrong in principle.
Second: for Islamic interests too, such a mixture is in no way beneficial, whether it remains such an unequal mixture as it has been until now, or whether it is made equal, as is now being contemplated.
4.9 What Educational Policy Ought to Be
After explaining these matters, I wish to state what, in my opinion, the University’s educational policy ought now to be.
4.10 Which Culture Does the University Serve?
It is obvious that every university is the servant of some culture. Such bare education as is empty of every colour and every form has never been imparted in any seat of learning in the world up to now, nor is it being imparted today. The education of every institution has a particular colour and a particular form, and the choice of this colour and form is made after full reflection, in accordance with the specific culture it wishes to serve. The question, then, is this: which culture has your University been established to serve? If it is Western culture, then do not call it a Muslim University, and do not, by retaining a curriculum of religion in it, needlessly involve the students in mental conflict. But if it is Islamic culture, then you will have to change the entire structure of your University, and fashion its whole composition in such a manner that, taken as a whole, it accords with the temperament and spirit of that culture, and not only preserves it but becomes a strong force for carrying it forward.
As I have already established above, in its present state your University is the servant not of Islamic culture but of Western culture. In this condition, if only so much change is made that the present religious curriculum is replaced with a stronger one while complete Westernisation remains in all the other branches of education and training, then even so this institution cannot become the servant of Islamic culture.
4.11 Islam as a Total Way of Life (Not a ‘Department’)
On reflecting on the reality of Islam, it becomes self-evident that to separate worldly education and training from religious education, and to keep the two distinct and then bring them together in one place, is entirely futile. Islam is not like Christianity, a religion whose religion is one thing and the world another. It does not leave the world to the worldly and confine its sphere merely to beliefs and morals. Therefore, the “religious sciences” of Islam cannot be separated from worldly sciences in the way Christian theology can be separated from worldly affairs. The real purpose of Islam is to prepare man, for living in this world and carrying out the affairs of this world, upon such a way as is the way of safety, honour, and excellence from this life all the way to the life of the Hereafter. For this purpose, it corrects his thought and outlook, refines his morals, moulds his character in a particular pattern, determines his rights and duties, and provides him with a particular system of collective life.
Its principles and regulations regarding the intellectual and practical training of individuals, the formation and organisation of society, and the discipline and adjustment of all spheres of life, are altogether distinct. It is by virtue of these that Islamic civilisation assumes the form of a separate civilisation, and the continued life of the Muslim community as a community depends upon adherence to them. Since this is the case, the very reform of “Islamic theology” becomes meaningless if its connection with life and with the affairs of life does not remain intact. For Islamic culture, that religious scholar is useless who is acquainted with the beliefs and principles of Islam but does not know how to take them and advance with them into the field of knowledge and action, nor how to apply them to the ever-changing conditions and problems of life. Likewise, that religious scholar too is useless for this culture who inwardly believes in the truth of Islam, but thinks with a non-Islamic mind, sees affairs with a non-Islamic eye, and arranges life upon non-Islamic principles. The real cause of the decline of Islamic civilisation and the disorder of the Islamic social order is precisely this: for a long time our community has been producing only these two kinds of learned men, and the connection of religious knowledge with worldly knowledge and action has been severed.
4.12 The Required Model: Infusing Islam into All Knowledge
Now, if you wish Islamic culture to blossom again, and instead of moving behind the age to begin moving ahead of it, then restore that broken link. But the way to restore it is not to make the curriculum of religion a necklace hanging from the neck of the educational body, or a bundle strapped to its back. No—rather, infuse it into the entire system of education and training in such a way that it becomes its circulation of blood, its animating spirit, its sight and hearing, its sensation and perception, its consciousness and thought, and goes on absorbing within itself all the sound elements of Western sciences and arts and making them a part of its own civilisation.
4.13 The Vision: Producing Muslim Experts in Every Discipline
In this way, you will be able to produce Muslim philosophers, Muslim scientists, Muslim economists, Muslim legislators, Muslim statesmen—in short, Muslim experts in every branch of knowledge and art—who will solve the problems of life from the Islamic point of view, will employ the advanced means and instruments of the present civilisation in the service of Islamic civilisation, and will rearrange the thoughts, theories, and laws of life of Islam afresh in the light of the spirit of the age, until Islam once again reaches, in every field of knowledge and action, that position of leadership and guidance for which in truth it was brought into the world.
4.14 Closing of Part One: Urgency of Reform
This is the conception that ought to be the fundamental conception of the modern educational policy of Muslims. The age has moved far beyond the point at which Sir Sayyid left us. If we continue to remain there much longer, then, quite apart from our advancing as a Muslim community, even our survival will become difficult.
5. Part Two — Reform Proposals: Building an Integrated Islamic System
Now I wish to explain how the conceptual framework of educational policy that I have presented above can be clothed in practical form.
5.1 Uprooting ‘Westernism’ and Creating an Islamic Environment
It is absolutely necessary to uproot “Westernism” completely from within the bounds of the Muslim University. If we do not wish to kill our national civilisation with our own hands, then it is our duty to block those ever-increasing tendencies toward Westernism in our new generations. These tendencies are in fact the product of a servile mentality and an inward sense of inferiority. Then, when their practical manifestation occurs in dress, social habits, manners, and the environment as a whole, they come to surround the self both outwardly and inwardly, and leave in it not the slightest feeling of national honour. In such circumstances, the survival of Islamic civilisation is categorically impossible. No civilisation comes into being merely from the bare mental existence of its principles and its basic conceptions; rather, it is produced through practical conduct, and it grows through that conduct. If practical conduct disappears, then civilisation will die its natural death, and even its mental existence will not endure. Therefore the foremost reform is this: a living Islamic environment must be created in the University. Your training should be such as teaches the new generations of Muslims to take pride in their national civilisation, creates in them respect, indeed love, for their national characteristics, breathes into them the spirit of Islamic morals and Islamic character, and makes them capable, through their knowledge and their trained intellectual powers, of carrying their national civilisation toward the highest levels of refinement.5.2 The Central Role of Teachers and Staff
The production of an Islamic spirit depends to a great extent upon the knowledge and practice of the teachers. How can students acquire an Islamic spirit under the influence of teachers who themselves are empty of that spirit, indeed are opposed to it in both thought and conduct? You can only draw the plan of the building; the real builders are not you, but the members of your educational staff. To expect Europeanised builders to erect a building in the Islamic style is like expecting bunches of grapes from a bitter gourd vine. In such a case, merely appointing a few “molvis” for the teaching of religion will be utterly useless, when all or most of the teachers of the other sciences are non-Muslims or such Muslims as hold non-Islamic ideas, because they will turn the students’ conceptions and views regarding life and its problems and affairs away from the centre of Islam, and no antidote for that poison can be supplied merely by a course in religion. Therefore, whatever the subject—whether philosophy or science, economics or law, history or any other discipline—mere expertise in that discipline is not enough for a professorship in the Muslim University; it is also necessary that the person be a complete and firm Muslim. If under certain circumstances the services of a non-Muslim expert have to be secured, there is no harm in that. But the general rule ought to be that the professors of our University should be those who, in addition to being experts in their fields, are also beneficial in thought and conduct to the University’s basic aim, namely Islamic culture.5.3 Arabic as a Compulsory Language
Arabic should be made a compulsory language in the University’s education. It is the language of our culture. It is the sole means of access to the original sources of Islam. So long as the educated class among Muslims does not acquire direct access to the Qur’an and Sunnah, it can neither grasp the spirit of Islam nor acquire insight into Islam. It will always remain dependent upon translators and commentators, and light of that kind will never reach it directly from the sun; rather, it will continue to come only through various kinds of coloured panes. Today our modern educated gentlemen are making such errors regarding Islamic questions as show that they are unfamiliar even with the alphabet of Islam. The reason for this is precisely that they possess no means of benefiting from the Qur’an and Sunnah. In the future, when under provincial autonomy the legislative assemblies of India receive wider powers of legislation and new laws begin to be framed for social reform, then if Muslims continue to be represented by men who are ignorant of Islam and who believe in Western conceptions of morality, society, and law, then modern legislation will produce among Muslims not social reform but anti-social deformity, and the Muslim collective system will continue to move ever farther from its principles. Therefore do not regard the question of Arabic merely as the question of a language; rather understand that it is connected with the basic aim of your University, and whatever is connected with fundamentals is not arranged on grounds of convenience; room has to be made for it in every case.5.4 High-School Curriculum: Core Components
In high-school education, students should receive elementary knowledge of the following subjects:- A. Beliefs: This subject should not contain dry scholastic details of dogma. Rather, in order to impress the articles of faith upon the mind, a very subtle mode of presentation should be adopted, one that appeals to natural intuition and reason. Students should know that the beliefs of Islam are in reality the basic truths of the universe, and that these truths have a deep relation to our lives.
- B. Islamic morals: In this subject, abstract moral concepts should not merely be presented. Rather, such incidents should be collected from the lives of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), the noble Companions, and the Prophets (peace be upon them) as will show the students what the characteristics of a Muslim’s character are, and what the life of a Muslim is like.
- C. Rules of Fiqh: In this subject, the elementary and necessary rulings of Islamic law concerning the rights of Allah, the rights of human beings, and personal character should be explained—those with which every Muslim must necessarily be acquainted. But such details should not be included as are found in the old books of fiqh—for example, how many buckets are to be drawn if a mouse falls into a well. In place of such things, the meaning, spirit, and wisdoms of acts of worship and legal rulings should be impressed upon the minds of the students. They should be told what programme Islam gives you for individual and collective life, and how this programme creates a righteous society.
- D. Islamic history: This subject should be confined only to the life of the Messenger (peace be upon him) and the era of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them). The purpose of teaching it should be that the students become acquainted with the origin of their religion and their nationhood, and that a proper sense of Islamic honour be produced in their hearts.
- E. Arabic: An elementary knowledge of the Arabic language such as will create some degree of familiarity with its literature.
- F. Qur’an: Only so much proficiency as will enable the boys to read the Book of Allah fluently, to understand simple verses to some extent, and to have memorised a few surahs.
5.5 College Curriculum: Shared Foundations for All Students
In college education, there should be a general curriculum that is taught to all students. This curriculum should contain the following subjects:- A. Arabic: At the Intermediate stage, there should be a middle-level instruction in Arabic literature. On reaching the B.A. stage, this subject should be merged with Qur’anic instruction.
- B. Qur’an: At the Intermediate stage, students should be prepared for understanding the Qur’an. At this stage, only a few مقدمات should be impressed upon their minds: that the Qur’an is the most securely preserved and historically most authentic of books; that it is divine revelation; its superiority over the fundamental books of all religions; its unparalleled revolutionary teaching; its effects not only upon the Arabs but upon the thought and laws of life of the whole world; its style of expression and method of argument; and its true purpose.
5.6 Teaching Qur’an and Islamic System Thinking at BA Level
At the B.A. stage, the Qur’an itself should be taught. Here the method of instruction should be that the students themselves try to read and understand the Qur’an, and the teacher goes on solving their difficulties and removing their doubts. If lengthy exegesis and minute discussions are avoided, and one contents oneself merely with clarifying the meanings, then the entire Qur’an can easily be taught in two years.
Islamic teachings: In this subject, students should be introduced to the entire Islamic system. On what fundamental concepts is Islam based? On the basis of those concepts, how does it form morals and character? Then, on what principles does it organise the life of society in respect of social relations, economics, politics, and international relations? In its collective system, in what manner is the distribution of rights and duties between individual and community arranged? What are the limits set by Allah? Within those limits, to what extent does a Muslim possess freedom of thought and action, and what effects follow for the Islamic order when one steps outside those limits? All these matters should be brought into the curriculum comprehensively, and distributed with proper proportion across the four stages of education.
5.7 Integrating Islam into Every Discipline
After the general curriculum, divide the Islamic sciences and spread them through the specialised teaching of the various sciences and arts, and in every discipline incorporate the teachings of Islam appropriate to that discipline. Western sciences and arts, in and of themselves, are all useful, and Islam is not hostile to any of them. Indeed, in reply I would say that as far as scientific facts are concerned, Islam is their friend and they are the friend of Islam. The hostility is in fact not between knowledge and Islam, but between Westernism and Islam. In most sciences, Western scholars possess certain specific fundamental concepts, basic hypotheses, starting points, and angles of vision which are not in themselves established facts, but are merely their own intuitions. They mould scientific facts into the framework of these intuitions, and arrange them in accordance with that framework into a specific system. Islam’s hostility is in fact to these very intuitions. It is not hostile to facts, but to that intuitive mould into which those facts are cast and arranged. Islam itself possesses its own central conception, its own angle of vision, its own starting point of thought, its own intuitive mould, which by its origin and nature stands exactly opposed to Western moulds.5.8 The Real Conflict: Islam vs Western ‘Intuitive Mould’
Now understand this: from the Islamic point of view, the real cause of deviation is not that you take facts from Western sciences and arts, but that you also take from the West their intuitive mould. In philosophy, science, history, law, political science, economics, and other fields of knowledge, is it not you yourselves who implant in the minds of your young and empty-headed students the basic conceptions of the West, fix the focus of their vision according to the Western angle of sight, make Western hypotheses into unquestioned truths, give them as the sole starting point for reasoning, evidence, research, and inquiry the one adopted by Westerners, and arrange all scientific facts and problems in their minds according to the very pattern in which Westerners have arranged them? After that, you wish the department of religion alone to make them Muslims. How is that possible? What can a department of religion do in which there are only abstract conceptions, while those conceptions are not applied to the facts of knowledge and the problems of life, and the arrangement of all information in the minds of the students is in fact exactly contrary to them? This is the real source of deviation. If you wish to block deviation, then go to the source of that spring and turn its course, and give all branches of knowledge that starting point, that angle of vision, those basic principles, which the Qur’an has given you. When information is arranged within that very intuitive mould, and the problems of the universe and of life are solved from that perspective, then your students will become “Muslim students,” and then you may say that we have produced in them an Islamic spirit. Otherwise, the result of placing Islam in one department and non-Islam everywhere else can be nothing but this: your graduates will be non-Muslim in philosophy, non-Muslim in science, non-Muslim in law, non-Muslim in political science, non-Muslim in philosophy of history, non-Muslim in economics, and their Islam will remain confined merely to a few beliefs and a few religious ceremonies.
5.9 Structural Reforms: Degrees, Specialisation, and Research
Abolish the B.T.H. and M.T.H. examinations. They are of neither need nor benefit. As for the specific branches of Islamic sciences, each of them should be incorporated into the highest course of that corresponding Western discipline. For example: in philosophy, Islamic wisdom, the history of Islamic philosophy, and the contribution of Muslims to the development of philosophical thought; in history, the history of Islam and the Islamic philosophy of history; in law, the principles of Islamic law and those chapters of fiqh that pertain to transactions; in economics, the principles of Islamic economics and those portions of fiqh that concern economic issues; in political science, the political theories of Islam, the history of the growth and development of Islamic political thought, and Islam’s contribution to the development of the political ideas of the world. And so on.- After this course, there should be a permanent department for research in Islamic sciences which, like Western universities, should confer the highest degree of scholarly distinction—the doctorate—for advanced research. In this department there should be prepared such men as, having received training in a mujtahid-like mode of research, are ready to provide theoretical and intellectual guidance not only for Muslims but, from the Islamic point of view, for the whole world.
6. Part Three — Implementation: How to Put This into Practice Gradually
The scheme of education that I have presented in Part Two appears, on the face of it, impracticable. But after sufficient reflection and deliberation I have reached the conclusion that, with attention, effort, and expenditure, it can gradually be put into practice.
6.1 A Phased, Multi-Generational Approach
This fact should remain before us: you cannot, on taking the first step upon a road, reach the last milestone of the destination. In order to begin a task, it is not necessary that you should already possess all the means for its completion. For now, you need only lay the foundation of the building, and the means for that can at present be provided. In the present generation there are such people as can lay the foundations according to this style of construction. The generation that will arise through their education and training will be capable of raising the walls. Then a third generation will emerge at whose hands, God willing, this work will reach completion. That degree of perfection which can be attained only after the continuous labour of at least three generations cannot be attained today. But the completion of the building in the third generation will be possible only if you lay its foundation today. Otherwise, if finding that degree of perfection distant from yourselves you do not even begin today—despite the fact that the means for beginning are available to you—then this work will never be accomplished.
Since I am advising this reformist step, it is also my duty to present the means for putting it into practice. In this part of my discussion I wish to explain how this educational pattern can be initiated and what practical measures there are for it.
6.2 Practical Steps for High-School Reform
For high-school education, a comprehensive course in beliefs, Islamic morals, and the rules of the Shari‘ah has recently been prepared by the Department of Education of His Exalted Highness’s government. It can be made very serviceable with the necessary revisions and improvements.6.3 Modern Methods for Teaching Arabic
As for the teaching of Arabic, the old method had made it so terrifying; praise be to Allah, that condition no longer remains. Modern methods have now emerged for it in Egypt, Syria, and even in India itself by which this language can be taught with ease. A special committee should be appointed of those who possess scholarly and practical expertise in modern methods of teaching Arabic, and with their counsel such a course should be proposed in which the Qur’an itself is used, as far as possible, as the means of teaching Arabic. In this way there will be no need to set aside separate time for teaching the Qur’an, and from the very beginning the students will develop familiarity with the Qur’an.
A large number of booklets on Islamic history have already been written in Urdu. They should be collected and examined thoughtfully, and whichever prove useful should be included in the curriculum of the lower classes.
For the first two of the above-mentioned subjects, only one hour daily will suffice. As for Islamic history, this subject requires no separate period. It can be incorporated into the general history curriculum. Thus, I think that no major change will be required in the present organisation of high-school education.
6.4 Staffing and Environment: Rethinking Religious Instruction
Whatever need for change there is lies in the curriculum and in the educational staff. Remove from your minds the conception of religious instruction and the religious teacher that you have had up to now. Appoint teachers who understand the mentality and psychology of the boys and girls of this age. Give them an advanced curriculum, and along with that create such an environment in which the seed of “Islamicness” may find the opportunity to grow.
6.5 Practical Steps for College Reform
For college, the general curriculum that I have proposed has three components:(a) Arabic, (b) Qur’an, (c) Islamic teachings.
Of these, Arabic should be made the compulsory second language. If the students wish to study any of the other languages, they can do so through tutors. But after the language which is the medium of instruction in the college, only Arabic ought to remain compulsory. If the curriculum is sound and the teachers are experienced, then in the two years of Intermediate it is possible to produce in the students enough capacity that, on reaching the B.A. stage, they can receive instruction in the Noble Qur’an in the language of the Qur’an itself.
For the Qur’an, no commentary is needed. A first-rate professor is enough—one who has studied the Qur’an deeply and who possesses the ability to teach and explain the Qur’an in the modern style. Through his lectures, at the Intermediate stage he will create in the students the necessary capacity for understanding the Qur’an. Then, at the B.A. level, he will teach them the entire Qur’an in such a manner that they will also make considerable progress in Arabic and become well acquainted with the spirit of Islam.
For Islamic teachings, there is a need to have a modern book written that encompasses the purposes to which I indicated in Part Two, number 5, section (c). Some time ago I myself began writing a book, bearing these purposes in mind, under the title Islamic Civilisation and Its Principles and Foundations, the first three chapters of which were published in the issues of Tarjuman al-Qur’an from Muharram 1352 AH to Sha‘ban 1352 AH. If it is thought useful, I shall complete it and present it to the University.
For these subjects, no change in the present organisation of college education will be required. For Arabic, the same amount of time is sufficient that you currently allocate for the compulsory second language. For both Qur’an and Islamic teachings, the same amount of time may suffice, alternately, as you currently allot for religion.
6.6 The Biggest Difficulty: Islamising Specialised Disciplines
The greatest difficulty in putting this scheme into practical effect will arise in the proposal that I have presented in Part Two, numbers 6.4 and 6.5.6.7 Three Solutions (A–C) for the Discipline Integration Challenge
There are three ways of solving it, which may be adopted gradually:
A. Professors should be sought out—and they are not non-existent—who, along with being experts in modern sciences, also possess insight into the Qur’an and Sunnah, and who have enough ability to separate the facts of Western sciences from their theories and their intuitive foundations, and rearrange them in accordance with Islamic principles and theories.
B. The literature available in Arabic, Urdu, English, German, and French relating to Islamic philosophy of law, the principles of law and the philosophy of legislation, political science, sociology, economics, history and philosophy of history, and so forth, should be carefully examined. Those books that are fit to be taken as they are should be selected, and those which can be made useful with adaptation, omission, or revision should be utilised in that manner. For this purpose, a special body of learned men will have to be appointed.
C. The services of a few scholars should be secured to compose modern books on the aforementioned sciences. In particular, it is extremely necessary to write modern books on the principles of fiqh, the rulings of fiqh, Islamic economics, the social principles of Islam, and Qur’anic wisdom, because the old books are no longer useful for instruction and teaching. For men of ijtihad, they no doubt contain very good material, but to take them as they are and teach them to the students of the present age is entirely fruitless.
6.8 Limitations, Long-Term Outlook, and Research Department Timing
There is no doubt that, initially, even by these three measures the purpose before us will not be attained in its full perfection. Undoubtedly, many deficiencies will be found in this new construction. But there is no cause for fear in that. It will be the first step on the right road. Whatever shortcomings remain in it will be completed by later generations, until its full fruits of completion become manifest at least fifty years later.
The time has not yet come to establish a department of Islamic research. That stage will come some years later. Therefore, to present proposals concerning it now would be premature.6.9 Sectarian Considerations and Common Foundations
In my proposals there is very little room for sectarian differences. Nevertheless, in this matter the scholars of the Shi‘ah should be consulted as to the extent to which they would prefer Shi‘ah students to remain together with Sunni students under this system of education. If they wish, they may themselves draw up some scheme for Shi‘ah students. But it would be better that, as far as possible, secondary doctrinal differences be given the minimum place in education, and that the future generations of the different sects be trained under the common principles and foundations of Islam.
6.10 Guest Lectures and Global Scholarly Exchange
I am in complete agreement with Sir Muhammad Ya‘qub’s view that from time to time scholars and learned men should be invited to deliver lectures on important issues. I wish Aligarh to be made not only the intellectual centre of India but of the entire Muslim world. You should invite not only the great men of India, but also Muslim scholars from Egypt, Syria, Iran, Turkey, and Europe, to come here and, through their thoughts, experiences, and results of research, create among our students illumination of mind and spirit of life. Such lectures ought to be commissioned with proper remuneration so that they may be written with adequate time, labour, and reflection, and their publication may be useful not only for the University’s students but also for the educated public at large.6.11 Language Policy: Urdu, Arabic, and English
It is not right to confine Islamic education to any one language. At present, sufficient material for the curriculum is not available in any one of the three languages—Urdu, Arabic, and English. Therefore, for the time being, whatever useful thing is found in whichever of these languages should be taught in that same language. The teachers of religion and Islamic sciences should all be such as know both English and Arabic. A one-sided man can no longer be a proper teacher of religion.7. Conclusion
I ask pardon for the length of this statement, but such extension and detail were unavoidable for me, because I am calling toward an entirely new path, one whose landmarks I myself had to spend several years of reflection in recognising. I have definitively reached the conclusion that there is now no way for the enduring collective existence of Muslims and for the continued life of their civilisation except this: that a revolution be brought about in their system of education and training, and that this revolution take place along the lines I have laid before you. I am not unaware that there exists a large body of people—and Aligarh itself is not lacking in them—who will call these views of mine the dream of a madman. If that happens, it will not surprise me at all. Those who look backward have often thought those who look forward to be mad, and in thinking so they are justified. But what I am seeing today, perhaps within a few years, indeed perhaps within my own lifetime, they too will see with their own eyes, and at that time they will feel the need for reform when the storm is overhead and the opportunities for remedying what has been lost will be fewer.
(Tarjuman al-Qur’an, Jumada al-Akhirah 1355 AH / August 1936)