KARACHI, Dec 22: Both Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Allama Iqbal proved that, contrary to what people believe, the Muslims did not stand in the way of the progress of civilization.

This was the thrust of the memorial lecture Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui delivered at a function organized by the Syed Mohammad Taqi Foundation on Saturday.

Quoting copiously from the works of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Dr Siddiqui that he looked on Sir Syed Ahmed Khan primarily as a reformer.

“People criticize Sir Syed Ahmed Khan for writing Tarikh-i-Sarkashiaye Zila-i-Bijnor. They accuse him of fawning on the British. I urge his detractors to go through Asbab-i-Baghawat-i-Hind as well. One can understand Sir Syed only when one is familiar with these books. While Sir Syed, on the face of it, used a somewhat flattering tone to win the approbation of the British in Tarikh-i-Sarkashiaye Zila-i-Bijnor, he sided with the Muslims in Asbab-i-Baghawat-i-Hind.”

Dr Siddiqui noted that Sir Syed believed that all those traditions, or rather “behaviour patterns”, which were anachronistic should be abandoned by the Muslims so as to prove this widely-held view — that the Muslims stood in the way of the progress of civilization — wrong.

Such ideas, he said, had become the basis for the magazine Sir Syed had brought out later on.

Dr Siddiqui said that Sir Syed had come in for a lot of flak for his modern ideas. “It is, however, interesting to note that while Maulana Abul Kalam Azad — whose religious ideas were diametrically opposed to those of Sir Syed — excoriated him in 1913 in his magazine Al-Hilal, he afterwards heaped praises on Sir Syed.”

He said that in his book, titled Azad ki kahani, kuch unki, kuch meri zabani, Maulana Abdul Razzaq Maleehabadi quoted Azad as saying

that if his (Azad’s) religion had permitted him, he would have worshipped a statue of Sir Syed.

Dr Siddiqui said Allama Iqbal had been exceedingly fond of Jamaluddin Afghani. However, he said, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan had been slightly critical of the stand taken by Jamaluddin Afghani vis-a-vis Jihad. Sir Syed took a dim view of the letter Afghani had written to the emperor of Iran, urging him to take up arms against the British.

Jamiluddin Aali, who presided over the function, stressed the need for publishing the works of the late Syed Mohammad Taqi.

Earlier, Syed Mumtaz Saeed, spoke briefly about Dr Mohammad Ali Siddiqui. He said that Dr Siddiqui had been born in Amroha in 1938. Till recently, he had been the director of the Quaid-i-Azam Academy. At present, he was a teacher at Hamdard University.