KARACHI: There is a fundamental difference in the understanding of the concept of a university by the West and in our part of the world whereby in the West it is not meant for ideological indoctrination, said Dr Syed Nomanul Haq in his talk at the University of Karachi on Thursday.

He was giving a lecture on the ‘Study of the Early Islamic History: Methodology of Research and Teaching in Western Academia’ organised by the faculty of social sciences as part of their distinguished lecture series. The talk was, however, more about the comparison of academic institutions in the West with ours and briefly touched upon the problems in periodisation of Islamic history.

Dr Haq said that in the West the purpose of institutions is to develop enquiring minds, so that students can investigate. He illustrated his point by citing an email exchange between him and his colleague about students discussing the difference between azaab and aazmaish. The fellow professor wrote that the students had come to the conclusion that both azaab and aazmaish were the same. The professor wanted to know Dr Haq’s viewpoint. “There is a lexical issue and there is a conceptual issue. If the students have come to this agreement then it is a point of view, this is tajzia.”

Another feature of Western academic institutions is that they are not meant for direct moral training, he said. “A person giving lectures on ethics does not necessarily have to be an ethical person. Similarly, a person giving a lecture on Buddhism does not have to be a Buddhist.” For Dr Haq, the basic philosophy of liberal arts education in the West is not meant to promote an ideology. “There is a separation of one’s intellectual world from one’s personal world.”

The professor who teaches at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) said that in Pakistan there is an obsession with applied sciences. “But Harvard does not have an engineering programme. The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton has no labs. Here we have nominal liberal arts programmes.” He vociferously criticised the lack of humanities studies and especially the study of languages in local academic institutions. “One of the most egregious errors that we have done is we have lost language training. We cannot read language sources.”

Responding later to a question about this theme, he said that it is the policy of the Higher Education Commission (HEC) to curtail funding for social sciences and encourage students to pursue applied science subjects. “I have never in my life seen a document in which discouragement is a matter of policy.” He said that the HEC policy document also designates subjects such as anthropology, history and the likes as feminine subjects.

Dilating further on loss of language training, he said studying languages in Pakistan carries a stigma. “People tend to say that because someone did not get admission in a particular subject that is why he/she is studying Persian or Arabic.” He added: “We have abandoned these fields to those who have nothing better to do which is a tragedy.” There are so many ancient manuscripts lying around but nobody can read them, he said.

Citing examples of Muslim scientists who have now been consigned to oblivion, he said that they were alternative intellectuals and all of them were trained at madressahs. “The rhetoric about madressahs needs to be examined because they are now considered to be institutions of backwardness. However, their work [in the past] is monumental and one has to read about them to understand their vision.” George Saliba, Professor of Arabic and Islamic science at Columbia University, was doing research on their work, he said. Dr Haq emphasised the study of languages to recover these manuscripts and also urged students to study poetry as it opens up one’s mind. “You see worlds through the verses of Hafiz and Saadi,” said Dr Haq, whose talk was interspersed throughout with verses of classical poets.

He then spoke about the difference between conventional neutrality also known as manufactured truth and real neutrality or ontological reality; both of these concepts relate to control. He explained these concepts in terms of production of knowledge which he said is also about control. “In manufactured truth the expert controls the subject,” he said. He gave the example of the Ottoman Empire which, after its breakup, was divided into several nation states and created in haste. “People, sometimes, had to change maps three times a day.” He said that one has to challenge such manufactured truths and if not that, at least examine it.

Related to the periodisation of Islamic history, he termed it a problem as well-known historians defined certain periods in history as “golden age” or “dark ages”. But the fact is that sustained scientific work in Islam began after the golden period i.e. after 1258 he said. Giving the instance of Copernicus and his work On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, he said the mathematician and astronomer formulated his theories that were heavily borrowed from Muslim scientists and their works such as Ibn al-Shatir, al-Nafis and al-Tusi. “They all came after Ghazali [post-12th century].”

Dr Haq spoke about successfully developing and teaching liberal arts courses at Lahore University of Management Sciences and IBA. “No student of mine is jobless or has need of money. Some of them are studying and working at the top universities of the world.” Pertaining to this a student later commented that the professor was discussing something that was utopian and ideal and Dr Moonis Ahmar, the dean of faculty of social sciences, said that not everyone had access to such elite-centric educational institutions. He recommended that students who do not have access to such places should begin by accessing their libraries, read newspapers and studying history.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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