30 year-old Muhammad Saleem Hayat is a Ph.D. student at the Department of Arabic, School of Languages, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His doctoral research project is on the teaching of Arabic in Indian madrasas and universities. He is presently the Associate Editor of the Urdu ‘Sunday Indian’ magazine.
In this interview with Yoginder Sikand he talks about his own experiences as a madrasa student, focusing in particular on the teaching of the Arabic language in the madrasas.
Q: Could you tell us briefly about your personal and academic background?
A: I hail from a village in the Basti district of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. I completed the alim course from al-Jamiat ul-Islamia in Siddharthnagar, which is a branch of the Jamiat ul-Falah in Azamgarh, a renowned madrasa affiliated to the Jamaat-e Islami. After my twelfth grade examinations, which I passed as a private candidate, I joined the Arabic Department of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and got my Bachelor’s, Master’s and M.Phil. degrees from there. At present I am enrolled for a Ph.D. in the same Department.
Q: What is your Ph.D. thesis all about?
A: I am trying to focus essentially on the syllabus and methods of teaching used for Arabic in the Indian madrasas, in addition to universities. One question that I seek to address is why, after spending so many years at madrasas, generally madrasa students do not acquire adequate competence in Arabic. The problems are multiple: they have to do with the sort of texts that are used, the fact that the students are made to study simply too many subjects, the archaic teaching methods, the lack of good teachers and, in many senses, an outdated syllabus. In the course of my fieldwork I have found that few madrasas teach conversational Arabic, and, instead, generally focus on the strict memorization of the contents of particular books, which are then reproduced word-for-word by the students during their examinations.
Obviously, this is a very uncreative way of teaching. Often, students are made to memorise examples exemplifying rules of Arabic grammar written two or three centuries ago. They do not study Arabic as a living language. Nor, except in very few cases, is modern Arabic, which in many ways is quite different from classical Arabic, taught in the Indian madrasas.
Q: Why do you feel it is important that modern Arabic also be taught?
A: Students need to know modern Arabic for communicating with the Arab world and for benefiting from the works of modern Arab, including Islamic, scholars. In the last two centuries, particularly following Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, there has been a sea-change in Arabic literature in the Arab world, spearheaded mainly by literary figures in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. New idioms and ideas have emerged. Modern Arab scholars, both Muslim and Christian, have sought to respond to modern challenges and have produced an enormous corpus of literature in this regard. They departed from the beaten track of literature that was focused simply on jurisprudence or theology, seeking to relate literature to life and contemporary concerns, to nature, to society and to humanity at large. They brought about many innovations in style and structure. Many of the more religious-minded among them sought to provide answers from within a broad Islamic framework to contemporary questions. Others sought to promote nationalist feelings, stirring anti-colonial and anti-imperialist sentiments, championing various types of socialism and denouncing all sorts of oppression. Some of them critiqued foreign and indigenous rulers and corrupt clergy, arguing for the right for ordinary individuals to interpret religion. In this way they sought to make literature more socially relevant. They challenged the feudal and aristocratic literature that was a hallmark of the medieval Arab period. No longer was literature to be a preserve of the elites. Rather, it was to become the voice of the masses, the cry of the oppressed.
But since our madrasa students do not read their books and are not taught modern Arabic, they do not have access to these literary treasures. Nor are they aware of these new understandings of society, humanity and religion that these progressive Arab writers have been articulating. They are thus still stuck in the medieval groove, reading texts that were written centuries ago.
Q: So, would you advocate the introduction of these modern Arabic texts in the madrasas?
A: Certainly. This would also play a key role in changing and shaping the mindsets of the students, which is really very crucial. Only then can they understand modern Arabic journals and newspapers which reflect this new Arabic idiom and concepts. Even for the purpose of Islamic communication or dawah they ought to know modern Arabic as well. They can do this properly only if they are aware of contemporary issues, which modern Arabic literature, both secular and religious, deals with. Only then can they properly relate Islam to contemporary questions. Only then can they explain Islam in today’s context.
But the task is not as simple as just introducing modern Arabic texts in the curriculum. There are, sad to say, few teachers in the madrasas who are actually competent enough to teach modern Arabic, because most of them haven’t learnt it themselves. And then many of them have this understanding, which I of course do not agree with at all, that since many of the acclaimed modern Arabic writers, people such as Taha Husain or Naghuib Mahfouz, were not very religious, as they understand the term, themselves or else did not write particularly about religion, there is no need to read and study them! But there are also scores of modernist Arab Islamic writers, such as in Egypt, but I suppose most of our ulema have never heard about them as well.
Since the focus in the madrasas is on the teaching of fiqh, Hadith and so on, little attention in any case is paid to the teaching of Arabic literature or Adab, most of the few texts that are used for this purpose being centuries old, that do not deal with many of the issues that we are confronted with today.
Q: But in the Nadwat ul-Ulama, Lucknow, so I am given to understand, they do teach modern Arabic literature, don’t they? And perhaps in some other madrasas as well?
A: Nadwa is somewhat unique in this respect, but even there the teaching of modern Arabic literature is very restricted, consisting mainly of books penned by the Nadwi scholar Sayyed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi and collections of writings edited by him of early and modern Islamic scholars, not of other modern Arab writers. So, obviously, here, too, the range in terms of issues, themes and ideas is restricted.
In Deoband, where modern Arabic literature is not really taught, students study pre-Islamic Arabic literature, which, again, leaves them bereft of knowledge of modern literary developments that deal with contemporary social issues.
Q; You earlier mentioned that conversational Arabic is not seriously taught in most madrasas. What, then, is their basic method of teaching Arabic as a language?
A: Their basic approach, which is outdated completely and does not really provide students adequate competence in the language, is teaching Arabic through the rules of grammar. Consequently, students are over-burdened by simply too many grammar books. For instance, for this purpose in Deoband students study two books in Urdu, Kitab ul-Nahw and Kitab ul-Sarf, then one in Persian, Nahw Mir, one in Arabic itself, Hidayat ul-Nahw, and then two or three more books, all in the alimiyat course. All of these are very archaic texts, the most recent of these, the Kitab ul-Nahw, being some two hundred years old! To make matters worse, most of these books are repetitious, so the entire exercise consists of teaching the same thing first in Urdu, then in Persian and finally in Arabic!
I can’t help likening this to the case of a quack doctor who does not know how to diagnose a disease properly and so provides his patient four or five different medicines in the hope that at least one will work! And, in this regard, I should mention a statement by the noted Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun, also hailed as the father of modern Sociology, who wrote that ‘Too many books is the biggest hurdle in acquiring knowledge’.
Q: What reforms would you suggest in this regard?
A: We need new books, of course. We also need to shift from the rote method to comprehension and conversational competence. For this we should use new audio-visual methods, language laboratories and so on. Unfortunately, not many teachers in the madrasas are aware of these new tools and methods, and, even if they are, often their madrasas cannot afford the cost of the equipment required for introducing these methods. Also, there is this problem that some conservative ulema think that to introduce new methods would be tantamount to deviating from the path of their predecessors. They believe that the latter were particularly pious and great, and hence should be imitated as closely as possible.
I may be wrong, but I sometimes feel that the reluctance to modernize the Arabic teaching methods, including by teaching modern Arabic, might also have to do with a fear on the part of some ulema that this might cause the students to shift their interest to the question of their own personal careers, say as translators or as employees in firms in the Gulf, and that they might therefore be reluctant to become traditional ulema. They might possibly feel that if the madrasas are ‘modernised’ too much their graduates might then go on to join universities, which would, in turn, result in a decline of the traditional ulema network and institutions.
Q: The teaching of fiqh forms the core of the madrasa syllabus. What changes do you feel are needed in this regard?
A: Many of the fiqh issues that continue to be taught in most madrasas are quite irrelevant. Conversely, many issues of contemporary concern are not taught in the fiqh syllabus in the madrasas simply because the texts used for this, written centuries ago, obviously could not conceive of these problems. So, for instance, fiqh texts studied in many madrasas discuss, in considerable detail, the number of buckets of water one needs to empty out of a well in case a lizard falls inside in order to purify the water for performing ablutions before prayer. One scholar cites a certain number, and another cites a different figure and a third says that the entire well must be drained of water. And different figures are cited in the case of another animal falling into a well, say a cat or a pigeon! And all this is still taught although today people hardly use wells for drawing water!
Q: Some ulema argue that it is necessary to teach these old fiqh texts, even if they deal with many issues that are not of contemporary relevance, in order that students can deduce from them the rules to address new issues? How do you respond to this logic?
A: I think this is a lame excuse, a sort of escapism, a means to deny the very real need to reform the teaching of fiqh and introducing the teaching of fiqh rules for new issues. Perhaps some teachers simply do not want to take the trouble of learning new things, being content with whatever they had learnt when they themselves were madrasa students. This logic is flawed on another score, because, in any case, the principles of fiqh (usul-e fiqh) are taught as a separate subject in the madrasas, which is meant to equip students with skills to deal with contemporary fiqh issues.
Of course, while the teaching of new fiqh issues is crucial, it will not be so simple. With notable exceptions, madrasa teachers and students do not have the sort of interaction with the wider civil society that would impress upon them the need for this. Consequently, they are not aware of many modern developments and of the complexities of the issues that the new generation is facing. But, in the absence of such awareness, and if they know little or nothing about issues related to economics, society, politics and history and so on, how can the ulema interpret Islam to address contemporary concerns, or even to carry on their work of tabligh? If they are kept ignorant of these issues, they will become, as the Urdu saying goes, Laqir Ke Faqir or stuck in a narrow groove, limited only to preaching to their Friday flock.
Q: Might there also not be a fear that if madrasas ‘modernise’ beyond a limit, their students would enter universities, where their religious commitment might suffer?
A: Yes, I think that, in some cases at least, that fear is there, although one also has to recognize that today a number of madrasa graduates are indeed joining universities. But if some ulema feel that if their students go to universities their religious commitment will decline it is, at least to some extent, the fault of the madrasas for not providing the students proper training to withstand the temptations of the world once they step out of the portals of the madrasas.
Q: Of late, some organizations in India have launched short-term madrasa teachers’ training courses, and there is also talk of establishing an institution for this purpose. What are your views in this regard?
A: I think this is important. Today the system is such that fresh madrasa graduates automatically become teachers without undergoing any training and then remain in that position till they become old or pass away. And the older they get they are given more respect and reverence. Obviously, training will not help such teachers. They may not even accept to undergo any training. Many of them might even think it is useless or even below their dignity to have to be taught by someone else at their age! It can be useful only for new madrasa teachers or those madrasa graduates who want to go on to teach.
We could start with establishing a sort of central madrasa teachers’ training institute, which could offer short-term courses, covering such issues as child psychology, pedagogy, and basic ‘modern’ subjects such as Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Geography, International Relations, Elementary Science and so on. Alternately, lectures on these subjects can be held within the madrasas to graduating students. University lecturers can be hired for this purpose. Who will do it—the government or NGOs or Muslim community organizations—is another matter, but obviously this can happen only if the ulema themselves realize the importance of this and take the initiative. I feel the younger generation ulema, especially those who have also studied in madrasas, might be more amenable to the idea.
Q: But are there many such younger ulema, who have also had a university education, who have gone back to teaching in madrasas?
A; Unfortunately, not. Very few of them, indeed none that I know of, have done so. Once they join universities, they have their own new expectations about their careers, about earning a better salary than they would get in madrasas, where teachers’ salaries are generally quite modest. They want a materially more comfortable life than they would if they went back to the madrasas to teach. Many of them come from relatively poor or lower-middle class families, and their families expect that now that they have a university degree they would take up well-paying jobs, rather than teaching in a madrasa. I don’t think a single of the several madrasa graduates who have done their M.Phil.s or Ph.D.s from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, for instance, is now teaching in a madrasa. Rather, most are working as translators in Arab embassies, teachers in schools and universities in India and the Gulf and as employees in firms and Islamic institutions abroad.
To add to this, many madrasas will not welcome these students back because they might feel that they have become ‘misled’ ,or influenced by what they see as the ‘un-Islamic’ environment of the universities, and thus fear might negatively impact on the madrasa students. They might think that after having joined universities these students do not remain maulvis any more and, therefore, are not qualified to teach in madrasas.
And then there is also the question of whether university-trained madrasa graduates can adjust to the regimen in the madrasas again. Take my case, although this was before I joined the university. In 1997 I enrolled in a well-known madrasa but I decided to leave soon after as I was told that I could no longer stay in the hostel because I used to listen to the radio. In reply, I said that I used the radio to listen to the Arabic and English news, to improve my Arabic and English and also to learn about what was happening in the world. But the managers of the madrasa refused to listen. They alleged that I might secretly start using the radio to listen to songs! I could, of course, not stand that sort of suffocation and so I decide to leave that madrasa.
The point I am making by citing my own case is that I don’t think many madrasa graduates, who see a different world on joining universities, could adjust to the ways in which most traditionalist madrasas function.
Q: What are your future academic plans?
A: I would like to work on a book dealing with my own perception about the madrasas, focusing, in particular, on the issue of madrasa reforms. I want to write the book in Urdu, so that the ulema and madrasa students themselves can benefit from it. I also plan to do a book on how to improve the teaching of Arabic as a subject in both universities and in madrasas.
==============================================================
Muhammad Saleem Hayat can be contacted on mdsaleem242@yahoo.com
In this interview with Yoginder Sikand he talks about his own experiences as a madrasa student, focusing in particular on the teaching of the Arabic language in the madrasas.
Q: Could you tell us briefly about your personal and academic background?
A: I hail from a village in the Basti district of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. I completed the alim course from al-Jamiat ul-Islamia in Siddharthnagar, which is a branch of the Jamiat ul-Falah in Azamgarh, a renowned madrasa affiliated to the Jamaat-e Islami. After my twelfth grade examinations, which I passed as a private candidate, I joined the Arabic Department of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and got my Bachelor’s, Master’s and M.Phil. degrees from there. At present I am enrolled for a Ph.D. in the same Department.
Q: What is your Ph.D. thesis all about?
A: I am trying to focus essentially on the syllabus and methods of teaching used for Arabic in the Indian madrasas, in addition to universities. One question that I seek to address is why, after spending so many years at madrasas, generally madrasa students do not acquire adequate competence in Arabic. The problems are multiple: they have to do with the sort of texts that are used, the fact that the students are made to study simply too many subjects, the archaic teaching methods, the lack of good teachers and, in many senses, an outdated syllabus. In the course of my fieldwork I have found that few madrasas teach conversational Arabic, and, instead, generally focus on the strict memorization of the contents of particular books, which are then reproduced word-for-word by the students during their examinations.
Obviously, this is a very uncreative way of teaching. Often, students are made to memorise examples exemplifying rules of Arabic grammar written two or three centuries ago. They do not study Arabic as a living language. Nor, except in very few cases, is modern Arabic, which in many ways is quite different from classical Arabic, taught in the Indian madrasas.
Q: Why do you feel it is important that modern Arabic also be taught?
A: Students need to know modern Arabic for communicating with the Arab world and for benefiting from the works of modern Arab, including Islamic, scholars. In the last two centuries, particularly following Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, there has been a sea-change in Arabic literature in the Arab world, spearheaded mainly by literary figures in Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. New idioms and ideas have emerged. Modern Arab scholars, both Muslim and Christian, have sought to respond to modern challenges and have produced an enormous corpus of literature in this regard. They departed from the beaten track of literature that was focused simply on jurisprudence or theology, seeking to relate literature to life and contemporary concerns, to nature, to society and to humanity at large. They brought about many innovations in style and structure. Many of the more religious-minded among them sought to provide answers from within a broad Islamic framework to contemporary questions. Others sought to promote nationalist feelings, stirring anti-colonial and anti-imperialist sentiments, championing various types of socialism and denouncing all sorts of oppression. Some of them critiqued foreign and indigenous rulers and corrupt clergy, arguing for the right for ordinary individuals to interpret religion. In this way they sought to make literature more socially relevant. They challenged the feudal and aristocratic literature that was a hallmark of the medieval Arab period. No longer was literature to be a preserve of the elites. Rather, it was to become the voice of the masses, the cry of the oppressed.
But since our madrasa students do not read their books and are not taught modern Arabic, they do not have access to these literary treasures. Nor are they aware of these new understandings of society, humanity and religion that these progressive Arab writers have been articulating. They are thus still stuck in the medieval groove, reading texts that were written centuries ago.
Q: So, would you advocate the introduction of these modern Arabic texts in the madrasas?
A: Certainly. This would also play a key role in changing and shaping the mindsets of the students, which is really very crucial. Only then can they understand modern Arabic journals and newspapers which reflect this new Arabic idiom and concepts. Even for the purpose of Islamic communication or dawah they ought to know modern Arabic as well. They can do this properly only if they are aware of contemporary issues, which modern Arabic literature, both secular and religious, deals with. Only then can they properly relate Islam to contemporary questions. Only then can they explain Islam in today’s context.
But the task is not as simple as just introducing modern Arabic texts in the curriculum. There are, sad to say, few teachers in the madrasas who are actually competent enough to teach modern Arabic, because most of them haven’t learnt it themselves. And then many of them have this understanding, which I of course do not agree with at all, that since many of the acclaimed modern Arabic writers, people such as Taha Husain or Naghuib Mahfouz, were not very religious, as they understand the term, themselves or else did not write particularly about religion, there is no need to read and study them! But there are also scores of modernist Arab Islamic writers, such as in Egypt, but I suppose most of our ulema have never heard about them as well.
Since the focus in the madrasas is on the teaching of fiqh, Hadith and so on, little attention in any case is paid to the teaching of Arabic literature or Adab, most of the few texts that are used for this purpose being centuries old, that do not deal with many of the issues that we are confronted with today.
Q: But in the Nadwat ul-Ulama, Lucknow, so I am given to understand, they do teach modern Arabic literature, don’t they? And perhaps in some other madrasas as well?
A: Nadwa is somewhat unique in this respect, but even there the teaching of modern Arabic literature is very restricted, consisting mainly of books penned by the Nadwi scholar Sayyed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi and collections of writings edited by him of early and modern Islamic scholars, not of other modern Arab writers. So, obviously, here, too, the range in terms of issues, themes and ideas is restricted.
In Deoband, where modern Arabic literature is not really taught, students study pre-Islamic Arabic literature, which, again, leaves them bereft of knowledge of modern literary developments that deal with contemporary social issues.
Q; You earlier mentioned that conversational Arabic is not seriously taught in most madrasas. What, then, is their basic method of teaching Arabic as a language?
A: Their basic approach, which is outdated completely and does not really provide students adequate competence in the language, is teaching Arabic through the rules of grammar. Consequently, students are over-burdened by simply too many grammar books. For instance, for this purpose in Deoband students study two books in Urdu, Kitab ul-Nahw and Kitab ul-Sarf, then one in Persian, Nahw Mir, one in Arabic itself, Hidayat ul-Nahw, and then two or three more books, all in the alimiyat course. All of these are very archaic texts, the most recent of these, the Kitab ul-Nahw, being some two hundred years old! To make matters worse, most of these books are repetitious, so the entire exercise consists of teaching the same thing first in Urdu, then in Persian and finally in Arabic!
I can’t help likening this to the case of a quack doctor who does not know how to diagnose a disease properly and so provides his patient four or five different medicines in the hope that at least one will work! And, in this regard, I should mention a statement by the noted Muslim scholar Ibn Khaldun, also hailed as the father of modern Sociology, who wrote that ‘Too many books is the biggest hurdle in acquiring knowledge’.
Q: What reforms would you suggest in this regard?
A: We need new books, of course. We also need to shift from the rote method to comprehension and conversational competence. For this we should use new audio-visual methods, language laboratories and so on. Unfortunately, not many teachers in the madrasas are aware of these new tools and methods, and, even if they are, often their madrasas cannot afford the cost of the equipment required for introducing these methods. Also, there is this problem that some conservative ulema think that to introduce new methods would be tantamount to deviating from the path of their predecessors. They believe that the latter were particularly pious and great, and hence should be imitated as closely as possible.
I may be wrong, but I sometimes feel that the reluctance to modernize the Arabic teaching methods, including by teaching modern Arabic, might also have to do with a fear on the part of some ulema that this might cause the students to shift their interest to the question of their own personal careers, say as translators or as employees in firms in the Gulf, and that they might therefore be reluctant to become traditional ulema. They might possibly feel that if the madrasas are ‘modernised’ too much their graduates might then go on to join universities, which would, in turn, result in a decline of the traditional ulema network and institutions.
Q: The teaching of fiqh forms the core of the madrasa syllabus. What changes do you feel are needed in this regard?
A: Many of the fiqh issues that continue to be taught in most madrasas are quite irrelevant. Conversely, many issues of contemporary concern are not taught in the fiqh syllabus in the madrasas simply because the texts used for this, written centuries ago, obviously could not conceive of these problems. So, for instance, fiqh texts studied in many madrasas discuss, in considerable detail, the number of buckets of water one needs to empty out of a well in case a lizard falls inside in order to purify the water for performing ablutions before prayer. One scholar cites a certain number, and another cites a different figure and a third says that the entire well must be drained of water. And different figures are cited in the case of another animal falling into a well, say a cat or a pigeon! And all this is still taught although today people hardly use wells for drawing water!
Q: Some ulema argue that it is necessary to teach these old fiqh texts, even if they deal with many issues that are not of contemporary relevance, in order that students can deduce from them the rules to address new issues? How do you respond to this logic?
A: I think this is a lame excuse, a sort of escapism, a means to deny the very real need to reform the teaching of fiqh and introducing the teaching of fiqh rules for new issues. Perhaps some teachers simply do not want to take the trouble of learning new things, being content with whatever they had learnt when they themselves were madrasa students. This logic is flawed on another score, because, in any case, the principles of fiqh (usul-e fiqh) are taught as a separate subject in the madrasas, which is meant to equip students with skills to deal with contemporary fiqh issues.
Of course, while the teaching of new fiqh issues is crucial, it will not be so simple. With notable exceptions, madrasa teachers and students do not have the sort of interaction with the wider civil society that would impress upon them the need for this. Consequently, they are not aware of many modern developments and of the complexities of the issues that the new generation is facing. But, in the absence of such awareness, and if they know little or nothing about issues related to economics, society, politics and history and so on, how can the ulema interpret Islam to address contemporary concerns, or even to carry on their work of tabligh? If they are kept ignorant of these issues, they will become, as the Urdu saying goes, Laqir Ke Faqir or stuck in a narrow groove, limited only to preaching to their Friday flock.
Q: Might there also not be a fear that if madrasas ‘modernise’ beyond a limit, their students would enter universities, where their religious commitment might suffer?
A: Yes, I think that, in some cases at least, that fear is there, although one also has to recognize that today a number of madrasa graduates are indeed joining universities. But if some ulema feel that if their students go to universities their religious commitment will decline it is, at least to some extent, the fault of the madrasas for not providing the students proper training to withstand the temptations of the world once they step out of the portals of the madrasas.
Q: Of late, some organizations in India have launched short-term madrasa teachers’ training courses, and there is also talk of establishing an institution for this purpose. What are your views in this regard?
A: I think this is important. Today the system is such that fresh madrasa graduates automatically become teachers without undergoing any training and then remain in that position till they become old or pass away. And the older they get they are given more respect and reverence. Obviously, training will not help such teachers. They may not even accept to undergo any training. Many of them might even think it is useless or even below their dignity to have to be taught by someone else at their age! It can be useful only for new madrasa teachers or those madrasa graduates who want to go on to teach.
We could start with establishing a sort of central madrasa teachers’ training institute, which could offer short-term courses, covering such issues as child psychology, pedagogy, and basic ‘modern’ subjects such as Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Geography, International Relations, Elementary Science and so on. Alternately, lectures on these subjects can be held within the madrasas to graduating students. University lecturers can be hired for this purpose. Who will do it—the government or NGOs or Muslim community organizations—is another matter, but obviously this can happen only if the ulema themselves realize the importance of this and take the initiative. I feel the younger generation ulema, especially those who have also studied in madrasas, might be more amenable to the idea.
Q: But are there many such younger ulema, who have also had a university education, who have gone back to teaching in madrasas?
A; Unfortunately, not. Very few of them, indeed none that I know of, have done so. Once they join universities, they have their own new expectations about their careers, about earning a better salary than they would get in madrasas, where teachers’ salaries are generally quite modest. They want a materially more comfortable life than they would if they went back to the madrasas to teach. Many of them come from relatively poor or lower-middle class families, and their families expect that now that they have a university degree they would take up well-paying jobs, rather than teaching in a madrasa. I don’t think a single of the several madrasa graduates who have done their M.Phil.s or Ph.D.s from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, for instance, is now teaching in a madrasa. Rather, most are working as translators in Arab embassies, teachers in schools and universities in India and the Gulf and as employees in firms and Islamic institutions abroad.
To add to this, many madrasas will not welcome these students back because they might feel that they have become ‘misled’ ,or influenced by what they see as the ‘un-Islamic’ environment of the universities, and thus fear might negatively impact on the madrasa students. They might think that after having joined universities these students do not remain maulvis any more and, therefore, are not qualified to teach in madrasas.
And then there is also the question of whether university-trained madrasa graduates can adjust to the regimen in the madrasas again. Take my case, although this was before I joined the university. In 1997 I enrolled in a well-known madrasa but I decided to leave soon after as I was told that I could no longer stay in the hostel because I used to listen to the radio. In reply, I said that I used the radio to listen to the Arabic and English news, to improve my Arabic and English and also to learn about what was happening in the world. But the managers of the madrasa refused to listen. They alleged that I might secretly start using the radio to listen to songs! I could, of course, not stand that sort of suffocation and so I decide to leave that madrasa.
The point I am making by citing my own case is that I don’t think many madrasa graduates, who see a different world on joining universities, could adjust to the ways in which most traditionalist madrasas function.
Q: What are your future academic plans?
A: I would like to work on a book dealing with my own perception about the madrasas, focusing, in particular, on the issue of madrasa reforms. I want to write the book in Urdu, so that the ulema and madrasa students themselves can benefit from it. I also plan to do a book on how to improve the teaching of Arabic as a subject in both universities and in madrasas.
==============================================================
Muhammad Saleem Hayat can be contacted on mdsaleem242@yahoo.com
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