| Answer:
As for the late Sir Syed Ahmed Khan being a great leader,
it is a fact and a reality that he was an eminent leader of
the Muslim nation. He served the Muslims at a very critical
juncture in history and with sincerity which is unparalleled
in the recent past.
Due to his sincerity,
he gathered around himself men of extremely high moral virtue,
character and calibre. None of our other leaders, other than
him, managed to bring together so many people with such
competence and qualities – Shibli, Hali, Nadhir Ahmad, Muhsin
al-Mulk, Waqar al-Mulk, to name just a few. Each one of them
is a source of pride for all Muslims due to his knowledge and
service to the nation. All of them supported Sir Syed and did
so with great fidelity. Mawlana Shibli disagreed with some of
his political ideology but, despite this, was so concerned of
his sincerity to the nation that, when he heard of his passing
away, in a letter, declared it a great national calamity.
My mentor Mawlana
Farahi (may God have mercy on him) considered Sir Syed’s
Tafsir a fitnah but was a great admirer of his high character
and honesty of purpose for the nation.
Though we have not met
him, yet have heard many valuable accounts of his concern for
the nation. That is why we consider him a very great leader of
the Muslim nation. However, I am a bit wary of the terms
“reformer” and “saviour.” The meaning of these words varies
from person to person, but to me according to the realistic
meaning of these expressions, the saviour is only God Almighty
and I consider reformers only those who have tried to correct
the ills of the world in the way of the prophets.
Nevertheless, one
should remember that Sir Syed Ahmad Khan was not only a leader
of the Muslim nation, but an orator and a writer as well. In
his day, he wrote responses to the objections on Islam and on
the Prophet of Islam (sws) raised by English Orientalists and
priests and also wrote an exegesis of the Qur’an with this in
mind.
Now every
knowledgeable person knows that orators are not always
conversant with the rules and elements of the faith. They are
primarily concerned with the questions and answers of their
opponents and objectors. They sincerely believe it their duty
to furnish a response to silence an objector if they come
across an argument against Islam even though their answer may
be far from reality. They also do not think it wrong to
provide an incorrect explanation if they cannot answer
criticism on Islam. An aspect of this weakness is that
orators/ writers of every era have tried to fit Islam to the
standards of wisdom of their time. When Greek philosophy
spread in the Muslim world, some tried to fit Islam to its
standards. When new western philosophy appeared some people
tried to match it to its scale. The correct way to serve and
promote Islam would have been to highlight Islam’s wisdom as
opposed to the perceived wisdom of every era. But not many can
have the God cognition of Ghazali, the vision of Ibn Taymiyyah,
the wisdom of Shah Waliullah nor the imagination of Allamah
Iqbal. Could Sir Syed do better than the ordinary level in
this field? In order to do something exceptional, profound
knowledge of the philosophy of the time and understanding of
Islamic affairs was required. As far as western thought and
philosophy were concerned, he had no direct knowledge of them,
just what he had heard. Similarly he had no direct learning of
the faith. It was that he was a very intelligent man and had
the sympathy and consideration to try and help the Muslim
cause. For this reason he tried to provide answers to what he
perceived as objections to Islam and to the Muslims but the
way he adopted to respond was that he considered western
thought, philosophy and way as the real standard and then
tried to fit Islam to it. If he succeeded well and good but if
he saw that he could not find a plausible explanation he dared
negate its presence in Islam.
I try to view both
these aspects of Sir Syed’s life as distinct from each other.
I have a lot of respect for him as a national leader but
consider him an ordinary level writer / speaker and when I
read such things by him I wish he had not written them. May
God forgive these errors and exaggerations of his.
(Translated by Rakshanda Chaudry)
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