Maulana
Shibli Nu’mani (1857-1914) and His Rational Approach To Islam
Irfan
Engineer
(Islam
and Modern Age, July 2013)
The
popular belief about Islam is that it is a religion that has not reformed at all
and had no renaissance. “Where are the reformists in Islam?”, we are asked.
There have been reformists who have been invisiblized in the public discourse,
in our media and even in our education system. Partly this is a strategy
followed by hard core right wing ideologists who pro-actively want to convince
the people that Islam and Muslims are not only backward, but also inimical to
the interests of the country, who practice the doctrine of jehad against
non-believers. However, lack of information is also due to apathy for the Muslim
minorities in India and due to sheer laziness. Our education ought not to ignore
the life and history of minorities in order to better understand them and
promote harmony. It is for this purpose that we will be trying to outline the
understanding of Maulana Shibli Nu’mani about Islam.
Maulana
Shibli Nu’mani was foremost figure of modern Muslim society, one whose
individuality, depth and multifaceted personality has not been properly
appreciated. Maulana Nu’mani was a great scholar of Islam, who in matters of
theology, law and politics showed modern, rationalist and liberal tendency.
Maulana Shibli contributed to the Islamic world after the failure of the first
war for independence in 1857 and the consequent loss of power of the Muslim
elite. However, Maulana Shibli was less worried about the loss of power and more
worried about the truth and validity of his belief that were being threatened by
modern science.
Response
to the 1857 revolt and the brutal revengeful massacre of the Muslims who
participated in the revolt were two – 1) establishment of Darul Uloom Deoband by
Maulana Nanautvi in 1866 for studying of Qur’an and the Sunnah, the Shari'ah and
the Tariqah; and 2) the reform movement led by Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan which came
to be known as the Aligarh movement. The
latter movement was an answer to the conflict between religion and scientific
thought. The challenge before the modernists like Sir Sayyid was to save
religion from the relentless challenge posed from the modern thought and western
sciences. Sir Sayyid reinterpreted Qur’an. The basic foundation of his tafsir (interpretation) was that there
could not be any contradiction between the word of God (Qur’an) and work of God
(nature). Contradiction would tantamount to falsifying the word of God as work
of God was undeniable and self-evident. Sir Sayyid found the solution in
exercising human reason in harmonizing both and overriding the principles of the
interpretation of the Qur’an and formulating modern
theology.
Maulana
Shibli, Sir Sayyid’s colleague, proposed a different solution to the problem. He
distinguished modern science and modern philosophy on one hand, and religion on
the other hand. Matters that were definitely and indisputably established on the
basis of observation and experiment were called science, and those which were
beyond the grasp of experiment came in the category of philosophy. He therefore
found no conflict between science and religion as they had nothing to do with
each other, and they addressed entirely different subject matters. For example
the problem of weight of air, number of elements, chemical composition of water
and such other matters did not concern religion but were in the domain of
science.
Religion
on the other hand was concerned with issues such as ‘did God exist?’ or ‘was
there life after death?’ or reward and punishment and concepts of good and evil.
The popular understanding of the majority of people is that religion cannot be
scientific and rational on the one hand and science or rationalism is on the
other hand, irreligious. One can therefore be either religious or rational.
Maulana Shibli points out that religion can be rational, and indeed his
understanding of Islam was that it was a rational and human centric religion.
Religion guides followers in matters of notion of good and worthy life, laws to
build harmonious societies, notions of justice and rights and duties of members
of the society towards each other. Science may not be equipped to be concerned
with these aspects. Science may discover laws of nature and properties of
various elements which, for example, may equip human beings to harness nuclear
energies. However, having discovered the impact of nuclear fission and fusion
and measured the energies unleashed nuclear fusion and fission, humans still
need to figure out what would be the good purpose for which nuclear fusion and
fission are to be employed – for manufacturing nuclear bombs or to harness
nuclear energy or neither? The latter comes within the domain of religion. The
boundaries and demarcation of science and religion therefore has to be properly
understood. Religion can be irrational, if the followers are required to follow
its tenets blindly and without applying their mind or questioning the doctrines.
However, religion can be rational if the followers are encouraged to apply their
mind and critical faculties on various
doctrines propounded and understand its meanings as times and context
change.
Confusion
arises when either science or religion steps into the others territory. In
Europe, religion transgressed into the territory of science and consequently
priests denounced all kinds of scientific inventions as acts of heresy and
apostasy. Among Muslims too, the practice of charging with unbelief for petty
matters was widespread. However, no one was charged with unbelief on the account
of scientific discoveries and investigations. Prophets’ only concern was
refinement of morals and they do not concern themselves in explaining natural
phenomena.
Maulana
Shibli with the above background set about affirming the tenets of Islam against
contemporary philosophy. The distinction was not neat and easy though. Maulana
Shibli crossed the main hurdle and set himself apart from Sir Sayyid, who had
sacrificed the ‘irrational’ in Islam at the altar of science and nature. Maulana
Shibli however did not divest Islam of other-worldliness and did not have to
lose his transcendental touch. He positioned himself at once as admirer of
science and believer in religion. Islam to him was thus a natural religion in
consonance with the tenets of reason. The utility of reason was more than in
science. Reason is given paramount role in judging the truth of religious
beliefs. To him, Islam was the only religion that called upon man to use his own
reason and investigate nature. Qur’an enjoins upon believers to think
intelligently and to study nature as the signs of God.
There
are two schools in Islam – the Mu’tazilites and the Ash’arites. Mu’tazilites
were more rational and human centric while the Ash’arites were traditional and
more God centric. Maulana Shibli was attracted towards the Mu’tazilites. The
Mu’tazilites believed that God’s commands are always based on reason, justice
and goodness; things are possessed of inalienable properties both in moral and
physical sense, and there is in operation, an unbroken chain of cause and effect
in this world; and, finally, man has freedom of will and action. Mu’tazilites
tended towards spiritual interpretation of the supernatural. Thus Shibli
demonstrated natural rationalism and reasonableness of Islam. According to
Mu’tazilites and Muslim philosophers such as al-Farabi, Ibn Sina and Ibn Rushd,
composed of atoms, the world is eternal; that motions of atoms is essential to
matter; that there are various laws of nature in accordance with which these
atoms meet and coalesce so that faculties and properties are born into them.
Maulana however falls short of imagining world without creator. He sees role of
God in harmonizing numerous laws of nature, since harmony is not essential
property of these laws. To him, eternal world (as he believed that matter was
indestructible) means eternal God.
Prophet,
for Maulana Shibli, has many faculties, particularly spiritual faculties (quwwaten) to perceive ultimate realities
and moral concepts, for the compelling purposes of social organization. These
special faculties may enable them to take care of the others by standardizing
the law of morality. This power is not perfected through intellect and learning.
Prophets are just like geniuses in other fields of human activities. Prophets
are more of moral and spiritual geniuses. It is this genius or perceptive power
that can be termed as ilham or wahy (revelation). Thus Maulana Shibli
turned God-human relationship into a human-God relationship – where human
reaches out to God rather than God to human. It is human being who is the centre
of religious activity rather than God. It is not only Qur’an, but also the
character of the Prophet that establishes prophecy.
Since
the guidance of common people is the paramount object of a Prophet’s teachings,
their level of understanding has been taken into consideration in the Shari’ah (laws). One should not forget
that the Shari’ahs prior to the prophet and even the Shari’ah brought through the Prophet
incorporate many local customs and practices which can be open to
change.
Maulana
Shibli was influenced by mystical rationalism of Rumi whose kalam was based on eclecticism that
refused to regard any religion as absolutely false, but considered religions as
mixed in various proportions with elements of falsehoods and
truth.
Conclusion:
To
Maulana Shibli what mattered was not scientific certainty in the matter of
religious beliefs. He attempted to differentiate between the quality of
scientific and religious truth. Religious truths could never be established in
scientific sense. Religious truths were emotive. Religious truths were needed to
weaken the materialism, consumerism, greed, selfishness, etc. in the minds of
people and to motivate them to be concerned for others and to build a harmonious
society and live a moral and spiritual life. This did not mean that religion
need not be based on reason, wisdom and human thoughts using rational faculties,
understand the word of God in changed context.
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Institute of
Islamic Studies, Mumbai, India
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