Shaikh Abdul Mabud’s compilation of reflections and reminiscences on his mentor and a longtime colleague, the late Professor Syed Ali Ashraf, to mark a birth centenary, is a tour de force, that weaves together biographical content, deep discussion on the place of moral education in a secular society and clues on the tensions that affected Muslim intellectual initiatives in the closing decades of the twentieth century.
The contributors to this posthumous festschrift include illustrious names in contemporary Islamic scholarship, not to mention Shaikh Abdul Mabud himself. The book was first launched at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation, International Islamic University Malaysia, on 2 September 2025. The launch in London, at the initiative of Islamic Courses, was at Ebrahim College, London, on 26 September.
Professor Syed Ali Ashraf, though an international scholar, was also a British Bangladeshi Muslim with strong connections with Cambridge. His association with the town began in 1950-52 as a student at Fitzwilliam College, sitting for the English Tripos BA. At the time, students were expected to become familiar with another language, and Professor Ashraf – known as ‘Ali’ to contemporaries – read much Baudelaire in French. After teaching spells at Rajshahi and Karachi University, he returned for doctoral studies in 1960, to work on early twentieth century English poets and their audiences, with Professor F. R. Leavis as one of his teachers. On its completion in 1964 he served as Professor and Head of Department of English, University of Karachi, for seventeen years. His contributions in the literary journal Venture made him known to a wide circle of poets and essayists, including Stephen Spender, who visited the University as a result. Perhaps on Spender’s prompting, but without delving too deeply into its purpose, Professor Ashraf became active in the Congress for Cultural Freedom, associated with the journal Encounter. According to contributor Syed Hasan Mutahar, “many people in Karachi viewed him as the future Dean and Vice Chancellor of the University”. This was not to be. The movement for the breakaway of East Pakistan from its west wing cast a shadow: “he felt that there was a considerable socio-economic difference between the two parts of the country. He used to feel uncomfortable about this situation.”
He left Pakistan and relocated to Cambridge in 1974. These were personally trying times, but his talented wife Asia held the fort by working as a schoolteacher. Professor Ashraf obtaining a fellowship at Clare Hall and employment as Supervisor of English at Cambridge. He then took up the post of Head of Department of English at King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia, that he held to 1982. From this base and with official patronage, he spearheaded international conferences on Islamic education, that will forever be associated with his name. The initiatives came to an abrupt end in 1982.
Professor Ashraf then founded the Islamic Academy in Cambridge as an educational charity “dedicated to advancing the true goals of Islamic Education”. It began publishing the Muslim Educational Quarterly the same year, and later numerous academic monographs on this theme. From 1982-1992 he was Visiting Professor at the Department of Education, University of Cambridge. He was instrumental in establishing the Darul Ihsan University in Dacca in 1990. It was a project “where he put into practice his ideas which were burning in his mind”. Professor Ashraf passed away at his home in Cambridge on 7 August 1998, while still in post as Director General of the Islamic Academy. He was buried in the grounds of Darul Ihsan University a few days later.
Much credit is due to Shaikh Abdul Mabud for the 584-page Educating of the Interior, published by Beacon Books, which will be a fitting reminder for generations to come on the life and ideas of a leading twentieth century Islamic scholar. Shaikh Mabud was the Islamic Academy’s deputy director during Professor Ali Ashraf’s lifetime, subsequently its Director General, and until recently, Associate Professor at Universiti Brunei Darussalam. In a moving introduction, he writes
“In addition to my regular official duties, I had numerous opportunities to discuss regularly various philosophical and spiritual matters with Professor Ashraf, either during tea breaks, outside office hours, or even during weekends at his house. I have treasured these discussions in mind, as they have significantly broadened my perspective not only on educational issues but also on human life and destiny. What I have presented in this work is based on my firsthand experience of working with him and understanding his philosophical and educational thoughts over a period of twenty-four years.”
This is a resource book with 28 chapters on different aspects of Professor Ashraf’s life and work, 7 chapters on his ideas and 7 chapters “on ideas related to Professor Ashraf’s vision”. There are contributions from over 40 friends, Cambridge colleagues, students and admirers, from within the faith and outside it, including a foreword by Professor Seyyed Hosein Nasr and an afterword by Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim. The title is echoed in the contribution from Nadeem Memon, ‘Education of the Interior’, because “Ashraf’s tireless contributions to the field of Islamic schooling were rooted in the need for moving beyond ritualistic religious studies, bifurcated curriculum, and in overemphasis of the mind over the spirit.” Shaikh Mabud notes
“We needed a clear assessment of the shortcomings of the western concept of Man, of the sources and methods of acquiring knowledge in the West [. . .] We needed in short, a new philosophical perspective with a new starting point derived from the Islamic alternative, an alternative that gives a comprehensive world view and a methodology in which the material, the ethical and the spiritual approaches are integrated.”
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Professor Ismail Faruqi began advocating the ‘Islamization of Knowledge’, and as a project it was adopted by the International Institute of Islamic Thought in 1981. Professor Ashraf maintained cordial relations with Ismail Faruqi but held some reservations on his approach. Emeritus Professor Mark Halstead in his contribution notes, “he (Ashraf) makes it clear that in his view what is involved is much more than Islamizing existing branches of knowledge or substituting secularist concepts with Islamic ones; these are only the first steps in countering the pervasive process of secularisation. More fundamental is learning how to acquire knowledge in the real sense, of Matter, Mind, Spirit, Soul, God and the whole creation and their interrelationship”. Professor Ashraf preferred the term ‘ Islamization of Approach to Knowledge.
King Abdul Aziz University in the mid-to-late 1970s was the setting of an intellectual renaissance of sorts, with a pan-Islamic trend highlighted by events such as the 1976 first international Islamic Economics conference in 1976, and in 1977, the first World Conference on Muslim Education, both in Mecca. Just as the former owed much to the late Professor Khurshid Ahmed, the powerhouse behind the latter was Professor Ali Ashraf. The patron figure in both cases was the University’s Rector, Abdullah Naseef, who had informal links with other Hejazis in positions of authority, notably Shaikh Ahmad Salah Jamjoom and Zaki Yamani.
Ghulam Naqi Saqeb worked closely with Professor Ashraf in these years, “he as the secretary and I as the assistant secretary [. . .] for two years together we worked day and night, preparing blueprints of the conference rationale, designing programs of the plenary and committee sessions and making various arrangements for invitations, visa arrangements, accommodation, reception, transportation and a host of other facilities [. . .] Professor Ashraf masterminded the whole event [ . . .] over 300 scholars representing various academic disciplines hailing from Muslim as well as non-Muslim countries were officially invited, but more came on their own [. . .].”
Their work was in the face of internal tensions and external pressures. According to Syed Hasan Mutahar, “during Professor Ashraf’s stay in Saudi Arabia, there were some people who complained about him to the Saudi authorities that he was a Sufi and against the philosophy of Muhamma ibn Abd al-Wahab. It was the feeling of Professor Ashraf that some sympathisers of Jamaat-e-Islami in Makkah were also involved in running a campaign against him. It was a hard time for him, and his employment contract was also not renewed by the concerned authorities. In this disappointing situation, Professor Ashraf wrote a letter of complaint to Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi back in Pakistan in which he mentioned that a few people of his school of thought gave statements against him. Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi felt very uncomfortable by this situation and wrote two letters, one to Professor Ashraf in which he expressed his concern and sadness, and another letter to the Saudi authorities clarifying that Professor Ashraf was an important Muslim scholar and a devoted educationalist. It was due to the second letter that Professor Ashraf was reinstated in his position and remained there for a further few years.”
There were other pressures not amenable to such interventions. Though not in this book, the work on establishing economic and educational systems and revitalising Muslim society on a different paradigm raised alarm bells in some quarters. In 1980, a ‘World Centre for Muslim Education’ was established within the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) in Jeddah, with Professor Ashraf as its Director General. There then followed three World Conferences on Muslim Education: Islamabad (1980), Dacca (1981), Jakarta (1982). Then, abruptly, the work was relocated from the prestigious OIC to a department within the Umm al- Qura University, Mecca. It is said that Professor Ashraf was subject to a lengthy interview in Mecca by a staff member of the US Embassy around this time. He left Saudi Arabia for Cambridge soon after. Saudi well wishers who knew of his mission and capabilities then helped in the launch of the Islamic Academy.
For those who only met him on a few occasions – like this reviewer – the lasting impression is of a great man of learning, but for whom adab was a precondition for ilm.
JS