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APPARENTLY, Shibli No’mani died in 1914, but he has simply refused to die: books and articles on him, both praising him and criticising him, keep on appearing.
Aside from the conferences organised and special publications brought out on his centennial commemorated in 2014, a large number of writings on Shibli are still coming out both in India and Pakistan. What is so special about Shibli? Why are some bent on disparaging Shibli and how did it begin? Why do some others defend him? Dr Khalid Nadeem’s new book Shibli shikni ki rivayet aur doosre mazameen (the tradition of Shibli-bashing and other essays) has some answers. The book published by Lahore’s Nashriyaat is a collection of research papers written on Shibli.
Criticism of Shibli had begun quite early and he was criticised by his contemporary ulema (religious scholars) for his Seerat-un-Nabi — a great work in several volumes on the life and teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) — which Shibli could not finish and his disciple Syed Sulaiman Nadvi completed. But religious scholars’ objections were more concerned with the person Shibli than his book, writes Khalid Nadeem.
Shibli was often criticised for his views that favoured blending Eastern and Western sources of knowledge and stressed that both be made part of curricula. And it was one of the reasons why he ultimately had to leave Nadvat-ul-Ulema, Lucknow, where he had worked tirelessly for improving the standards of education and syllabi. He then founded Dar-ul-musannifeen at Azamgarh. But sustained efforts to demolish Shibli’s image as a scholar and a person began in 1943, some 30 years after his death. Why?
Aside from criticism during Shibli’s lifetime, it was Maulvi Abdul Haq who began Shibli-bashing by commenting adversely on Shibli from time to time. Khalid Nadeem is of the view that Abdul Haq created an anti-Shibli atmosphere by raising doubts about Shibli’s scholarly position. Abdul Haq had asked Hafiz Mahmood Sherani, a renowned scholar of Urdu and Persian, to critically review Shear-ul-A’jam, Shibli’s work in five volumes on literary history of Persia. The long article by Sherani was serialised during a period of seven years (from 1922 to 1929) in Urdu, Anjuman Taraqqi-i-Urdu’s research journal, of which Abdul Haq was editor. Later, it was published in book form. Though Abdul Haq was Shibli’s student at Aligarh University, he preferred Altaf Hussain Hali over Shibli. The dislike began perhaps when Shibli severely criticised Hayat-i-Javed, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan’s biography penned by Hali.
But it was the publication of Hayat-i-Shibli, a biography of Shibli by Sulaiman Nadvi, published in 1943, that prompted many to write against Shibli. Nadvi had emphasised the differences between Shibli and Sir Syed, but had ignored Shibli’s letters addressed to Atiya Fyzee and many took Shibli to task. In 1945, Waheed Qureshi published a paper ‘Shibli ki hayat-i-muasheqa’ (Shibli’s love life), later published in book form, to prove that Shibli had a romantic liking for Atiya Fyzee. In 1946, Ameen Zubairi published a booklet Shibli ki zindagi ka aik rangeen varaq, which was reprinted as Shibli ki rangeen zindagi (Shibli’s romantic life), though Shibli’s life was not as colourful or romantic as the author tried to prove.
Later, many scholars joined in criticising Shibli, including Waheeduddin Saleem and Sheikh Mohammad Ikram. But what is more painful, as put by Khalid Nadeem, is not the criticism of Shibli’s literary and scholarly works, but his personality and character. In the final analysis Khalid Nadeem says that what caused uproar against Shibli was not Shibli himself but Sulaiman Nadvi’s book on Shibli’s life. In that book, Nadvi had explained in detail the differences between Shibli and Sir Syed.
The detailed account of Shibli‘s objections on Aligarh Movement and Sir Syed had infuriated the supporters of Sir Syed and Aligarh. Interestingly, much of the account by Nadvi was based on Shibli’s life written by Iqbal Ahmed Khan Suhail, a relative of Shibli’s, which had been published in many parts in Al-Islah, between 1936 and 1939. But at that time nobody took notice of it.
Other articles included in the book discuss the controversy surrounding Atiya Fyzee’s relationship with Shibli and Allama Iqbal. The relations between Shibli and Hali and Shibli and Sir Syed too have been discussed in other articles.
Khalid Nadeem is a researcher and academician. He teaches Urdu at Sargodha University and has a large number of books and research papers to his credit. In spite of being comparatively a young researcher, Khalid Nadeem has earned respect of his juniors and seniors alike. What has made him stand among the reliable and serious scholars is his logical arguments amply supported by authentic evidences and references from authoritative sources.
So Shibli lives on and with the hard work of researchers like Khalid Nadeem who delve into history and dig up facts, Shibli seems to live for perhaps another 100 years.
Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2017
