Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

Is Kashmir University coming of age? Amidst almost all the bad news about Kashmir from September 2014 till date, we have now one good news that should be celebrated by every Kashmiri. It is opening up of Philosophy, Anthropology and Archeology departments in Kashmir University, thanks to the efforts of Vice Chancellor, Dean Academics (who has especially been keen to see Philosophy department and thus has earned, as his innings is ending, life time achievement award in the eyes of posterity), Academic Council and the State. This is an effort towards Kashmir’s self discovery. There have been reasons to deplore academic environment of Kashmir University due to absence of watchdog called critical reason that Philosophy institutionalizes forcing more bright students to contemplate choosing other universities outside the State and now, one important disqualification, has been overcome. Humanities have especially been in bad shape due to exile of the Queen called Philosophy. One can now ho

Reading Rashid Nazki’s Siriyyat Religions have had a bad press for some reasons for last few centuries. It is perceived by critics of religions that they intimidate, they require belief without or even against evidence, build their case on fear or hope while despising intelligence, are ever on war with healthy instincts, side with the oppressors, make people sleep or daydream, require following so many laws that most fail to observe and cause unnecessary guilt, censure freedom of thought in the name of blasphemy laws, tell incredible stories if taken only literally, are vulnerable to violent, misogynist, fundamentalist readings and divide people. There is a famous essay “Why I am not a Christian?” by Russell and less famous (notorious) book Why I am not a Muslim? by Ibn Warraq (both to be read along with rejoinders from Warren Rachele and Pervez Manzoor respectively). A few other equivalents against other religious positions have also been published. We find on internet proliferating

A solution that once came to their rescue could be tried today as well. It is heeding the best minds who know both tradition and modernity intimately. Should we teach or not teach evolution to children in schools? Should traditional philosophy and some exposure to modern philosophy be allowed/encouraged or discouraged in our schools? Should all major schools of ilm-ul-kalam be taught along with the cutting edge debates on a host of issues we hardly imagine as part of public discourse? Should the meaning of Islamic art or art in general form integral part of curriculum for all? Should traditional Muslim view of Caliphate/Imamate, modern political Islam, democracy, new interpretations from new approaches to religions, social and natural sciences that avoid mentioning or taking sides on God as their methodological principle, world religions including archaic wisdom traditions and dozens of theological and philosophical schools that have developed in the history of Islamicate world be

Reading Jamal Khawja on Islam in the Liberal World Long back, Ulema in India including Kashmir had been approached to articulate and defend their understanding of Islam in philosophical idiom in order to facilitate dialogue between religions and with academicians. The questions asked included: what constituted reality  for them and how one knows it. It is another matter that the tersely formulated questionnaire was greeted with silence in Kashmir.  The idea was spearheaded, among others, by Prof. Jamal Khawja as Director of a project Philosophical Dialogue between Ulema and Modern Scholars sponsored  by Indian Council for Philosophical Research, New Delhi. Khwaja is one of the very few significant living Muslim philosophers India has produced. His Quest for Islam , Authenticity and Islamic Liberalism , Islam and Modernity and Living the Quran in Our Times constitute sustained meditations on the hard problem of being an authentic human being and authentic Muslim in the modern wor