The origin of religious seminaries
By M S Ahmad
From the start of the nineteenth century the English, who came in the sub-continent in shape of traders, started to rule in the major part of the sub-continent. They started to demolish everything that is an identification of the Islamic culture and civilisation.
The families of the Mughal emperors, especially the princes were beheaded and their heads were presented to their fathers in disguise of gifts wrapped in silk. The tyranny continued till the then sub-continent rulers thought that would be enough for demolishing the religion of the people living there.
Frequent working of the Christian missionaries (who can be termed as the then NGOs) made the situation worse for the existing religionists of the part of the world. The missionaries were given the task for rebuilding the faith of the people living in the sub-continent in trinity.
Many persons belonging to different religions converted into Christians because of the missionaries and those who did not were forced to do so, which many of them denied to accept. The major victims of the tyranny of the British rulers in those days were the Muslims.
The root cause behind that was that they struggled to win freedom against the English intruders in 1857 but failed to achieve that. The Ulema of those days also took part in the campaign of winning freedom.
They waged Jihad against the British intruders from a place called Thana Bhawan by declaring the land as an Islamic state and a pious saint, Haji Imdadullah (who was later known as Haji Imdadullah Muhajir Makki after he migrated to Makkah) was declared the Amir-ul-Momineen, and they fought against the British in the field of Shamli (a place now in India).
Unfortunately, the Ulema lost the battle. Some of them were killed, some prisoned and some migrated to other lands. After losing the wars of freedom, the Muslims were targeted ferociously by the English rulers because they gained power in the sub-continent by overpowering the Muslims.
The English rulers demolished and dismantled everything that signifies a Muslim identity. Religious schools were raided. Nearly every tree of the land was containing one or more corpses of Muslim Moulvis or scholars, who were hanged till death--an effort used to eliminate Islam from the sub-continent, because the Moulvis and their ancestors were educating the Muslims from centuries and were the root cause of retaining the Muslim identity in the land by the Muslims.
Many scholars were tried in the courts and were granted life imprisonments- -some of them were sent to the famous prison in Andamans. Those efforts left very few Muslim scholars in the land. Many of them who survived left the country and went to other places of the world. The graves of some scholars who migrated are still present in Makkah, Madina and other places.
To save the faith of the Muslims from the deadly clutches of the missionaries roaming in the sub-continent, some eminent Muslim scholars started debates with the missionaries, in which they proved that Islam is the true path of Allah and the most true religion now existing in the world, the belief of trinity is false and the belief of unity and oneness of Allah is true, Jesus Christ was not crucified and is alive in the heavens and would come and descend to earth from the heavens before the Day of Judgement to kill the famous deceiver, Dajjal the One-Eyed, Bible is being altered and the Holy Qur'aan is now the Divine Guide Book for all the people of the world to follow, and all other beliefs stated by the Christians to be false. Great many Muslims survived to save their faiths watching and listening the debates. But that was not enough to fulfil the job.
In that scenario, after taking a close look at the situation, some pious hearted and selfless Muslim scholars started to think for the benefit and prosperity of the Muslims. They ultimately concluded that saving their identity as a Muslim lies in starting to construct a series of religious institutions.
The first institution that was constructed as the start of that campaign was at a locality called Deoband in district Saharanpur , UP (now in India ). It started to work with a single teacher and a single student under a tree where the first lecturer of the institution Mulla Mahmood delivered the first lecture. The first student was also Mahmood (Mahmood-ul- Hasan), who was later became famous for his struggle for freedom and was entitled as "Shaikh-ul-Hind" .
The personalities who started that campaign were Hadhrat Maulana Rasheed Ahmad Gangohi, Hadhrat Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanotavi (whose debates with Father Finder were famous for Maulana's successes), Hadhrat Maulana Muhammad Yaqoob Nanotvi, etc (Rahmatullah Alaihim Ajma'een).
After a short span of six months another institution was constructed in Saharanpur . The former one was named as Madrassah Arabia Deoband, which later renamed as Darul Uloom Deoband, and the newly constructed one as Mazahirul Uloom Saharanpur. And then Madaris were constructed in different parts of the sub-continent.
It was the same time when Sir Syed Ahmad Khan founded a college in Aligarh which was later upgraded and renamed as Muslim University Aligarh.
From then the word "Madrassah" gained popularity and so became the target first of English rulers and then their progeny who have been ruling us since the birth of Pakistan .
The English rulers since then started building an atmosphere against the Madrassah and Moulvis or Ulema in a manner that the words may become a logo of disregard. After the fall of the English Umpire, when the British 'intruders', who had become 'rulers' in between the span of war of freedom and their departure from the sub-continent, left the scenario they taught a part of their progeny how to perfectly aim the target; the target being Islam, Muslims, Madaris, Moulvis and Ulema.
And the other part of the English progeny was taught by them to raise the name of Islam, do every evil in the name of religion, and not to do anything that might benefit Islam and the Muslims.
We have been closely monitoring the activities of both the sections of the British progeny. And so far both of them have been doing the job successively and victoriously.
The part of progeny, ie the 'Kala Sahib' or the 'Kala Angrez', is far more victorious than their fellow brethren who are using the name of Islam. We have been continuously reading the articles publishing in the English newspapers, which misinterpret the religion, religionists and scholars of the religion. The articles have been depicting biased views about Madaris. Sometimes it is said that the Madaris are departing sectarian education--a lie that will not be proved till Judgement Day. And sometimes it is written that the Madaris are training centres for young Mujahids who have been trained to eradicate every system and every human that comes in their way. The part of English progeny fear that education imparted to the children in the Deeni Madaris comprises of anti-human rights issues. The most important thing for the Kala Sahib is that the boys are being trained in the Madaris for bringing a revolution like that of the Taliban.
These fictitious doubts circle the minds of these people. If they think on the issue rationally, they would find that the Madaris neither are a cause of sectarian killings because every Muslim sect imparts knowledge that is full of harmony. And the teachers teaching in the religious institutions never irritated a boy studying in their institution to kill a person belonging to the other sect, and they can't do so as there is no such teaching in any Islamic sect's belief to kill the members of other Islamic sects. It can be observed with the help of sending monitoring teams of notable citizens in the Deeni Madaris. The result they would find would be that religion and religious education never taught tyranny and oppression, it propagates harmony and brotherhood among different sects of society.
Furthermore, the religious scholars and Moulvis of our country never started a movement like that of the Taliban. They did not even think of that. The Madaris on the other hand vow to fight for the cause of the country. Would it also be held as one of their crimes? Just like imparting religious education has been made for them.
So, the Deeni Madaris should be considered a means for the propagation of knowledge. May Allah bless us the power to think, to identify the right and wrong and to accept the truth.
Ameen.
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