(This is the second article of the series on the life and intellectual contribution of the late Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqui, written by Abul Aala Subhani in Urdu and translated by Khushhal Ahmad in English)
Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqi became a member of Jamaat in 1950 and Dr. Abdul Haq Ansari in 1952, while both of them were fully involved in Jamaat activities since 1946. In the important decisions of his life, he wanted to fulfill the requirements of commitment to the community and to contact the responsible person if there was any difficulty so that any work could be completed with complete satisfaction.
After the completion of the High School in 1947, when the Jamaat refrained from making proper arrangements for further education in view of its limited resources, the two people were convinced to restart the education process after a gap of nearly two months, thanks to the efforts of the teachers and the principal of Islamia College. On this occasion, the late Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqui wrote to Maulana Abul Lais Islahi about continuing his education, which could have been a type of letter seeking permission from the Jamaat. In response to this writing, Maulana Abul Lais Islahi wrote a letter on August 16, 1947, describing Jamaat’s position and trend regarding modern education at the time. This letter also shows that another letter was sent from Markaz, but it was unable to reach Dr. Siddiqi for some reason.
So, referring to the subject of that old letter, Late Maulana Abul Lais Islahi writes in this letter:
“However, the meaning of the letter that has been sent to you is that under the circumstances you have described, if you wish to continue your current education, you are entitled to do so. The heart is so affected by the flaws of the present education that it dares not allow it. When there are constraints in front of you, we will have to bear your decision. Masha Allah, you are wise enough. We expect you to pursue this education for the right reasons, and if, God forbid, you discover that it is causing more harm than good, you will drop it without hesitation. The focus of all our work should be that motto, which is the true motto of a believer, and it should be kept close to our hearts in all circumstances.” (See: Pg 64 Islam, Ma’ashiyat aur Adab)
Dr. Siddiqui had a clear vision, so he never looked back and always served the motto. He undertook a BA after intermediate, but when a secondary seminary was established, he abandoned his university education and happily joined the seminary. The secondary seminary was a pivotal point in Dr. Nejatullah Siddiqui’s life; on the one hand, he had a good group of highly talented, intelligent, and inquisitive colleagues, a wonderful reading and writing environment, and on the other, he had a team of excellent teachers.
Dr. Siddiqui responds to a question about the environment and activities at the secondary seminary by saying:
“There, we all used to participate in various discussions and debates, there were conversations on various topics, and the order was such that after Asr prayer, we could study modern sciences on our own. Among others, Shah Zia-ul-Haq Sahib, one of Dr. Zakir Hussain’s associates and a member of Jamaat Shura, was appointed as our caretaker. Maulana Abul Lais Sahib’s specialty was that wherever he lived, he used to establish good relations with the people and make them very close; Maulana did something similar in Rampur, so it became easier for us to learn from the magnificent historical library “Raza Library”. We also had the opportunity to benefit from two eminent personalities of Rampur, Maulana Abdul Wahab Khan Rampuri and his brother Maulana Abdul Salam Khan. Aside from that, we made full use of various academic personalities such as Maulana Abul Lais Islahi, Maulana Sadruddin Islahi, Maulana Jalil Ahsan Nadvi, Maulana Ayub Islahi, and others. My temperament was slightly different from Abdul Haq Sahib’s from the start; my routine was to go for a morning walk, attend some meetings, and participate in some literary activities.” (See: Monthly Rafiq-e-Manzil, November 2012)
Dr. Siddiqui was very clear about the secondary seminary, and he writes about it in his book “Islam, Ma’ashiyat aur Adab“: “This seminary was founded in 1950 and closed in 1960. The aim was to teach Arabic, Qur’an, Hadith, Fiqh, and other Islamic sciences to university-educated youth over a four-year period so that they can do scientific and research work in any of the modern sciences from an Islamic perspective in the future.” (See: Pg 11)
While studying in secondary seminary, Dr. Siddiqui had the fortunate opportunity to become acquainted with Allama Farahi’s thoughts and benefit from the Late Maulana Akhtar Ahsan Islahi, a student of Allama Farahi.
Dr. Siddiqui says: “After finishing our secondary seminary course, I, Ansari Sahib, and Hamidullah Sahib went to Madrasat-ul-Islah to study the Qur’an, where I read it from Maulana Akhtar Ahsan Islahi, may Allah have mercy on him, a student of Allama Farahi and a member of the Jamaat’s Majlis-e-Shura. The most important element of Madrasat-ul-Islah was that we were given special notes by Allama Farahi to use, the majority of which have now been published. Ansari Sahib and I left after six months, but Hameedullah Sahib remained for a year.” (See: Monthly Rafiq-e-Manzil, November 2012)
In Madrasa-tul-Islah, Dr. Siddiqui used to study the Qur’an and Nazm-e-Qur’an from the late Maulana Akhtar Ahsan Islahi and other senior teachers as per the program, and at the same time used to teach regular English and some contemporary subjects to the students. My paternal uncle, the late Maulana Amanatullah Islahi used to say that during that time, Nejat Sahib had taught the English language to the students of his class.
Dr. Siddiqui in Madrasah-ul-Islah, as per schedule, used to study Quran and poetry from Maulana Akhtar Ahsan Islahi and other great teachers, and at the same time used to teach regular English and some contemporary subjects to the students. Our elder father Maulana Amanatullah Islahi late used to say that during this time Najat Sahib taught the English language to the students of his class.
To what extent Dr. Siddiqui was influenced by Farahi’s thoughts, needs to be studied separately, but it is true that he was particularly interested in the works of Allama Farahi, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, he had a special interest in the Qur’an, and the aspect of the use and reasoning of the Qur’an is very prominent in his writings.
Dr. Siddiqui was inspired by Maulana Maududi’s literature and decided that he wanted to work in the field of economics even before enrolling in secondary seminary, so he took part in BA at Aligarh Muslim University, and in BA, he chose Economics as a subject in addition to Arabic and English languages. However, when the decision was made to establish a secondary seminary, he left BA and became involved with the seminary.
The future was a major concern for him after returning from Madrasa-ul-Islah. It was clear that doing major work in the field of economics at the academic level would be impossible based on personal study, so he went to Aligarh Muslim University’s economics department and enrolled as a free student in the MA economics class. Then, in 1956, he was admitted to the regular Aligarh Muslim University for a BA in Economics.
Admission to Aligarh Muslim University was the personal decision of Dr. Siddiqui, and the officials of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind were not very satisfied with his decision. This period of Jamaat-e-Islami was fraught with perplexity, on the one hand, there was the problem of determining the nature of the existing system, and there was a tendency to completely boycott the existing system, a component of which was the education system; on the other hand, there was the problem of meeting its academic and intellectual needs. The Jamaat clearly did not have the resources to create an alternative at that time, nor do they have it today. As a result, this issue was also debated in the Markazi Majlis Shura at the time.
Dr. Siddiqui describes the incident in the following words:
“When we entered the university, there was a lot of commotion against us, saying that these people are becoming part of the fallacious system, that it is killing the purpose of the secondary school, and so on; even our membership in the Shu’ra was discussed, and one of the reasons for the closure of the secondary seminary was given that the students are going to the university after passing out from here.” (See: Monthly Rafiq-e-Manzil, November 2012)
Commenting on this incident, Dr. Siddiqui says:
“Our experience has shown that whatever work was done by seminary students was done by those who later went to university. The main objective of our higher education in Aligarh was to serve the movement; otherwise, if we wanted to be a part of the same system, the best time to do so was after intermediate, while our parents desperately wanted us to do engineering. People misunderstood the spirit of Maulana Maududi’s writings; Maulana Maududi’s intention was not at all that we should not turn to these institutions, as Maulana Maududi later expressed.” (Ibid.)
Dr. Siddiqui earned his BA in Economics from Aligarh Muslim University in 1958 and his MA in Economics from the same institution in 1960. During both of these phases, he rose to prominence at the university. He was a prominent figure in the university and was well-regarded by the students during his student days. This was the period of the rise of socialist tendencies in the university, Dr. Siddiqui and his colleagues gathered students with Islamic tendencies and prepared them to play an effective role in the university.
After earning his MA in Economics, he enrolled in the Department of Economics at Aligarh Muslim University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1966 with the title “A Critical Examination of Recent Theories of Profit.” One of the distinguishing aspects of Maulana Syed Abul A’ala Maududi was great comprehensiveness in his personality, on the one hand, he was skilled in modern sciences, and on the other hand, he had extensive knowledge of religious sciences. It was because of this that he spoke with complete confidence and conviction in the language of the time, and he was eagerly heard and read avidly throughout the world.
Dr. Siddiqui and his colleagues were raised in the same manner; they received modern education up to intermediate and achieved a prominent position in it, and they were then associated with secondary seminary and Madrasat-ul-Islah, where they also achieved a high spot. They returned to university and completed their higher education there as well, with distinction. So, like Maulana Maududi, Dr. Siddiqui also had a great comprehensiveness in his personality, he also had a keen eye on contemporary sciences and a thorough knowledge of religious sciences. This comprehensiveness of knowledge in religious and modern sciences is evident in his works on Islamic economics, Islamic thought, and Maqasid-ul-Sharia.
(To be continued)
