Shibli Nomani

He was born into a Muslim Family to Sheikh Habibullah and Moqeema Khatoon.[1] Although his younger brothers went to London, England for education and later returned as a barrister, employed at Allahabad High Court.

Nomani received a traditional Islamic education. Nomani was named after Abu-Bakr Al Shibli who was a sufi saint and a disciple of Junayd Baghdadi. Nomani later Added Nomani to his name. His teacher was Maulana Muhammad Farooq Chirayakoti, a rationalist scholar who was an outspoken opponent of Sir Syed. This aspect of Nomani’s background perhaps explains his ambivalent relationship with Aligarh and Sir Syed. The Chirayakot connection is significant. David Lalyveld notes that Chirayakot was the center of ‘a uniquely rationalist and eclectic school of ulema’, who studied Mu’tazalite theology, the early Arab development of Greek science and philosophy, as well as such languages as Sanskrit and Hebrew.

Nomani therefore had reasons to be both attracted and repelled by Aligarh. Even after he had secured a post as a teacher of Persian and Arabic at Aligarh, he always found the intellectual atmosphere at the college disappointing, and eventually left Aligarh because he found it uncongenial, although he did not officially resign from the college until after Sir Syed’s death in 1898. [5]

When he returned to India from the Middle East, he met Syed Ahmed Khan (1817–1898) who had just established Aligarh Muslim University. Nomani was offered and joined a teaching position at the university on 1 February 1882. He taught Persian and Arabic languages at Aligarh for sixteen years where he met Thomas Arnold and other British scholars from whom he learned first-hand modern Western ideas and thoughts. He travelled with Thomas Arnold in 1892 to Syria, Egypt, Turkey and other countries of the Middle East and got direct and practical experience of their societies. His scholarship influenced Thomas Arnold on one hand, and on the other he was influenced by Thomas Arnold to a great extent, and this explains the modern touch in his ideas. In Cairo, he met noted Islamic scholar Sheikh Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905).[6]

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After the death of Sir Syed Ahmed in 1898, he left Aligarh University and became an advisor in the Education Department of Hyderabad State. He initiated many reforms in the Hyderabad education system. From his policy, the Osmania University of Hyderabad adopted Urdu as the medium of instruction. Before that, no other university of India had adopted any vernacular language as the medium of instruction in higher studies. In 1905, he left Hyderabad and went to Lucknow to become the principal of Nadwat tul-'Ulum (Nadwa). He introduced reforms in the school's teaching and curriculum. He stayed at the school for five years but the orthodox class of scholars became hostile towards him, and he had to leave Lucknow to settle in the area around his hometown, Azamgarh in 1913.[6]

Earlier at Nadwa, he had wanted to establish Darul Musannifin or the House of Writers but he could not do this at that time. He bequeathed his bungalow and mango orchard and motivated the members of his clan and relatives to do the same and had succeeded. He wrote letters to his disciples and other eminent persons and sought their co-operation. Eventually one of his disciples, Syed Sulaiman Nadvi fulfilled his dream and established Darul Musannifin at Azamgarh. The first formal meeting of the institution was held on 21 November 1914, within three days of his death.[1][7]

Nomani and Sir Syed Ahmed wished for the welfare of Muslims, and wanted to have Western thinking and style come along with it. However, Sir Syed wanted to save the Muslims from the wrath of the British rulers after their active participation in the War of Independence of 1857, called the "Sepoy Mutiny" of 1857 by the British colonialist rulers, whereas, Shibli wanted to make them self-reliant and self-respecting by regaining their lost heritage and tradition.[1]

Nomani was a staunch supporter of Pan-Islamism. He wrote poems and articles decrying the British and other Western powers when Turkey was defeated in the Balkan Wars and he urged the world Muslims to unite. In 1913, when the British Administration in India stormed the Kanpur Mosque, Shibli condemned them.

Nomani had two daughters, Rabia Khatoon and Jannutul Fatima, and one son, Hamid Hassan Nomani.[1] This son was born in 1882 and died in 1942. He had another son who died soon after birth, and five daughters.

They are:

• Naseem Jehan, retired director of health, Bangladesh, died in Karachi in 1994. She was married in 1940 to Dr Zafrul Huda of Dhaka University. He died in 1978 at Dhaka. They have one daughter.
• Shamim Jehan (died in Karachi in 2005), married in 1940 to Ehtesham Ahmed, who died in 1982. They have eight sons and seven daughters.
• Tehseen Jehan, married in 1940 to Shaukat Sultan, principal of Shibli National College, Azamgarh. She is living in Karachi, Pakistan these days. They have three sons and four daughters.
• Mohsina Sultana, married in 1950 to Amanullah Khan, director of industries, Uttar Pradesh, India. They have four sons and one daughter.
• Momina Sultan, married in 1952 to Captain Khan Sohail Sultan. They have four sons.

• Pakistan Postal Services issued a commemorative postage stamp in his honor in its 'Pioneers of Freedom' series in 1992.[10]

Shibli was inspired by the progress of science and education in the West. He wanted to inspire the Muslims to make similar progress by having recourse to their lost heritage and culture, and warned them against getting lost in Western culture. "Ultimately, the Nadwa gave up its notions of uniting occidental and oriental knowledge and concentrated on Islamic scholarship, and on the dissemination of biographical and historical writing in Urdu. Shibli's own writings set the pattern for the latter."[1] In keeping with this goal, he wrote the following books;

• Sirat-un-Nabi[11] (Life of the Holy Prophet) Shibli Nomani started to write this book but he died in 1914, then his student Sulaiman Nadvi took over the responsibility of finishing it and finally completed this book.[4][7]
• Sirat an-Nu'man[4]
• Al-Faruq , (a biography of the Caliph Omar Farooq)[1][4]
• Al-Ma'mun,
• Al-Ghazali , (a biography of Imam Al-Ghazali)[12][7]
• Imam Ibn-e-Tamia (Edited by Mohammad Tanzeel-ul-siddiqi al-husaini ),
• Mawlana Rumi (a biography of Mawlana Rumi)[4][7]
• Aurangzeb Alamgir Par Ek Nazar- a book on the life of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb (1658-1707)[12][4][7]
• Sher-ul-ʻAjam, a history of Persian poetry
• "Ilm-Kalam", a history of Muslim theology
• Safar Nama e Rome-o-Misr-o-Sham - a travelogue of Rome, Egypt, Syria and Turkey along with his scholar companion Thomas Walker Arnold in 1892[12][4][7]

“Lot of injustice has been done to Shibli. While Maulana Aslam Jairajpuri pointed out errors in "Sher-ul-Ajam", it was not mentioned that Shibli was the first to write a biography of Maulana Rumi. Though differences between Sir Syed and Shibli are highlighted, but it has not been pointed out that in spite of Sir Syed's opposition to the writing of "Al-Farooq", Shibli never complained about it. Sir Syed lamented that Shibli's Persian poetry was never tested on its merit and was wrongly associated with his acquaintance with an enlightened intellectual lady of the time Madam Atiya Fyzee. He refuted Shaikh Mohammad Ikram's claim in this regard and subtly highlighted delicacy of Shibli's thought moulded into his Persian poetry"[13]

• Hamiduddin Farahi (a student of Shibli Nomani)
• Abdul Bari Nadvi (a student of Shibli Nomani)
• Sulaiman Nadvi (a student of Shibli Nomani who later became a scholar and a historian)
• Hamiduddin Farahi, in English language- The biographical sketches in the Darul Musannefin Shibli Academy website
• Maulana Hamiduddin Farahi, in Urdu language– The biographical sketches in the Darul Musannefin, Shibli Academy website
• Muslim Rajputs

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Shibli Nomani

• Shibli Nomani, the biographical sketches in the Darul Musannefin, Shibli Academy website.
• 'Life of the Prophet' By Allama Shibli Nu'mani
• Kulliyat e Shibli by Shibli Nomani