A look at his journey from Western rationalism to becoming one of Islam’s great commentators. His life is a timeless lesson in intellectual and spiritual courage.
Tahir Iqbal
The intellectual life of Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi (d.1977) reminds us that faith is not always inherited quietly. Sometimes it is rediscovered after inner turmoil. Before becoming a revered mufasir of the Qur’an and a great alim of the Indian subcontinent, Maulana Daryabadi passed through a blistering phase of scepticism. As a college student, he became engrossed in Western rationalism and abandoned religious belief. He adopted an orientalist outlook on religion and regarded Western assertions as gospel truths. Religion seemed to him intellectually outdated.
The writings of philosophers such as Mill, Hume, Spencer and Bradley further weakened his faith. Abdul Raheem Kidwai says that he didn’t have any mentor to guide him during this critical period. He read whatever came into his hands. As a voracious reader, he studied psychology, logic and philosophy extensively.
However, his atheistic attitude did not last forever. God had His own plan to return him to the fold of faith and certitude. Figures such as Akbar Allahabadi, Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar, and later, his spiritual mentor, Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, played a great role in facilitating his return to religious truth. Even before them, it was Arthur Schopenhauer’s moral philosophy which unsettled his confidence in Western rationalism and initiated a moral introspection in him. He started reading religious traditions seriously and analysed them intellectually.
In his autobiography, Maulana Daryabadi recalls his meeting with the Hindu philosopher Bhagwan Das, whose interaction on mysticism, truth and metaphysical reality profoundly affected his thought. He says, “My atheism has been considerably shaken by his spirituality. Had I not met him during that period, I would have been steeped in error for a longer time and might have been hardened in my atheism.” Around the same time, Maulana started studying Mathnavi of Maulana Rumi, which opened before him a new spiritual dimension.
The decisive change, however, came through Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi’s Maktubat. They guided him to the path of winning Allah’s pleasure. In those Maktubat, Maulana Daryabadi found not mere arguments but direction and a way towards divine pleasure and salvation. His intellectual life teaches us that faith regained after scepticism is often deeper than the faith inherited without question.
The writer is an Assistant Professor, Islamic Studies at the Department of Higher Education, Jammu and Kashmir
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