Darul uloom

Topic
Darul Uloom
Presented To: Miss Nazia
Presented By: M.Latif Sattar Ansari

INTRODUCTION
When modern culture and civilization attacked the Islamic
way of life under cover of the British rule in India, it was
Deoband and the great leaders of the faith produced by it that
sought to withstand it with the veritable firmness of
mountains, and successfully endeavored to protect the
religious faith of Muslims from destruction at the hands of the
British.
In those calamitous and critical times, the momentous and
far reaching services of Dar al-‘Ulum Deoband and its
numerous alumni in the field of religion, scholarship,
education, and political and national life cannot be regarded
as less valuable than those of any watchful government.
There were gathered here young men from the distant
corners of the Indian subcontinent; students of religious
learning had also come from far off lands such as
Afghanistan, Burma, Samarkand, Bukhara and many African
countries

Background (Cont.)
 India‘s transitional, traumatic age had started long before
1717 AD, at the time when the Mughal Emperor Farrukh Siyar
had given permission to the British to carry on trade with
India, and had also exempted them from many taxes and
duties.
 The light of the teachings of Islam, the Book of Allah and the
Sunnah that had illumined the entire subcontinent with its
dazzling radiance had, as a matter of fact, be-gun to dim
during the lifetime of Shah ‗Abd al-Aziz, and it was because
of this that he inspired his follower, the famous martyr, Sayyid
Ahmad Barelwi (d. 1830 AD) and his no less famous nephew,
Mawlana Shah Muhammad Isma‘il Shahid (d. 1830 AD) to
initiate, with the help of an organized group of followers, a
determined struggle aimed at bringing about a religious
revolution throughout the country

Background
 Another luminary of the Waliullah family, Shah Muhammad
Ishaq of Delhi, had long followed in the footsteps of his
maternal grandfather, Shah ‗Abd al- Aziz of Delhi. He carried
on the traditions of religious scholarship and teaching that
had long ago been started by Shah ‗Abd al-Rahim (d. 1718
AD), father of Shah Waliullah of Delhi.
 He was followed by Mawlana Shah ‗Abd al-Ghani Mujaddadi
(d. 1878 AD), a scion of the Mujaddadi family and a disciple
of the Waliullah family. He had come to be re-garded as the
most important teacher of Hadith in the country and the chief
source of inspiration for men of action and learning. The
extremely adverse conditions pre-vailing in the country at that
time, however, obliged him — the greatest exponent of the
science of Hadith in the contemporary world — also to leave
the land of his birth and become an émigré.

Founding of Dar al-’Ulum,
Deoband
 It was at a small place near the capital called Thana Bhawan
in District Muzaffarna-gar6 that some of the greatest leaders
of religious opinion assembled to take stock of the situation.
These men, writes Mawlana Ashiq Ilahi in his biography of
Imam Rab-bani Mawlana Rasheed Ahmed Gangohi,
Tadhkirat al-Rashid, came to Haji Imdadul-lah [Muhajir Makki]
and pointed out to him that the Muslims at that time were
virtually without a ruler and this was their main problem.
 Since Haji Imdadullah was their religious leader, it was
proper, they suggested, that he should also assume
responsibility for their world guidance by agreeing to become
―Amir al-Muminin‖.

Founding of Dar al-’Ulum,
Deoband
 Mawlana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi and Mawlana Muhammad
Qasim Nanautwi and their dependents settled down here at
Thana Bhawan since their services were re-quired by Haji
Imdadullah in the discharge of his magisterial and religious-
judicial duties. Shaykh al-Islam Mawlana Husayn Ahmed
Madani points out that Mawlana Muhammad Qasim was
appointed as the ―Commander‖ while Mawlana Rashid
Ahmad Gangohi was given charge of the magisterial-judicial
duties.
 These great men openly participated in the 1857 War of
Independence 9 and fought against the British Army in the
battlefield of Shamli. When, however, the news about the loss
of Delhi and the arrest of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar was
received, these brave men were forced to give up fighting. As
soon as the upheaval of 1857 came to an end, they began to
concentrate their attention on the protection and preservation
of the Islamic faith.

Why the “modern” sciences were excluded
at Deoband
 In view of the difficult and trying circumstances threatening
the very existence of the Islamic faith at that time, it was quite
natural that the courses of study at the Dar al-Ulum and the
other madrassahs should be kept strictly within the confines
of religious and theological study.
 On the whole, the courses of study were aimed at imparting
to the students depth of vision and farsightedness so that
they may shape into the role of religious leadership and
guidance of the common people and the elite, something in
the tradition of the Prophets of yore.
 It was envisaged that the student at the Dar al-‘Ulum would
devote himself to the modern sciences after he has perfected
himself in the traditional ones. Mawlana Nanautwi clearly
stated that the students of the Dar al-‘Ulum should do well to
go on to a university or college to receive instruction in
modern sciences after receiving religious education at the
Dar al-‘Ulum.

The widespread popularity of the Dar
al-’Ulum
 Allah Almighty has given extraordinary popularity to the great
Seminary at Deo-band; it is this popularity that has enabled it
to serve the nation as well as the com-munity in a remarkable
way. One of the main reasons for this has been the fact that
the Dar al-‘Ulum has never been merely an educational
institution; it has also been a great centre for preparing the
youth for the practical affairs of life.
 The whole world knows that the students of the Dar al-‘Ulum
possess, on the one hand, scholarly dignity and self-respect,
and on the other, humility, generosity, simplicity and purity.
Being devout believers in the faith, they are careful in the
observance of the external forms of religion, and yet at the
same time, they have unbounded and heartfelt love for Allah
and His Prophet (peace be upon him).

The universal recognition of the role of the
Dar al-’Ulum
 It was the sincerity and the single-minded devotion of the
founders of the madrassah at Deoband that has been
responsible for the fact that not a single part of the Indian
sub-continent has remained uninfluenced by this institution.
Most of the people who are devoted to the cause of Islam are
now following in the footsteps of the followers of the Dar al-
‘Ulum.
 The disciples of the learned scholars at Deoband have
spread far and wide within and outside the country. They are
engaged in seeking to coun-teract the poison that had
entered the minds of the Indian Muslims with the estab-
lishment of British rule in 1857 or through the communal
feelings generated by in-terested parties after 1947.

The services rendered by the Dar al-‘Ulum have generally been
acknowledged throughout the world, and glorious tributes have been
paid to them. One such commentator writes
May Allah bless the founders of the Dar al-‟Ulum at
Deoband that because of their efforts the sounds of
„and thus did Allah say…‟ and „thus did the Prophet
say…‟ have thus been resounding at least in the ears
of the common people, and so a firm structure of
religious thinking remained undemolished in the
beliefs and practices of the common people.

Let the madrassahs remain as they are. Let the
children of the poor Muslims continue to study in
those madrassahs. Do you know what will happen
if these mullahs and dervishes disappeared? I
have elsewhere seen the result with my own eyes.
The end of the influence of these madrassahs
would be very much like what had happened in
Spain: there are no traces of the eight centuries of
Muslim rule in Spain except the ruins of Granada
and Cordoba and the palaces of Al-Hamra and Bab
al-Akhwain, and without these madrassahs there
would be no trace left of Islam except the Taj
Mahal at Agra and the Red Fort in Delhi.15
Dr. Muhammad Iqbal had rightly pointed out to Hakim Ahmad Shuja:

British counter-efforts
 The British tried hard to persuade Indians to study in schools
established by the government by opening institutions of
Oriental learning so that they might imbibe Western modes of
thought and sensibility while remaining Indian only in
appearance.
 The founders and the learned alumni of the Dar al-‘Ulum
were constantly engaged in writing books and treatises on
religious and spiritual subjects. The number of their writings
that have been published comes to thousands.
 The Dar Ulum is relevant now more than ever in this fast-
changing world where everything is in flux. It is still relevant
because it reaffirms the lasting and the abiding behind this
apparent spectacle of change and inconstancy.

The famous nineteenth century Orientals, Garcon
de Tassi, writes:
It cannot be denied that those Indian young
men who are studying in government
institutions or mission schools would
naturally be inclined towards Christianity.

Jump up^ "Regulations" Daraluloom Deoband.com
Jump up^ Ghazzali A. Islamic Pakistan: Illusions and
Reality." Ghazali.net
Jump up^ Jaffrelot C. and Beaumont G. A History of
Pakistan and Its Origins. p224. ISBN 1-84331-149-6.
Jump up^ "Barelvi Islam." Globalsecurity.org
Jump up^ Ahmad, N.Origins of Muslim consciousness
in India: a world-system perspective. Greenwood
Press, New York, 1991. p175.
Jump up^ Jaffrelot C.A history of Pakistan and its
origins. Anthem Press, 2004. ISBN 1-84331-149-
6, ISBN 978-1-84331-149-2.
References

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