Sayyid Ahmad Khan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sayyid Ahmad Khan with the medals of the Order of the Star of India
Sayyid Ahmad Khan

Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan Bahadur ( Urdu سید احمد خان بہادر; * October 17, 1817 in Delhi ; † March 27, 1898 in Aligarh ) was an Islamic thinker and a central figure in South Asian reformist Islam .

Life

His ancestors originally came from the Persian city of Herat , in medieval Khorasan , before they emigrated to India. Khan served at an Islamic court for a long time, writing treatises on Islamic history and the Islamic religion.

Relationship with the British

From 1839 Sayyid Ahmad Khan worked as a civil servant for the East India Company . In this role, wherever he was active, he founded translation associations such as the Translation Society. His devotion to the English language and culture had increased since his visit to England in 1869/70, which led to strong criticism. His opponents accused him of seeing British civilization as the highest level of culture. On the part of the British, in turn, he received the title of nobility as a loyal subject.

During the uprising of 1857 , he had defended the colony in Bijnaur from the insurgents in his function as British civil servant.

Sayyid Ahmad saw cooperation with the British as the only way to improve the situation of Muslims in India. For him, the uprising of 1857 was the result of misunderstandings between the British and the Indian Muslims, since they did not know or understand each other's customs and manners. So he tried to write a commentary on the Bible. Sayyid Ahmad did not complete the comment, but it can still be considered important as it was the first attempt at comment by Muslims.

Thinking and working

Khan has gone through three stages of thought in his life, which can be classified as follows:

  1. Religious thinking (1842–1857),
  2. Time of translation (1857-1869),
  3. Interpretation of Religion (1870–1898).

Using certain verses of the Koran , which he reinterpreted, he tried to prove that jihad is only compulsory for Muslims if there is “active suppression or obstruction of religious practice”. For Khan, jihad is thus a struggle for religious freedom, but since the British do not hinder ritual prayer , Ramadan fasting and the pilgrimage to Mecca , jihad against them is inadmissible. Khan interprets the armed conflict between the Prophet and his successors after the expulsion not primarily as a fight against another religion, but for the free practice of religion. The basic theological lines of Khan are shaped by the teaching of Shah Waliullah and thus continue the ideas of an inner-Islamic renewal movement that has not yet emerged in interaction with the West. Khan also emphasizes the focus on the Koran and Sunna in the context of ijtihad in solving legal problems.

Sayyid Ahmad Khan also dealt with the challenge that the emerging discipline of science posed to society and religion.

In a speech he explains what he thinks true Islam should be like. On the one hand, he sharply distinguishes Islam from Greek philosophy (especially Aristotle ), whose modes of thinking are deeply rooted in Islamic culture, thus indirectly criticizing the rationalist Islam that is taught at the madrasas , the Islamic universities. For him, Greek philosophy is an inadequate means of satisfying the demands that modern natural science places on religion . This modern natural science is distinguished by its empiricism and precisely not by a framework of thought based on metaphysics. Sayyid Ahmad Khan sees this scientific empiricism and experience orientation as the point of contact with Islam and the fundamental compatibility with it. In his opinion, Islam must go back to its roots in order to be flexible enough to meet the demands of the new era. Sayyid Ahmad Khan can thus be classified into the broad currents of reform Islam, as it existed at the same time in Egypt , for example . For example, he tried to free the Koran from its mystical accessories and emphasized scientific elements within theology. This attempt to combine theology and science brought him a lot of criticism, however, because he had not completed the madrasah training himself, but had nevertheless set himself the task of questioning theological statements. These accusations came mainly from the part of the orthodox Muslim movements of the Ahl-i Hadīth and the Deoband school, some of whom criticized him as a "naturalist". He was also heavily criticized for his biblical commentary, in which he contradicted the allegation of falsification of the stories. In this context he was accused of being too assimilated to the colonial West.

From around 1862 Ahmad Khan dealt with the Bible, to which he attributed the fundamental authenticity of the scriptures and partial revelation character. He did not share the allegations made by Muslims at the same time that Christianity was a polytheistic religion because of its doctrine of the Trinity. In 1869/70, Ahmad Khan lived in England for about a year and a half. Upon his return he tried not only to convince the Muslims in India to be loyal to British rule, but also to absorb something of Western culture. He also decided to build a "Muslim Cambridge". The intention that he pursued was to make Muslims fit for the elite and state system again. In British colonialism, the system changed in such a way that Brahmanic Hindus in particular were now employed in administrative positions who could more readily be integrated into the colonial administrative system. In doing so, they formed a new elite class vis-à-vis the Muslims. The Muslims felt this development as humiliation, which is why they turned away from the system. By turning away, they missed the connection, which also affected (linguistic) education, among other things. In order to restore connectivity, Khan founded the Anglo-Muhammadan Oriental College , later the Aligarh Muslim University . Here young Muslims could learn the new official language, English, so that they could meet the colonial demands. The redesigned learning canon also aimed to bring students into contact with humanism, natural sciences and political theory. As a consequence, Muslim elites should be re-established. A mosque should be attached to each of these colleges, just as churches are attached to the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge. In 1873 the first plans of the college were published. In 1875 the Aligarh Muslim University was founded in Aligarh, India. Khan's commitment to education policy and his far-reaching influence also found expression in the work of the Muhammadan Educational Conference, founded in 1886. Its aim was to spread a modern and higher level of education among the Muslims, with translation work from English to Urdu playing an essential role. Khan was strongly opposed to further political developments. When the Indian National Congress was founded in 1885 , he even recommended that his fellow believers stay away from the congress. Khan feared that the shift in power in favor of the Hindus, which had existed since the uprising in 1857, would push the Muslims, who are only represented as a minority, to the sidelines.

Islam as "true religion"

The central argument for Islam as a "true religion" postulates Khan in his statement "Islam is nature and nature is Islam." For him, harmony with empirical nature forms the foundation of religion . So, too, the nature of man is viewed as a reasonable kind and viewed in a reasonable way (both in the empirical sense). The revelation of God lies in his work (nature) and his word (Koran). These two cannot be differentiated categorically. All being (e.g. nature, man) is God's work, religion is God's word.

literature

Web links

Commons : Syed Ahmed Khan  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ George Farquhar Graham: The Life and Work of Syed Ahmed Khan . C. at SL Blackwood, 1885, p. 1.
  2. ↑ Monika Tworuschka: Islam in the 19th century . In: Albrecht North, Jürgen Paul (ed.): The Islamic Orient - Basics of its history . Würzburg 1998, p. 422.
  3. ↑ Annemarie Schimmel : Islam in the Indian Subcontinent . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1992, ISBN 3-534-09273-2 , pp. 106 .
  4. ↑ Annemarie Schimmel : Islam in the Indian Subcontinent . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1983, ISBN 3-534-09273-2 , pp. 105 .
  5. ↑ Annemarie Schimmel : Islam in the Indian Subcontinent . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1992, p. 106 .
  6. ^ JMS Baljon Jr .: The Reforms and Religious Ideas of Sir Sayyid Ahman Khan . Leiden 1949, p. 45.
  7. ^ Rudolph Peters: Jihad in Classical and Modern Islam . Princeton 1995, p. 123 f.
  8. ^ Aziz Ahmad: Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan 1857–1964 . London 1967, p. 40 f.
  9. ↑ Ahmad Khan: Lecture on Islam (1884). In: Christian W. Troll: Sayyid Ahmad Khan. A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology . Vikas Publ. House, New Delhi 1978, pp. 307-332.
  10. ↑ Annemarie Schimmel : Islam in the Indian Subcontinent . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1992, ISBN 3-534-09273-2 , pp. 111 f .
  11. ↑ Annemarie Schimmel : Islam in the Indian Subcontinent . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1992, ISBN 3-534-09273-2 , pp. 107 .
  12. ^ A b Aziz Ahmad: Islamic Modernism in India and Pakistan 1857–1964 . London 1967, p. 37.
  13. ^ SR Sharma: Life and Works of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan . Book Enclave, Jaipur (India) 2011, p. 6 f.
  14. ↑ Annemarie Schimmel : Islam in the Indian Subcontinent . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1992, ISBN 3-534-09273-2 , pp. 177 .
  15. ↑ Ahmad Khan: Lecture on Islam (1884). In: Christian W. Troll: Sayyid Ahmad Khan. A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology . Vikas Publ. House, New Delhi 1978, p. 317.
  16. ↑ Ahmad Khan: Lecture on Islam (1884). In: Christian W. Troll: Sayyid Ahmad Khan. A Reinterpretation of Muslim Theology . Vikas Publ. House, New Delhi 1978, pp. 317-318.
personal data
SURNAME Khan, Sayyid Ahmad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indo-Islamic thinker
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH Delhi
DATE OF DEATH March 27, 1898
Place of death Aligarh