BHOPAL: Former chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities Wajahat Habibullah has said that temporal education devoid of religious content will not do the world any good. “All major scientific inventions and discoveries were first used for destruction and then put to peaceful uses shows what knowledge sans the moralising influence of religion can do”, he said, quoting the example of the atom bomb.
Habibullah was speaking as the chief guest at the annual function of Muslim Education and Career Promotion Society (MECAPS) here on Sunday at Ravindra Bhavan Auditorium.
The ex-IAS officer, who was also the Chief Information Commissioner of India, said that synergy between worldly and religious education is what the Muslims in India need. “I never went to a madarsa but the religious education which my mother gave to me played a key role in whatever little I could achieve in my life”, he said.
He said what is called ‘secular education’ was born out of the clash between the Church and modern knowledge in Europe. “Scientists said that the earth is round. The Church declared that saying so was blasphemy”. He said that India has a long tradition of education. “The world’s oldest universities like Nalanada were in India”, he said. Quoting veteran historian Prof. Irfan Habib, he said that land records in medieval India showed that Hindus and Muslims were members of the same families in many cases. “It were, the British who sowed the seeds of division between the two communities when they saw how India united behind a Mughal emperor to take on them”, he said.
Manoj Shrivastava, Prinicipal Secretary and Religious Trust, Govt. of MP, Noorul Islam General Secretary, Al-Amen Trust Mission, Kolkata were present as guest of honour whereas well-known Islamic scholar Maulavi Mohammed Umar was the special guest. Apart from this, some slum children Sheetal, Simran, Vidya and Bala who brought laurels to the state winning the National School Floor Bal Hockey, Dr. Abbas Zaidi on winning Young Scientist of India award and Anushri Herald were honored.
