الإتجاہ الإسلامي في أدب الأطفال عند أبي الحسن علي الندويؒ

The Islamic trend in children's literature according to Abi al-Hasan Ali al-Nadwi R. h

Abstract

The article aims at the study of educational ideas of Allāma Shiblī with giving special focus to their importance and relevance to the present times. This is quite well-known that Allāma Shiblī (1857-1914) is one of those eminent thinkers and scholars who left a great impact on the Muslims of the sub-continent in their academic and socio-cultural life. Muslim education was one of the important issues in which he showed keen interest and devoted himself to build up the people’s minds for realizing the value of education and that of correlating it with the collective needs of the Ummah and demands of the time. In fact, his educational ideas were based on the assessment of the situation of the Muslims and a deep analysis of the problems faced by the Ummah in those days. Besides, he had personal experience of the actual working of modern and traditional systems of education due to his close association with M.A.O. College (Aligarh), Nadwatul Ulama (Lucknow), and Madrasatul Islah (Sarai Mir, Azamgarh). So his educational ideas were of much relevance to the present scenario of Muslim society, particularly to the development of the individual personality of the Muslims as well as for meeting the requirements of their religious and socio-economic life. The article highlights Allāma Shiblī’s point of view that education is not only an individual need of every Muslim, it is also very closely connected with the betterment and development of their collective life. Therefore, neither traditional education is enough for them, nor merely modern education can solve the problems of their religious and socio-cultural life. What is actually required for them, in his opinion, is the establishment of a comprehensive system of education that may help the integration of traditional and modern education. He was also of the view that the products of the Madrasahs and modern institutions should work at their own level for the benefit of the Muslim community and that gap between them must be narrowed down through the regular interaction and cooperation with each other in the works of common welfare. With regard to the Madrasah education Allāma Shiblī thought that with the main emphasis on the fundamental sciences of Islam, there must be the provision of the teaching of English language and some other contemporary subjects (at least of social sciences) to make this education responsive to the demands of the time and more beneficial for the products of the Madrasahs as well as for the Ummah at large. On the other hand, he stressed that the rising activities of the non-Muslim missionaries and other opponents of Islam demanded that the Muslim Ummah must have able, sincere, and self-less preachers and interpreters of Islam to cope with the challenges of these missionaries and critics of Islam. The article concludes with the observation that Allāma Shiblī ’s views about objectives of Muslim education, integration of traditional and modern education, cooperation among the products of both the streams of education, and making the Madrasah education more useful for the Dawah and other works of Muslims welfare in the changed circumstances are quite relevant to present situation of Muslim society and so his views deserve serious consideration by Muslims in general and ulama and scholars in particular.