SIR SYED AHMED KHAN BY; Abozar Yousafzai

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BIOGRAPHY:

•He was born on 17th October 1817 in Delhi.

•His family has a long history of serving the Mughal Empire. His father, Mir Muttaqi bin Hadi,
was advisor in the Mughal court.
•He was very intrigued by the Muslim culture and history. He studied The Quran, Mathematics,
History and Tibb etc. His mother Aziz-un -Nyssa taught him reading and writing in the early
years of his life.
•In 1838, after the death of his father, responsibilities fell on his shoulders and enrolled in EIC
as official.
•He is considered as the greatest statemen, reformer, a thinker and Muslim writer of the
nineteenth century.
BELIEFS OR TRINITY OF IDEAS;
He wanted the Muslims to keep distance from politics.
He also wanted the relations between the British and Muslims to improve. He
advised the Muslims to show loyalty to the British rulers. Sir Syed Ahmed believed
that Muslims shouldn't be reluctant to accept the good things that the British brought
with them
He believed that Muslims will be left behind if they do not start contributing and
working with the British like the Hindus and get modern education. He feared that, if
this happens then Hindus will also dominate the Muslims.
Apolitical

Loyalty Education
CONTRIBUTIONS OF SIR SYED AHMED

1. Educational Services:
• Sir Syed's role in education at that time is the highlight of his services.
• He has a keen sense that Muslims cannot progress without accepting western education.
• In 1859, he established a Persian school at Muradabad.
• In 1863, he established a scientific society in Gazipur for the translation of scientific work written in English to languages that the
Muslims can understand including Arabic, Urdu, and Persian.
• Translating the books helped Muslims better understand British. It allowed Muslims to see them as more than invaders and learn from
their advanced and modern knowledge.
• In 1877, he established Mohammad Anglo-Oriental College that was based on the English public-school system and offered western
education along with Islamic.
Anglo-Oriental College helped Muslims get better knowledge and allowed them to bag better Government jobs after graduation,
improving the British-Muslim relationship.
2. Political Services:
• Sir Syed Ahmed also considered the involvement of Muslims in politics very important. However, he
advised Muslims to not involve in politics until they acquire modern education and understand English.
• He also wanted to form a better relationship between Muslims and Hindus, but he soon realized both
couldn't live together. He is known as father of two nation theory, after The Urdu Hindi Controversy he
was disheartened and for the first he realized that the Muslims and the Hindus are two different nations.
• Sir Syed was invited to attend and join the Indian National Congress, but he refused the invitation and
warned the Muslims to do the same. He predicted that Congress will soon become the party to speak for
the Hindus only.
• To discuss Muslims problems, he provided them with a program by establishing Muhammad
Educational Conference that later became an integral platform for discussing political issues of Muslims.
• Later a full-fledged Muslim party, The All India Muslim League started from the platform Muhammad
Educational Conference after the death of Sir Syed.
• Sir Syed Ahmed believed that there should be reserved seats for Muslims. According to him Joint
Electorate would be in favor of the Hindus because of their strength.
He wrote The Causes of Indian Revot and The Loyal Muhammedans of India to reduce the
misunderstandings among Britishers and Indians.
 Now I am convinced that The
Hindus and Muslims could never
become one nation as their
religions and way of life was
quite different from one another HINDU-URDU CONTROVERSY
• Urdu was declared the official language in1837 and all record-keeping was also done it.
• In 1867, Hindus in Banaras demanded the replacement of Urdu with Hindi.
• The Hindus also wanted to replace the Persian script with Deva Nagri.
• The main reason for Hindus hatred towards the Urdu language is, it follows Persian script that is like
Arabic – the language of the Holy Quran.
• The movement to replace Urdu, gain momentum among the Hindus and they formed a headquarter at
Allahabad.
• This enraged the Muslims and they came out to protect the language as they considered it a unified
force.
• Sir Syed also supported Urdu and it became base for the ‘Two Nation Theory’.
• The Hindu-Urdu controversy made Sir Syed saw things in a different light.
• Before it, Sir Syed believed in Hindu-Muslim harmony.
• However, the Hindus’ intention seemed otherwise.
• In 1884, British men started to vote and by 1888 women also allowed to cast their vote.
• He realized that democracy is coming to Britain and it will soon reach to India too because
some local councils were elected there. Hindus are in majority, and in case if the British ever leave
India then every election will be won by them.
• He believed that to solve this problem the British must treat Hindus and Muslims separately.
• For his idea to be considered, he also explained why Muslims and Hindus are two different
nations:
Religious Differences: Hinduism supports the concept of multiple Gods while Islam is based on
Tauheed i.e. the Oneness of Allah.
Cultural Differences: Muslims bury their dead bodies while Hindus burnt their bodies. Hindus
consider ‘Cow’ a sacred animal while Muslims slaughter and eat it.
Language Differences:• The Hindi-Urdu Controversy is proof that Muslims and Hindus cannot
work and live side by side.
3. Religious Services:
• Sir Syed started writing, ‘Commentary on the Holy Bible (Tabayeen ul Kalam) a
pamphlet that discussed the similarities between Christianity and Islam.
• ‘Jila’al- Qulub bi Zikr al- Mahbub’, was the first religious writing of Sir Syed, it
contained a biography of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).

. By his writing, he also tried to guide Muslims that they shouldn’t perform Bid’dah
and Shirk. He also wrote, Tuhfa-i-Hasan, that was a translation of a Persian book's
two chapters written by Shah Abdul Aziz. In this book, Sir Syed shared his views on
Shiism.
• He started writing another pamphlet, named ‘Food laws of people of The Book'. In
this pamphlet, he explained to Muslims that Islam doesn't forbid them from eating
with Christians.
He wrote Khutbat e Ahmedia to counter the arguments expressed by William Muir in
his book *The life of Muhammad*.
The Aligarh Movement
Background
• The unsuccessful 1857 War, that was fought for Independence from the British
rule made the British believed that Muslims were responsible for the uprising.
• After 1857, the War of Independence the British started treating Muslims
brutally with vengeful and merciless punishments.
Consequences of the War of Independence
• The Mughal Empire liquidated, and Religious Education, Persian, and Arabic were banned
from schools.
• English became the official language and medium of instructions in institutions.
• The brutality of British, and new school system made Muslims furious. They started despising
everything western and modern as a result missing the opportunities too.
Goals of the Aligarh Movement
• At that time Sir Syed Ahmed realized that the acceptance of modern knowledge is the only thing that can
pretend Muslims from further worsening their situations.
• Therefore, modern education and changing the mind of Indian Muslims became the central point of his
movement.
• With an idea to bring social reforms and education reforms, he launched the Aligarh Movement with the
following goals:
- To build a relationship of understanding between Muslims and the British.
- To persuade Muslims to learn English.
- To motivate Muslims to get scientific knowledge.
- To produce educated Muslims that can work side by side with British.
-To persuade Muslims to refrain from agitating politics.

The Outcomes:
• Sir Syed's Aligarh Movement became a success, he did receive criticism by some Muslims due to his modern
opinions but some people shared his view including Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk.
• Some English professors also helped him with their services in setting up the Aligarh College including Arnold,
Bech, and Raleigh.