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European Journal of Business &

Social Sciences

Available at https://ejbss.org/

ISSN: 2235-767X

Volume 07 Issue 04

April 2019

Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 74

Shibli Nomani’s Educational Ideas: A Response to Modernity

About the author: Sazid Ali, is a Research Scholar at Centre for the Political Studies/

JNU

The second half of the 19

th century has been identified as a period of Modern reformism on

the one side and of Islamic revivalism on the other side. These two extremes represented the

intellectual responses of Islam by the Muslim elites to the western dominance. The one

represented by Sir Syed of Aligarh school who interpreted Islam within the paradigm of

modernity

1 while criticizing the traditional ulama for their anti-modern attitude. The other

one represented by the Deoband school which rejected the intellectual modernism of Aligarh

as “innovation imitating the west” (Taqleedi Ijtihad) and found the preservation (Taqleed) of

Islam as only way to survive under colonial modernity

2

. Within these extremes, Maulana

Shibli Nomani (1857-1914) tried to combine the spirit of Ijtihad within the paradigm of

Islam. The difference between Shibli and Sir Syed modernism was that “Sir Syed approached

Islam from the values of modern west; Shibli approached western values from the viewpoint

of Islam”

3

In most of the existing historiography, Maulana Shibli Nomani has been depicted as an

orthodox who had a conservative outlook towards modernism. He is depicted as an Islamic

revivalist4

, an orthodox rationalizer with a conservative mind

5

. On the other hand, one of the

major work available in English solely devoted to his works and ideas depicts him as a

“through and through modernist” who was “forced into taking defensive and reactionary

positions”6

. However, as argued by Murad that it is “difficult to categorize, label and pigeon

hole” Shibli’s thought as his views kept changing with the passage of time and he was also

1 Valerian Rodrigues, In Search of an Anchor: Muslim Thought in Modern India, EPW, 2011 vol. xlvi no. 49.

2 For Deoband school history see, Barbara Metcalf, (1982) Islamic Revival in British India.

3 W.C Smith, Modern Islam In India: a Social Analysis, Usha Publications, 1996, P.41

4

Ibid

5 Aziz Ahmad, Ahmad, Aziz. (1969). An Intellectual History of Islamic India, Edinburgh.

6Mehr Afroz Murad, Intellectual Modernism of Shibli Numani: An Exposition to His Religious and Political

Ideas, Kitab Bhavan, p. xv (preface) 2009.