Abdul Bari Nadvi

After his early education at a local madressah he went to Nadwa-tul-Ulama for his higher education. He was well reputed as an established academic and writer in the disciplines of philosophy and theology and taught at Gujarat College in Ahmedabad, Dakkan College in Pune, and Osmania University in Hyderabad from where he retired as Professor, having earlier served as Head of the Philosophy Department. He was one of the most capable students of Allama Shibli Nomani and a contemporary of Syed Sulaiman Nadvi, Abdul Salam Nadvi, Abdul Majid Daryabadi, and Manazir Ahsan Gilani. He wrote extensively on religion and philosophy and translated works of numerous western philosophers and sociologists such as Berkeley, Hume, Descartes, Dewey, Henry Bergson, William James, G. F. Stout, and John S Mackenzie. Some of his works were included in the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum at Osmania University.

He was influenced in his religious ideology and thought by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi and Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madani, both of whom were students of Sheikh-ul-Hind Maulana Mahmud Hasan Deobandi. His formal spiritual association (bait) was with Maulana Madni but he spent more time with Maulana Thanawi.

There are many remarkable things about Professor Nadvi but two of them stand out: First, the tradition of translation of secular literature into Urdu, which even today, is almost non-existent. The main reason for this is the strange obsession of Muslim and Hindu elites of subcontinent with English to the extent that they have criminally neglected literary pursuits in local languages (there are some exceptions but that proves the point rather than refute it). This obsession has hampered the development of local languages as literary languages capable of expressing modern concepts and ideas. In the case of modern philosophy in particular, one can gauge the dearth of translations of modern classics from the fact that to this day there is no full translation of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason in Urdu (there is an incomplete translation which doesn't include the translation of the Dialectic part of the Critique). Given this background one is pleasantly surprised that Professor Nadvi not only translated, during the first quarter of the last century, Berkeley's classic into Urdu but also many other classics of modern philosophers like Hume, Descartes, Dewey into Urdu.

Second, and even more amazing thing about Professor Nadvi is that he was entirely educated in Muslim seminaries in India and never studied at a (secular/modern) college or university. In Muslim seminaries he would have learnt most of Aristotelian logic (and Muslim additions and commentary to it), he would have also been exposed to Muslim critics of Aristotelian logic like Ibn Taymiyya and others, he would have learnt Neo Platonic Muslim philosophy mainly through the works of Mulla Sadra (as his Al-Hikma al-muta‘aliya fi-l-asfar al-‘aqliyya al-arba‘a simply known as Mulla Sadra or just Sadra is a standard text), and through the study of Ilm al Kalam (Muslim theology) he would also have been exposed to the basic ideas of Aristotle's philosophy especially his Metaphysics. But to this day, modern philosophy is not taught in Muslim seminaries in India and Pakistan (again there are some exception). He taught himself not only English but also the entire modern philosophy to the level that he later taught philosophy at different colleges and universities around India.

After his retirement from Osmania University, he continued writing on philosophy and religion and especially on topics arising from the interaction between philosophy and religion in the Islamic context. Two of his books from this period (related to philosophy) stand out: a) Religion and Rationality. b) Religion and Science. He also wrote a chapter on miracles in Shibli Nomani/Sulaiman Nadvi's multiple-volume biography of Muhammad in which he mainly draws on Hume's ideas to establish the rationality or possibility of miracles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Abdul_Majid_Wedding_picture.pdf - Abdul Bari Nadvi sitting third from right

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nadwa_Group_picture.pdf - Abdul Bari Nadvi standing fourth from right

Some of his books and papers include:[2]

English translations

1. Principles of Human Knowledge (George Berkeley) - translated into Urdu in 1919, Dakkan College Poona - https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.498544

2. Manual of Ethics (John S Mackenzie) - translated into Urdu in 1923, Usmania University Hyderabad - https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.449616

3. Manual of Psychology (G. F. Stout) - translated into Urdu in 1927, Usmania University Hyderabad - https://www.rekhta.org/ebooks/hadiqa-e-nafsiyat-gf-stout-ebooks

4. Introduction to Metaphysics (Henri Bergson) - translated into Urdu in 1931, Usmania University Hyderabad

5. Ethics (John Dewey and James Tufts) - translated into Urdu in 1932, Usmania University Hyderabad - https://www.rekhta.org/ebooks/akhlaqiyat-john-dewey-ebooks#

6. Discourse on Methods and Meditations on First Philosophy (René Descartes) - translated into Urdu in 1932, Usmania University Hyderabad - https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.522815/page/n5/mode/2up

7. William James, some writings from 1902 to 1910 - translated into Urdu in 1937, Usmania University Hyderabad - https://rekhta.org/ebooks/falsafa-e-nataijiyat-sir-william-james-ebooks

8. Human Understanding (David Hume) - translated into Urdu in 1938, Usmania University Hyderabad - https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.498091

Urdu books and chapters

1. برکلے اور اس کا فلسفہ - 1 n1918, Dakkan College Poona - https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.498545

2. معجزات انبیا اور عقلیات جدیدہ - Chapter written in Allama Shibli Nomani/Sulaiman Nadvi's Seerat-ul-Nabi, 1920 - https://archive.org/details/Sirat-un-NabiUrduVolume2 (pages 80–184)

3. مذہب اور عقلیات – Lecture delivered in Mohammadan Education Conference in Surat/Gujrat, India 1924 - https://quranwahadith.com/product/mazhab-wa-aqliyat/

4. تجدید تعلیم و تبلیغ [7] – 1948 - https://archive.org/details/Tajdeed-e-Taleem-o-TableeghByShaykhAbdulBariNadvir.a

5. تجدید تصوف و سلوک - [6] – 1949 - http://islamicbookslibrary.wordpress.com/tag/shaykh-abdul-bari-nadvi-r-a/

6. تجدید معاشیات - [4] – 1955 - http://islamicbookslibrary.wordpress.com/2011/10/31/tajdeed-e-muashiyat-by-shaykh-abdul-bari-nadvi-r-a/

7. تجدید دین کامل[5] – 1956- https://archive.org/stream/Jami-ul-MujadideenByShaykhAbdulBariNadvir.a#page/n0/mode/2up

8. نظام صلاح و اصلاح – https://quranwahadith.com/product/nizam-e-salah-wa-islah/ 1962

9. مذہب اور سائنس –e 1970 - https://archive.org/details/TOOBAA-RESEARCH-LIBRARY-MazhabOScienceAllamaAbdulBariNadvi

Arabic books

1. بین التصوف والحیات, published in Damascus and Istanbul

2. الدین والعلوم العقلیہ, published in India

3. المنھج السلامی لتربیت النفس, published in India