Eighth to the Sixteenth Century - Rashid Islamic Center

Islam and Modern Science: The Colonial Era • 169the English in education, manners, and uprightness, are like a dirtyanimal is to an able and handsome man” (Khan 1961, 184).Khan was, first and foremost, an Indian Muslim living at a timewhen the entire Muslim world was in a state of deep slumber. Hewanted to wake them up. He wanted them to acquire modern scienceand be among the honorable nations of the world. He admired theEnglish for their science and learning, but when he read WilliamMuir’s biography of Prophet Muhammad, it “burned [his] heart… itsbigotry and injustice cut [his] heart to pieces” (Panipati 1993, 431).He decided to write a refutation in the form of his own biographyof the Prophet. He felt the need to do so not merely for academicand religious reasons but also because his own genealogy connectedhim to the Prophet. His book was finished in February 1870 andpublished by Trubner & Co., London, the same year. Khan returnedhome on October 2, 1870.During his stay in England he visited the Universities of Oxfordand Cambridge and a few private schools, including Eaton andHarrow; these would later serve as models for his own MuhammadanAnglo-Oriental College, established seven years after his return toIndia. (In 1920 the College became Aligarh Muslim University, nowone of the oldest universities of India.) In 1886, he started yet anotherinstitution, “The Muhammadan Educational Conference,” whichorganized various conferences in major cities for several years.Khan’s preoccupation with modern science and Islam was sointense that he wanted to lay the foundation of a new science ofKalam. This new science would either combat the bases of modernsciences or demonstrate that they conformed to the articles ofIslam. Personally, however, he was convinced that Islam and modernscience were perfectly aligned, and that all that was needed wasreinterpretation to show that the work of God (nature and its laws)was in conformity with the Word of God (the QurāĀn).To prove his views, Khan decided to write a new commentary onthe QurāĀn. This was a feverish effort that began in 1879. Khan knewhe was running out of time, and started to publish his commentaryas it was being written. When he died in 1898, this most importantwork of his life was still incomplete. His work was severely criticizedby religious scholars and other Muslim intellectuals, who pointed