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Courtesy Frances Pritchett and her excellent website on SRF.

From Antiquary to Social Revolutionary: Syed Ahmad Khan and the Colonial Experience By Shamsur Rahman Faruqi

It is an honour to deliver the Annual Sir Syed Memorial Lecture at Aligarh Muslim University, the institution which should stand as Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s lasting contribution to the development of a modern India. Conscious though I am of the honour, I am also beset by doubts and fears about my suitability as a recipient of that honour. I am not a specialist of Syed Ahmad Khan’s literary work and social and theological thought, thought which, incidentally, I regard as a high point in the history of ideas in Islam. My interest in and knowledge of Syed Ahmad Khan’s life and works do not much exceed the level of a reasonably well-informed student of modern Urdu literature.

The only privilege that I can claim is that as a boy I was practically nurtured on Syed Ahmad Khan and Akbar Ilahabadi (1846-1921) whom my father admired greatly and didn’t at all see any dichotomy in admiring two very nearly diametrically opposed personalities. And this reconciliation of opposites was quite par for the course for people of certain Indian generations, because Syed Ahmad Khan and Akbar Ilahabadi too greatly admired each other. Syed Ahmad Khan had successfully canvassed for Akbar Ilahabadi being posted to Aligarh so that he could freely enjoy his friend’s company. In 1888, when Akbar Ilahabadi was promoted Sub-Judge and transferred to Ghazipur, Syed Ahmad Khan wrote him a congratulatory note saying that though he was sorry for Akbar (he addressed him as Munshi Akbar Husain Sahib) to leave Aligarh, yet he was happy for a Muslim to become a Sub-Judge with a long prospect of active service in the judicial department.[1]

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The blessed person of the Prophet of God (the blessing and peace of God be with him) was endowed with three attributes:
I. The Prophecy Le. the commandments of God were revealed to him.
II. The Communication i.e. he communicated or announced to the people what was revealed to him.
III. Government of the country i.e. he ruled the country, enforced the revealed commandments and looked after their proper observance, protected the people of the country and repulsed the enemy by force.

The first of these attributes being a characteristic of the Prophet ended at his death, and no one ever was or is or can be his caliph or deputy, in this particular. In the second attribute, all the Mohammedan lawyers, and learned men and traditionists who inculcate the articles of Mohammedan faith can be regarded as caliphs or deputies of the Prophet and it is for this reason that some commentators of the Holy Koran include in the words “those who are in authority among you” which occur in the verse: “O true believers, obey God, and obey the Apostle and those who are in authority among you” (Koran Chapter IV—v. 59) the twelve Imams (peace be with them) and the Mohammedan lawyers.

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