Book Review

THE DAILY GREATER KASHMIR SRINAGAR, SUNDAY, 6 MUHARRAM-UL-HARAM 1430 AH ; SUNDAY, JANUARY 04, 2009 CE
Saints and Saviours of Islam
A good work that need be read seriously
REVIEW BY DR MUHAMMAD MAROOF SHAH
If it is great labour, diligence and indefatigable spirit of work that defines scholarship then Prof. Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi has few rivals in our state. To his credit are more than two dozen books including the present one, viz., Saints and Saviours of Islam (Sarup & Sons, New Delhi) which is here reviewed and dozens of papers in different journals. Despite many repetitions and a great bulk of quotes which characterize his works this is still by all means an enormous output that is enviable for most of his colleagues though qualitatively it may not be so bulky. This prolific output could only be attributed to great passion, zeal and commitment to his work and mission. He is a truly an encyclopaedic scholar who has good command over his subject of Islamic Studies that he teaches. His wide and diverse interests in such diverse fields as philosophy, theology, mysticism, literature, history and even science establish his credentials as a scholar . Staggering labour and deep familiarity with almost all the important fields of Islamic discourse is a perquisite of writing the book under review. It is so easy and fashionable to be a “critic” and so difficult to be a writer oneself. We are habitual of dismissive criticism without bothering to try one’s worth on the subject by writing a similar work on which one gives expert opinion. Combining the diverse gifts of a poet, a journalist, a social worker, a polyglot, and a teacher with deep love for Islamic intellectual heritage and great zeal to breathe fresh spirit in increasingly fossilized thought structures bequeathed to us from our recent past, Prof. Hamid is a voice to be heard. He has been a pioneer in stimulating comparative dialogue in the Shah Hamdan Institute of Islamic Studies and this book is informed by this comparative spirit. He has a rare knack of discerning parallels across traditions and thinkers and foregrounding much neglected dimensions of Islamic thought. It is not easy demanding great concentration and patience which Prof. Hamid is gifted with to sustain a long comparative analysis of as divergent thinkers as Ibn Taymiyah and Ibn Sina, Descartes and Ghazzali. Hamdani, Waliullah and Sirhindi. Prof. Hamid has hardly any negative critical remark for any of the personalities discussed in the book. He can change gears from theologian to a philosopher to a Sufi and it is evidence of his catholicity of thought. Iqbal deserved some space, perhaps the last chapter as he is one of the greatest saints and saviours of Islam in post-Waliullah Islam. The chapter on Hamdani makes the book a study of culture as well rather than personalities only. The chapter on Sufism in Kashmir adds indigenous colour to the history of Islamic revivalist and intellectual tradition. The lesser known Sufis are introduced in it. All the ten chapters of the book are independent essays and most of them treat their subject comprehensively. The last chapter sums up contribution of Muslims to science but one feels it could be enriched by enframing in the distinct perspective of traditional science of which Islamic science is an application. The critical sense which any student of philosophy and comparative religion must cultivate diligently, is not absent in Prof. Hamid and he hardly leaves any orientalist misreading go uncensored. It is difficult to be always consistent for him.Prof Hamid’s book reveals him to be a versatile scholar, a good complier, an informed reader. Though not mystically oriented he respectfully approaches Sufism and though critical of philosophizing religion, he is sympathetic to Muslim philosophers and though not an exoteric aalim he ably defends the formal structure of Islam and though not modernist in his approach to Islam he steers cautiously out of the neofoundationist dogmatist trap and all these things make him an intellectually balanced and to a great extent objective chronicler and critic.It is hoped that he will continue to give us more scholarly works and for that he will continue to read more focussedly, widely, critically and dispassionately. He musters enough energy to devour volumes and volumes of classical works in important classical traditional languages. The book discusses important philosophers, Sufis, theologians and scientists – the saviours of Islamic spirit especially of the Middle Ages. The author discusses life and important works of all the selected personalities which include Ibn Taymiyah, Ibn Sina, Ghazzali, Sheikh Ahmed Sirhindi and Shah Waliulllah. Of particular significance is the chapter on Shah Waliullah and Rational Sciences in Medieval India. The chapter on Ibn Taymiyah’s approach to scholasticism and logic is illuminating. An attempt to show that Ibn Taymiyah anticipated Mill and modern critiques of Greek logic is quite interesting contribution. The book provides much more information than criticism. It doesn’t advance a series of theses of its own but primarily limits itself to present the views of the personalities discussed. It is not clear who is his hero and with whom he sides in his interpretation of Sufism, Ibn Arabi, Sirhindi or Shah Waliullah. He seems to concede much of Ibn Taymiyah’s critique of Sufism and has little to disagree with Waliullah or Sirhindi. Certain repetitions, typographical errors, grammatical mistakes have crept in otherwise a good scholarly work that could benefit students of Islam, philosophy and comparative religion and deserves not only to be praised but seriously read as it largely succeeds in presenting a critical review of major thought currents of Islam.(Feedback at marooof123@yahoo.com)