Alam e Islam Key Chand Mushaheer: Sawaney wa Afkaar Ka Mutala (Some Stalwarts of Islamic World: A Study of their lives and thoughts)
Author: Dr Muhammad Ghatreef Shahbaaz Nadvi
Year of Publication: 2014
Publisher: Rehbar Book Service, Delhi, India
Pages: 392 Price: Rs 300
Reviewed by Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander
Muslim world has produced a number of personalities, who have contributed to diverse fields. These personalities have left an indelible mark, an immortal legacy in history through their lives and works. It will need heavy tomes and volumes to document their lives and take an account of their impact, influence and legacy. Some of these personalities have written their autobiographies and others have been documented through various biographical works. But in the times that we are living in, few people have the time to read bulky volumes of an author, in order to understand his life and mission. Further common people have little attraction towards understanding the niceties of epistemology, academic and philosophical debates. In order to help them become aware and be exposed to the legacy of the muslim personalities, brevity and comprehensiveness is the need of hour. The present book has all those traits that make it an attractive read for even a lay reader.
The present book under review is written by Dr Muhammad Ghatreef Shahbaz Nadvi, a young, dynamic and versatile scholar of Islam, who has published few books on various aspects of Islam. His columns, articles and research papers are regularly published in various newspapers and magazines of national repute. The book is a compilation of his biographical essays and sketches about various personalities who contributed richly to the muslim discourse about politics, ideology, revivalism, theology, jurisprudence and academics. Many of these have been published earlier in the Urdu monthly Afkar e Milli and others are his research and academic papers that he did publish or present in conferences from time to time. The Foreword to this book has been penned down by famous translator of Quran Muhammad Farooq Khan.
In all his biographical essays and sketches, Ghatreef has used his research skills and vast reading to their zenith. The vast reading of Ghatreef, alongwith his profound knowledge of Arabic, Urdu, English and Persian, that makes him grounded both in Oriental and Occidental tradition, renders him certainly better than his contemporaries on this subject. He has used all these sources, both primary and secondary available in different languages to understand, analyze and write about these personalities. The essays about Islamic revivalist scholar like Maulana Abul Ala Mawdudi and the contemporary scholar Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, are the testimonies of such a writing. Similarly his essay on Abulcasis and his contribution to the field of medicine is quite revealing, as is the biographical sketch about Fuat Sezgin, of Turkey and his legacy. Every essay and biographical sketch is full of new aspects about the lives of these men that make the book engrossing, keeping the reader glued to the text.
Books, biographies and academic works about many of the personalities have been written already, but what make this book distinct is the writing style, research content and analysis of the person under discussion. This book is a living testimony of the fact that Ghatreef has deeply read across genres and has the distinct talent as an analytical biographical scholar of Muslim personalities. What is scattered around in hundreds of books has been condensed in a singular tract, with brevity that can make the reader comprehend various thoughts and legacies of these personalities without reading scores of books.
Even though one can have differences with Ghatreef’s conclusions, still the book is highly readable to understand the personalities, lives, works, thoughts and legacies included in the book. But there are few shortcomings of the book. The muslim world is huge and has produced thousands of personalities who deserve a serious academic attention. But this book certainly does not fulfill the required criteria of being exhaustive on that account. Some of the important personalities like Anwar Shah Kashmiri, Hussain Ahmad Madni, Badiuzzaman Said Nursi, Asghar Ali Engineer, Javed Ahmad Ghamidi and others are missing from the list. Further there is mention of no women scholar, theologian, politician or revivalist activist. I understand the dilemma of Ghatreef, because that certainly would need a lot of energy, time and resources to complete this project. But Ghatreef can be expected to take this mission as a project and keep producing work on this subject in the future too.
Overall the book is highly recommended and can be beneficial to a lay man as well as to an academic scholar. This book certainly needs to be widely read and also translated into English for a wider dissemination of its contents. It is hoped that Dr Ghatreef in the future will continue to produce many more works like this.
M.H.A.Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar, Kashmir and can be reached at sikandarmushtaq@gmail.com