Ignorance-based knowledge (‘jahilana ilmiyyat’), especially science and social sciences, has been tightening its grip on the Muslim mind and the society has come to tolerate many things that were earlier considered bad. The most dangerous trend in this regard is that of participation of women in public life…. NGOs run with help of foreign secular governments and imperialist resources, spreading obscenity and popularizing the politics of rights, have gained in social influence. Imperialism and its local agents have given the responsibility of secularizing the society in many Muslim countries to their non-Muslim minorities, especially Aga Khanis, Christians, Copts and Hindus (in Indonesia)…. The nations that embraced this ignorance-based knowledge are today committing mass suicide…. Rate of population growth is rapidly falling. Women are not willing to carry the burden of bearing and bringing up children. Femininity and masculinity are both being destroyed and humanity (insaniyat), turned into ‘human rights’, is meeting a slow and painful death.’

The above excerpt has been translated from page 815 of the 37th issue of Jareeda, an Urdu journal comprising ‘epoch-making research and analytical studies’ published under the auspices of the ‘Bureau of Composition, Compilation and Translation’, University of Karachi. The ‘research and analytical study’ (which is nothing if not ‘epoch-making’), from which the above passage has been quoted, is from the powerful pen of one Dr. Javed Akbar Ansari. The honorific of ‘Doctor’ gracing the learned author’s name is rather perplexing, because in the light of the highly enlightening excerpt, it seems nothing short of a sacrilege to think that Ansari Sahib could have allowed himself to be sullied upto the abominable depth of a PhD with the ‘ignorance-based knowledge’ through one of the disciplines of physical or social sciences.

A sympathetic reader of Dr. Ansari suggests that the honorific prefixing the gentleman’s name may be one of the miracles of homoeopathy. But this view seems a bit hard to believe as homoeopathy is said to be a branch of knowledge (or rather ignorance) developed by the Germans (who perhaps were Jews as well) and, as you should know, Germany is among the countries that are passing through the more advanced stage of mass suicide as the necessary consequence of embracing the ‘ignorance-based knowledge’, which means, among other things, that in such countries the rate of decrease is population is found to be rapidly rising. How can the pious souls like Ansari Sahib be thought to have anything to do with things invented in such ignorant, sinful countries? In any case, the riddle of the prefix of ‘doctor’ does not show a sign of being resolved soon, as the Jareeda’s issue in question (which comprises no fewer than 1235 pages, excluding those devoted to the highly impressive announcements of the Bureau’s future publishing plans) chooses to remain silent on the biographical and other details about the learned author’s personality.

The introduction to Dr. Ansari’s person is perhaps not so important either; his invaluable research, consuming as many as 55 pages of the learned journal, can itself be read as an introduction to the new priorities that the said ‘Bureau of Composition, Compilation and Translation’, University of Karachi, has decided to adopt with a jihadi zeal since January 2004.

This particular point in time has acquired a significance in the history of the Bureau, if not the University itself, similar to that the date of 11 September enjoys on the global level. What happened at this fateful juncture was that a gentleman by the name of Khalid Jame’i took charge as the head of the Bureau and the editor of its Jareeda. On the surface this appointment, promotion of transfer may seem like a so-called ‘matter of routine’, but this decision on the part of the University authorities was to have consequences no less far-reaching than those associated with Nine Eleven. It has resulted in the launching of a fully-fledged jihad not only against the highly dangerous concepts such as democracy, social justice, welfare state, human rights and participation of women in public life but against the entire gamut of the ‘ignorance-based knowledge’ consisting of physical and social sciences.

Considering that the University of Karachi (which likes to call itself ‘Jamia Karachi’) is itself sinfully involved, through its various departments other than the righteous Bureau, in spreading the ‘ignorance-based knowledge’ and, as if this was not deadly enough for the Pakistani society, has been encouraging the city’s women and young girls for decades to participate in public life as teachers and students, the jihad being thankfully carried on by Jareeda can be termed, at one level, as “Jame’i vs. the Jamia”. Although it does not look like Jame’i Sahib and his team of learned contributors (including Dr. Ansari) would settle for anything less than a total jihadi revolution on a world-wide scale, they appear to believe that, just like charity, jihad should begin, if not at home, at least at the neighbourhood level.

Which is clear from the advice given by Dr. Ansari on page 826 of the same issue of Jareeda to that holy alliance of the godly parties in our Islamic republic, the MMA. The alliance, Dr. Ansari suggests, should organize its supporters in groups (‘ijtama’iyyats’) having the capacity to stop the occurrence of sinful and obscene activities (‘munkir aur favahish’) on the neighbourhood and bazaar level. Since the holy activities of the stick-wielding female students of the Jamia Hafsa in Islamabad’s sector F-6 a few months ago are still fresh in the minds of the people and the good news of similar activities — burning CD shops, administering well-deserved punishment to female school teachers and other women daring to participate in public life and so on — are increasingly coming from Swat, Malakand and other places, Dr. Ansari’s advice to the MMA needs little elaboration.

It is, however, a matter of utter surprise that neither has the Higher Education Commission chosen to take notice of the grave situation mentioned in Dr. Ansari’s analytical research nor have the University authorities shown any inclination towards liberating the Jamia Karachi from the clutches of the ‘ignorance-based knowledge’. The high-ups of the Higher Education Commission may perhaps be excused thanks to their ignorance of the Urdu language and thus of the pearls of wisdom that the issues of Jareeda contain. However, the present Vice Chancellor of the University is not only regularly seen gracing Urdu mushai’ras but it is said that, unlike the Urdu poets of the luminous oral tradition of Ustad Qamar Jalalvi, he can even read and write the language of his ghazals. If he has chosen not to take any steps to rectify the situation, the only possible reason one can think of is the sorry fact that the prefix of ‘doctor’ gracing the VC’s official name points to a PhD acquired by pursuing one of the disciplines of the ‘ignorance-based knowledge’ rather than to a gift of homoeopathy! As the famous saying of a Persian poet goes, chu kufr az Ka’ba bar-khezad, kuja manad muslmani (if the house of God becomes a source of godlessness, where is the Musalmani to be found?)

The learned VC does not seem to have been moved even by Dr. Ansari’s horrifying revelation about the activities of the ‘non-Muslim minorities’ in Muslim countries. If he had paid a little heed to the learned doctor’s wisdom, he should at least have closed down the University’s Central Library as its foundation stone was laid on 1 October 1960 by Prince Karim Aga Khan, or ordered the cancellation of the first honorary doctorate conferred by the Karachi University the recipient of which was Sir Sultan Mohammad Shah Aga Khan III.

http://thepost.com.pk/vis.aspx#Position

In my point of view, Dr Javed Akbar might be pointing towards " Value based Knowledge" as the acceptance of modern Western knowledge necessarily led to acceptance of western values and norms which, to a large extent, clash with Islamic customs and values. His comments carry some weight.

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Waheed Anwar Abro
Customs & Excise
37th CTP