The Department of Islamic Studies, Islamic University of Science and Technology has initiated 10-day summer intensive summer school in Kashmir, started from 25th of June and will last till 4th of July. The programme is designed to explore the possibilities of critically engaging with the question of Islam andmodernity by studying both the emergence of the modern and the evolution of Muslim societies vis-à-vis the current Western-authored paradigm, from historical and philosophical dimensions.
The programme aims to connect scholars of the Islamic tradition with young students and scholars to study the role of Islam in the modern world and develop perspectives and approaches rooted in the Islamic tradition to tackle the pressing issues in the contemporary times. The Summer School offers an intensive training program with international and national experts on various Social Science themes in general and Islamic Studies in particular. The programme covered themes ranging from Qur’anic Studies, Islamic Law, Esoteric aspects of Islam, sources of approaching history and historiography, challenges of modernity, Islam and Human Rights, Tassawuf and Spirituality, Western and Islamic Philosophy, and other key corollaries of the discipline.
The Summer school started with an inaugural session on 25thJune, 2018 with Prof. Kunwar Muhammad Yusuf Ameen from Aligarh Muslim University as the Keynote Speaker who speak on “Epistemic Paradigms of approaching Islamic Studies”. The Session was chaired by Prof. Mushtaq A. Siddiqui, Hon’ble V.C IUST Awantipora. In his inaugural speech, Prof. Afroz Bisati, Head Deptt. Of Islamic Studies, IUST, gave introduction of Islamic Studies as an academic discipline and thanked all the guests for participating in the Sumer School. Prof. KunwarMuhammad Yusuf Amin in his key note address deliberated upon the emerging trends in Islamic Studies. He was very pressing about the paradigm shift in Islamic studies from historically descriptive subject to philosophical and historical rediscovery of norms. It was followed by the recorded comments of Ahmed Javaid, X-Director Iqbal Academy, Pakistan about the summer school. He was very optimistic about such endeavours to bridge the void between the Islamic and western Epistemes of human civilization. In his speech, the Hon’ble V.C. prof Mushtaq A. Siddiqui was assertive about the importance of Islamic Studies as a discipline to cater the issues of modern Muslim people and societies.
The first session on 26th of June was commenced by prof. Mufti Mudasir, Kashmir University, his lecture was about the ‘Concept of Revelation in Islam: A Critical Discussion’, he talked about the concept of God and need and nature of Revelation, and made a critical assessment of concept of revelation in Islam and Christianity. Prof. Hameed Naseem Rafiabadi, Central University of Kashmir, lectured on the ‘Muslim Approach to Feminism” and Prof. Manzoor Ahmad, Kashmir
University, talked about the Historical Sources of Kashmir. In the second session Prof. Scott Kugle, University of Emory, dealt with the theme of ‘Sufism as an Integral Aspect of Islam’.
On 27th of June, the first session started with Prof Mufti Mudasirtalking about The Literary Approach to the Qur’an’, wherein he talked briefly about various approaches towards understanding Qur’nic text. He was very enthralling while discussing the textual construction of the Qur’an vis-à-vis Qur’anic aesthetics. The session concluded with Question and answer session. The second session started with the lecture of Prof. Scott Koogle and he talked about ‘Mawlana Rumi’s Concept of Self’, repeatedly quoting from the Mathnawi. It was followed by another lecture on ‘Ibn Arabi: Reconsidering the ideal of Khilafat’. In this interesting talk, prof Kugle talked about ibn Arabi’sunderstanding of status of Khilafah, sans any political overtones.
On 28th of June, the session started with Prof. Mufti Mudasirtalking about the ‘Interpreting the Qur’an’, he talked about Qur’anic and extra Qur’anic sources of Quranic interpretation. The session went on to host Prof. Ian Almond, Georgetown University of Qatar, discussing the ‘Muslim-Christian Military Alliances in Medieval and late medieval Europe’ and how ideological and interest based alliance were framed in medieval history. Adile Aslan, Georgetown University of Qatar, gave a lecture on ‘Analysing the novel Snow: Orhan Pamuk’, She talked in detail about the Turkish context and nature of discourse framed in the story by Orhan Pamuk. The second session, Prof. Muhammad Umar FArooq lectured about the ‘Legalism and reform In Islam, via skype from Bahrian.
On 29th of June, the session started with prof. Abdul Rashid Bhat, Kashmir University, discussing Islamic epistemology and how to approach the issue of epistemology from Muslim perspective. Afterwards, prof. Ian Almond presented an analysis of ‘Bengali/Hindu views on Islam: Nirad C. Chaudhary’. The second session, Hafsa Kanjwal, Leafette College, USA talked about the ‘Professional Muslims in service of Empire’ and how US have patronized the emergence of moderate Muslims to serve their interests in the Middle East. She argued the for the problems faced by Muslims in the American context and the rise of Islamophobia vis-à-vis state institutions.
The first session on 30th started with prof. Iqtidar khan, JamiaMillia Islamia, he talked about he ‘Modern state formation inmiddle East’. Afterwards, prof Ian Almond deliberated upon the topic of ‘Nietzsche and Islam’. He talked about the orientalist sources of Nietzsche’s understanding of Islam and Muslims and his views about Christianity. The session was concluded by the speech of Prof. Idrisa Pandit, she presented her thoughts on the ‘Issues of Feminism and Islam’ where she urged to have more in depth understanding of texts and differentiation of culture from religion in order to address these issues. The session hosted prof. Jalal ul haq, Aligarh Muslim University, he talked on the theme of ‘Postmodernism, paganism and Islam and deliberated on diverse range of themes around these issues.
The summer school is gaining good response from the participants, faculty members from other universities and moving towards the concluding days. This is the first ever summer school in the field of social science in Kashmir and the department intends to organize many such programmes in the future.
