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SIR SYED AHMAD KHAN
Life sketch
The great man of history was born at Delhi on 17 October 1817 in a reputed family who has connections with Mughl emperors. His family was descendent of hazrat Hussein, the grandson of hazrat Muhammad (SAW). As the prevailed tradition his education was started with rasm-e-Bismillah, which was carried out by a famous religious personality of the time Hazrat Shah Ghulam Ali Sahib.After this poise lady was appointed to teach him Holy Qur’an. His mother Aziz-un-Nisa Begum did all of his early education and base for character building.
Syed Ahmed did not go to formal school and was taught by his mother in early years. In this period he studied Persian and arabic literature like Gulistan, Bostan, Sharah Mulla and sharah Tehzib. From his elder brother he learned mathematics and from his maternal uncle and family physician Hakim Ghulam Haider he learned basics of medicine. He was also much interested in poetry in his teenage and was impressed by Ghalib, Zauq and Shibli.
At the age of twenty his father passed away and to support his family he entered into British Service. His first appointment was as Sirishtadar in the crime department of Sadar Amin’s office in Delhi. In 1839 he was promoted and transferred as naib munshi in Commissioner’s office to Agara. In 1842 he was again promoted as Munsif at Mainpuri and than at Fateh Pur in 1842. In the same year he was honored by the title of Jawad-ud-din-Dowla Arif-e-Jang by Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar. In 1864 he was transferred to Aligarh where he led foundation of Scientific Society. In 1869 he went to England where he keenly observed its education system and after ending the journey he had many new schemes to educate the people of the continent. He led foundation of MAO school and college, scientific society and wrote extensive literature to awareness in Muslims of India. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan died on 27th March 1898. He was a great thinker, philosopher, preacher, social worker and patriotic who faced every problem and hurdle created by his opponents with a smiling face.
Work
Sir Syed Ahmed Khan was a laurel in education as well as in politics and social work. Although he was interested in literature since his early stage of life, however his political ideas were reformed after Independence Movement in 1857. There is a marked difference in his writings before and after 1857, which indicates a change of philosophy and formation of new vision of life. In 1839 he wrote a brief account of dysentery of Mughal emperors named Jam-I-Jim. He also wrote many other pamphlets like Intikhab al Akhwayan, in 1842 he wrote Jila al Qulub ba Dhikr al mehbub, Ain-e- Akbar, Sarkashi-dil a baynoor. Risalah Asbab-e-Baghawat-e-Hind, The loyal Muhammadens of India, Bani’s Tahrik-e-Firozshahi, Commentary of the Bible, Risalah Ahkam-e-Tasam-e-Ahal-e-Kitab, Khutbat-e-Ahmediya, Review of Hunter’s ‘ The Indian Muslims’, Tafseer ul Quran etc. He also published a magazine titled “ Tehzib-ul-Ikhlaq. In educational sector he formed many institutes like Scientific society, MAO college which later became a college.
Syed Ahmed khan as a Philosopher
Syed Ahmed khan was the only person of his times who tried to better the conditions of the indian Muslims and tried to give different and broader vision of life. He tried to explain the religion on the basis of rationalism, due to which he was greatly opposed by having a deep look of that time we can better know the reason of his work of that kind. His basic philosophical ideas are as follows.
Concept of Reality
Sir Syed believed that the beginning off all creation is God. He remained strongly stick to the premises that God has created the universe and man is unable to know why. He says that it is beyond the comprehension of man to know why God has created this universe and what was the purpose of its creation. It is certainly true that God is the only creator and he is beyond the comprehension of man. He is absolute and infinite.
He also believed in the evolution of human beings during the course of their development. However he took his idea of evolution from Rumi Ibn-Khaldun and Walliullah. He took this process as evolution teleology, which is neither natural nor blind. He had a strong belief that man now is very different from his ancestors. He did take it as a chemical process rather than a physical one. He says that man is a chemical compound because he is a product of chemical process but this process could not occur without God’s command. According to him although man’s life is short but his spirit remain alive and is eternal. On this theory he based the idea that man is shadow of God, although a very faint and pale one.
According to Syed human nature possesses two forces i.e. good and bad, each of these forces is pulling the individual in two opposite directions thus causing a state of constant inner conflict. Man should follow the good force because man inherited in his nature. The reason to give him evil force is that the God want man to control them for eternal and utmost success of life hereafter. Man is also bestowed upon by the quality to distinguish between good and evil. He holds the idea that every man possesses conscious, which guides him towards the right path and enables him to discriminate between good and bad. He called this conscious a light of faith. He also believe that conscious alone is unable to guide a man so he should use reasoning to reach the right solution. This is another ability, which is bestowed upon the man by his creator. This ability to rationalize can be used not only in the sphere of social obligations but also in realm of religion.
Concept of Knowledge:
According to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan knowledge can be gained through reasoning. He says a man is called rational when he uses reason to solve every day problems. He defines reason as an inherent capacity by a man draws conclusions on the basis of the observation of the objective phenomena after thinking (Muhammad, 1979). He holds the view that this ability helps man to checkout a new path of life.
Concept of Individual and Society:
He believed in the influence of social factor on man’s ideas and gave many illustrations of how a single man changed the whole society.
Philosophy of education
He was an eminent scholar of India who knows the root cause of muslim salivary and bad socioeconomic conditions. He was also aware of the reasons that why Muslims were allergic from English education. His vision was very cleat that Muslims can not regain their dignity and better economical conditions until unless they receive modern education. He was dreamer of the renaissance of Muslims and was aware of the fact that it can only be gained through education. To realize his dream and to educate indian Muslims he made many efforts like creation of scientific society in Aligarh, Muhammadan Anglo-oriental school which was later concerted into college, publishing of magazine Tehzib-ul-ikhlaq, development of education committee and many others.
Aims of Education:
The major aims of education according to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan were;
1. Indian Muslims should come out of the past and acquire new knowledge and techniques of the West.
2. To develop the human nature to its best.
3. To give the Indian Muslims higher education for national prosperity.
4. Poverty reduction.
5. To acquire English education without any religious prejudice.
(Muhammad, 1976)
Technical Education:
Sir Syed did not say anything clearly about technical education. However some of his statements indicate that he was of the opinion that technical education is very important in an industrial state like this. He was of the view that a lot of capital would be required to establish the industry, which was not possible in the economical condition of India at that time. Although much more industrialization occurred during British era but Sir Syed ignored its importance. During his visit to England he deeply observed the causes of their progress but disregarded the significance of industrialization, he overlooked the concept that cultural forces cannot be conquered with out economical development.
Women Education:
Sir Syed proclaimed that in order to educate the women, it is essential to educate the men first. He says that unless all the men do not get the sound education it would be useless to teach Muslim women. When all the male would be educate they will develop a sense of the importance of education and will become concerned about educating their women. So men’s education is mandatory in Muslim society.
Authority and Individual freedom:
He asserted that government is not bound to provide education up to secondary level. He emphasized the idea that the responsibility of government is only to provide assistance and procurement for education, and to give the people of India a better education it is compulsory that the entire management of education system should be given in their own hands. Nevertheless the government should evolve a system, which satisfy all the needs and requirements of all segments of society. His outlook is more individualistic in this regard.
Curriculum:
Sir Syed formed a committee named Committee Khawastagar-Taraqai-Muslimanan-e-Hind, which suggested the following curriculum for muslim students at secondary level;
1. Religion including Fiqah, Hadith, Tafseer, Siyar and general principals of religion.
2. Moral Science language and literature, history, geography, logic, philosophy, politics and economics.
3. Mathematics; arithmetic, algebra, Euclidian geometry and other branches of mathematics.
4. Natural Science; statistics, hydro statistics, dynamics, pneumatics, optics, electricity and magnetism, astronomy, heat, acoustics, natural philosophy etc.
In addition to all these specific courses of study also include engineering, zoology, philosophy, mineralogy and chemistry etc. (Chughtai, 2005). For college only two departments were included initially i.e.
1. English department
2. Oriental department
Medium of instruction in oriental department were Persian or Arabic, while the other subjects would be taught in English or Urdu. But in English department English would be the only medium of instruction.
Methodology of Instruction:
Syed hold the idea that just a few and scattered schools with insufficient teachers will not produce better results. So they must be supported for better results. The methodology should be recitation and memorization at junior level and giving lectures combined with research at higher level.
Traits of Students:
1. Should keep themselves neat and clean
2. Should learn good antiquates
3. Should take part in discussion
4. Should strictly follow the discipline
5. Should participate in extra curricular activities
6. Should become a trust worthy member of the society and family
7. Should acquire moral values
.
References
Muhammad, Shan, 1976, Sir Syed Ahmad khan, univeral books, lhr
Begum, rehmani dr, 1985, sir syed ahmad khan, the politaics of educational reforms, Vanuard, lhr.
Shaghtai, ikram M, 2005, Sir syed ahmad khan(1817-1897),
Panipati, Muhammad Ismail Molana, Urdu ka classiky adab, Majlis-e traqi-e adab, lhr
Khudnawisht-e hayat-e sir syed
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