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Convention of Ulema 23rd Febuary 1992

The situation of Ulema in the United Kingdom

The vas majority of the Ulema gathered in the convention who had come from Pakistan, realise the deficiency and their inability to tackle with the needs of modern society and especially the Muslims in U.K. and Europe. In realising this deficiency the kind of barriers that were discussed were:


LANGUAGE clearly in the next 5 to 10 years the predominant language of medium will be English and 95 % of the Ulema are ill equipped if not unequipped at all, to speak in this medium. The only people that can or may benefit somewhat from their expertise shall be the first or some sections of the second generation. It was recommended that all the Ulema should seek to undertake English language courses or at least as a minimum have a working knowledge of the English language.

SCIENCE. The Ulema were not trained to understand modern science. In fact some of them had been brought up to suspect the findings of modern science. It was quite clear that at least a broad section of the Ulema must understand modern science and its basic principles and some specialist Ulema must understand the scientific developments in detail, so that the rules of fiqh can be changed within the basis of Ijtihad, in order to rationalise modernity according to what was revealed by Allah Almighty.

ECONOMY. The rules of economic engagement are far more sophisticated today then they were in the past. This advancement has brought about the need for many explanations within Islamic Law but also the direction of mankind. This direction needs to be civilised within the senses of social and environmental responsibility. There is no point in attempting to create a so called civilised society where everyone is for themselves and greed prevails over social harmony. The only way the Ulema can participate in this challenge is to understand the basic concepts of not only Islamic economic system but also the modern economic system and to lead the debate, for a more just system of equilibrium in distribution of wealth.

POLITICAL. The Ulema felt that there was a vacuum in political leadership around the globe. The leadership that exists today is from the same corrupt system that was formed out of a decaying materialistic belief system. There can be no positive changes in the Muslim Ummah unless there is introduced the concept of leadership which is imbedded in piety and morality. It cannot be said in any civilised jurisdiction that thieves regulate other thieves. The Ulema should work towards exposing those that are sincere leaders of their community and those that are there for personal gain or for ulterior motives.

SOCIAL. The Ulema must understand the new sociology of the world community. The globalisation of the globe and the needs of the global village are such that many barriers have been brought down but many other barriers have been put up. Ulema must decide on what are the common denominators of not just belief but of values which a Muslim State and Society must profess in order to become an example to humanity.

CULTURAL. The need to re-establish a new Muslim identity is one of the most important challenges for the Ulema today. This identity must be a dynamic one and must be available to change and betterment, whilst remaining within the basic concepts of the Islamic tradition and faith. This is probably the only corner of strength remaining within the Muslim community, by reason of which they can still say that at least their soul and spirit remains their own.

The current situation of Muslim Madrasas (schools) was discussed in Britain and throughout the world. It was discussed that the graduate from such Madrasa will be open for manipulation without giving him an independent mind or spirit. He will be easily coloured by whoever is able to politically sway him. There was a need to modernise the syllabus of the Madrasas. There was a need to make the graduate of a Madrasa more compatible to society and participant in society.


The state of the Muslim schools was looked at and all be it at an early stage of the development of muslin schools in Great Britain, it was discussed that such schools will not have the impact of creating an Islamic identity upon its attendees, unless a specific strategy was deployed to ensure that student finishing school from such an experience, would graduate with Islamic moral and pure ethical values. It was discussed that this matter would be looked at in more detail by a cross section of the Ulema.


Resolutions

It was decided that the President General Hazrat Allama Pir Muhammed Abdul Wahab Siddiqi would be responsible for the establishment and the conversion of his existing Jamia Islamia to a fulltime Islamic University within which the current Islamic Muslim Madrasa syllabus would be taught to create Ulema. This curriculum will be reshaped in a modern dynamic curriculum but also that each of the students should learn the modern sciences in order that they do not end up becoming paid Ulema.


There would be deployed a strategy of the modernisation of the local Madrasas which exist in the U.K. and all over the world. Each of these Madrasas must inculcate in their curriculum some element of modern sciences and modern economic systems including some technological subjects like Information Technology. A full paper making such proposals will be made available within 12 months.


There should be an Ulema training course. This training course would be organised for the existing Ulema who have been imported in from Pakistan and India and other Muslim countries who face the deficiencies outlined above, and so far as it was possible to try equip them with the needs of modern society.


It was decided that there should be presented a curriculum which can be introduced either as part of religious education lessons in the main state school system or as part of the religious assembly program. Resources and material should be made available so that the said materials can be used in a proper manner. There should be some form of training organised for teachers who will be delivering the said curriculum.


It was decided that due to the fact that there was a lot of sectarian divide and lack of progress in the necessary areas due to the conflict, that a committee should be formed consisting of at least one alim from each sect to coordinate the overall affairs of the Muslim community in Great Britain. For this purpose Hazrat Allama Pir Muhammed Abdul Wahab Siddiqi was nominated from the Ahle Sunnat wal Jamaat and Maulana Abdul Hadi was nominated from the Ahle Hadith community and Maulana Sabzwari was nominated from the Shia community and Maulana Ghulam Rabbani was nominated from the Deobandi community.