حافظ فضل حق آزادؔ عظیم آبادی
۲۷؍ شعبان ۱۳۶۱ھ کو صوبہ بہار کے مشہور و ممتاز کہنہ مشق شاعر حافظ فضل حق آزاد عظیم آبادی نے اس دنیائے دوں کو الوادع کہا، مرحوم کی عمر اس وقت غالباً اسّی (۸۰) سے زیادہ ہوگی، کانوں سے اونچا سننے لگے تھے، مگر اس سن و سال میں بھی ان کی شاعری کے شباب کا وہی عالم تھا، غزلوں کے کہنے کا اتفاق کم ہوتا تھا، مگر قومی و علمی و اخلاقی اور فلسفیانہ نظموں کا شوق زیادہ تھا، زیادہ تر اردو میں اور کبھی کبھی فارسی میں کہتے تھے اور شاذو نادر عربی میں بھی طبع آزمائی کی نوبت آجاتی تھی۔
پٹنہ میں سرسید مرحوم کی تعلیمی و قومی تحریک کے علمبردار قاضی رضا حسین صاحب مرحوم تھے، یہ ان کے حیدرآباد کے وفد کے ایک رکن بھی تھے، قاضی صاحب مرحوم کی فیض بخش علمی صحبتوں میں بہار کے جو چند نوجوان ابھرے، بڑھے اور پھیلے، ان میں ایک نام حافظ آزاد مرحوم کا بھی ہے، چنانچہ سرسید مرحوم کے اس ۱۸۹۱ء والے حیدرآبادی وفد میں جس کے دوسرے ممبر مولانا شبلی نعمانی اور مولانا حالی وغیرہ تھے، قاضی رضا حسین صاحب کیساتھ آزاد مرحوم بھی تھے۔
میں نے ان کو سب سے پہلے ۱۹۰۰ء میں جب میری نوعمری تھی ندوہ کے اجلاس پٹنہ میں اپنا ترکیب بند پڑھتے سنا، بلند قد، اونچی آواز، خود اعتمادی کے تیور، لہجہ پر جوش، کٹہرے میں شیر کی گرج سی سنائی دیتی تھی، سامنے علماء اور مشائخ کی صفیں تھیں، جن کی تعداد کئی سو سے کم نہ ہوگی، اکثر کی نورانی شکلوں کی یاد اب بھی دل کو منور کرتی ہے، شاعر نے جب ان کی طرف ہاتھ سے اشارہ کرکے یہ شعر پڑھا ہے:
نشانِ کاروان رفتہ ہیں دل کے اجالے ہیں
غنیمت ہی غنیمت ہیں کہ سب اﷲ...
Error-free printing of Qur’ānic Text is a collective duty of all Muslims. The fact remains that Muslims have performed this duty with devotion and rightly. They also arranged sittings to discuss "Rasm" and " Ḍabt"(رسم اور ضبط) to understand the crux of matter and provide an expression to the most authentic text. No Muslim can intentionally commit any kind of mistake in the text of Qur’ān. However, such possibilities of error cannot be denied due to negligence and inadvertency. The Ministry for Religious Affairs has made it obligatory for all the printing institutions of Qur’ānic text to follow the model of the Qur’ānic manuscript, produced by Anjman Ḥimāyat-e-Islām, yet many Qur’ānic manuscripts with errors are present in the market. Such manuscripts are not only present in some mosques, but also recited. It causes problems in recitation of those verses and might changing the meaning of them. This article points out such scriptures and errors, so it can be identified and to take steps for preventive measures for such errors in future. This article also suggests some policies and strategies for publishing of Qur’ān for avoiding misprints errors.
Orientalism is an ancient tradition of Western scholarship which portrays Islam, Muslim societies and
Arabs in negative manner. Orientalist tradition was extended to Islamic legal scholarship during colonial
era. Ground breaking publication of a Hungarian orientalist Ignac Goldziher (d.1921) `Introduction to
Islamic Theology and Law' (1910) became the basis of all future writings on this subject. Joseph Schacht
(d.1969) a German orientalist carried his work in Goldziher's footsteps and published `Origins of
Mohammadan Jurisprudence' (1950) and 'An Introduction to Islamic law' (1964) which laid the
foundations of Islamic legal orientalism in academic writings of the Western world.
With the advent of orientalist tradition in USA during the Cold War era, leading American universities
established Oriental Studies, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and Middle Eastern Studies
departments which worked closely with U.S. State department and Foreign Affairs department to
facilitate the goverhment to establish political hegemony over the Middle East and the Muslim world.
Two major assumptions put forward in the academic debate by the West on 'Origins' of Islamic law were
inauthenticity of hadith literature and influence of pre-Islamic non-Arab laws on the development of
Islamic law. This dissertation carries out critical analysis of writings of Western scholars during cold war
era through post 9/11 era to date, on these two issues.
The objective of this research is to study the shift in paradigms, trends, approaches and methodology
adopted by Western scholars of 21' century in their writings on Origins of Islamic law and to see how this
scholarship is related to European and American political hegemony over the Muslim world. Writings of
Harald Motzki, Jonathan Brown, Wael Hallaq and Patricia Crone and a few more are selected to analyze
21' century Western scholarship. Responses, rebuttals and critiques on the assumptions put forward by
Western scholars of 20th century are also part of this dissertation. A shift in trend and methodology is
observed in 2l' century Western scholarship on Islamic law but the essential paradigms for the study
remain the same thus putting forth similar results.
It is also observed that Western scholarship on Islam is strongly connected with its political hegemony
over the Muslim world. Methodologically Western scholarship has shifted from 20th century philological
zeitgeist to 21' century social science research but it remains within the orientalist problematique. Thus
Islamic law is portrayed as an essentially defective legal system and hadith literature the second primary
source of Islamic law remains inauthentic in Western scholarship. However there are scholars who are
aware of the fact that they are not to become hostage to biased paradigms and inadvertent commitments
to political agendas in order to promote academic honesty.