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Background:
When the Mughals decline started the east India Company emerge as the new political power in India. An active campaign of Christian missionaries was developing a serious threat to Islam in India and lastly the western education with the patronage of the government had completely ignored the Islamic learnings they want to Christianize the whole sub-continent expressing this desire, Mangles, come over the chairman of the board of the director once stated in the house of commons in 1857, “providence has bestowed upon us the empire of India so that the banner of Christ showed wave triumphant from one end of India to the other1. The missionaries made every possible effort to spread Christianity. In case, a region was hit by famine. The orphans were admitted into orphanage where they were forcibly converted to Christianity. Such incidents were witnessed in the orphanages of Sikandara during the famine of 1837 2. These intervention in religious affairs compelled the Muslims to made a madrasa where the basic of religion to be taught.
Introduction:
The day of Thursday 15th of muharram, A.H 1283 (may 30, 1886) blessed and auspicious day in Islamic history of India when the prominent Islamic Ulama headed by Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi, maulana Rashid ahmed Gangohi and Haji Muhammad Hussain Abid. Basically this idea was given by Haji Muhammad Hussain Abid, which brought the today’s most renowned religious and academic center in the Islam[i]ic world. In sub continent it is the largest institution for the dissemination and propagation of Islam and the biggest head spring of education in Islamic sciences, known as “Manqulat” to the Muslims according to the Hanafi School of Islamic jurisprudence. At that time it was simply called the “Islamic –Arabic Madrasa” and soon came to be known throughout the world as “ummul-madaris” means the mother of Madrasas.
The seminary was wholly dependent on public contributions mostly in the form of annual pledges, not on fixed holdings of “waqf”. The first teacher and the first pupil, in coincidence deemed auspicious, were both named Mahmud; Maulana Mahmud the teacher and Mahmud Hassan the pupil, who later to become the school most famous teacher 3. Deoband also participated in local politics and made Jamiat ulama e hind. Later it was divided into two parts (1) jamiat ulama e hind (2) Jamiat ulama e Islam . Jamiat ulama e hind led by Sheikh ul hadees of deoband maulana Hassan Ahmed Madani and some other deobandi scholars had opposed the creation of Pakistan, on the religion basis by the demand of muslim league although the real reason of their opposition was the desire to Islamize all India. They saw nothing Islamic in the idea of Pakistan. Interestingly, when inaugurating Pakistan’s constituent assembly, Jinnah proclaimed Pakistan’s secular ideologies, he was voicing the established the secular ideological position that Muslim league had adhered to throughout its career 4. Maulana Muhammad Yaqoob was the first principle of this institution that was hired. The man who made this small Madrasa as a big one, was Maulana Qasim Nanotvi, when he became the part of this seminary, he instituted modern methods of fixed and carefully curriculum, teaching in classrooms, exam periods and publishing press. Different faculties recognized as leaders in their fields to share their lectures. Medium languages were Arabic and Urdu. The faculty instructed the student primarily in Urdu. The students were also taught books binding, shoe-making, and tailoring etc to earn in practical life. Maulana Mahmud Hassan graduated from Madrasa, later on he joined the Madrasa for teaching purposes and then became principal of the Madrasa. He served this institution for twenty three years. In which he contributed a lot to the institution. In his tenure the foreigners joined Daroo ulom for studying. The followers of this school of theology often described as followers of the Deobandi school of thought. In 1893, Daroul Iftah was established under the supervision of mufti Aziz Ur Rehman to provide religious, social and economical guidance to the Muslims. Its main work was translation of Quran,one translation was done by Mahmud Hassan.
Pattern of Education
Deoband’s curriculum is based on 17th century Indo-Islamic syllabus known as Darse nizami. The core curriculum teaches Islamic law ( Shariah), Islamic jurisprudence( Fiqah), traditional Islamic spirituality( tasawuf).
The current syllabus consists of four stages, the first three stages can be completed in a total of eight years, and the final stage is post graduate stage where students specialize in a number of advanced topics, such as the sciences of hadees, fiqah and so on.
Aims and objectives:
- Providing comprehensive information to the Muslims about their religion and making arrangements for teaching of Quraan, Tafseer, Hadees, etc.
- Invoking the spirit of Islam among the students.
- Propagation and teaching of Islam.
- Preserving the freedom of thoughts and knowledge.
- Establishment of Arabic institution for the propagation of Islam.
Impacts of Darul uloom Deoband:
Many Islamic schools in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, United Kingdom, South Africa and other parts of the world are theologically linked to Darul uloom Deoband. Deobandi graduates established many seminaries around the world such as darul uloom sabeel us salam in Hyderabad, India, Madrasa Ina’amia camperdown near Durban in south Africa and three seminaries in Pakistan, Darul uloom Karachi, jamia ashraifiya Lahore, jaimia zia ul quraan(Almaroof baghwali masjid) Faisalabad.
Recent development of darul uloom deoband:
Darul uloom has expanded its activities and started new departments during the last decades in view of great challenge from the Ahmadia movement (Qadyanism). Darul uloom convinced the all India Tahafuz khatm e Nabuwat conference and established a special department of refute Qadiyanism. It started sheikh Ul hind academy for publishing books and training students in Urdu journalism. In 1996 the computer department was opened later, internet department also added. It also introduced two years full time diploma in English language and literature for students wishing to pursue higher education in universities.