Spirit of Islam October 2017

43 Spirit of Islam Issue 58 October 2017 ASK MAULANA Your Questions Answered Q & A with Maulana on the ulema and inter-faith dialogue. You are one of the few traditionally-trained Muslim ulema, in India and abroad, to participate in inter-community dialogue initiatives. What do you think are the reasons that few such ulema are engaged in such dialogue? One major reason is that the Muslim ulema are not comfortable with the present concept of dialogue. The present concept of dialogue is based on mutual learning and mutual understanding. But the traditional mind of the Muslim ulema is based on debate and heated polemics. So, they have no interest in serious dialogue. Even if they participate in any interfaith dialogue, they often misrepresent Islam because they speak in the language of debate, which is not acceptable to other participants. I don’t know of any traditionally-trained Muslim scholar or cleric who is competent enough to participate in the modern kind of interfaith dialogue. Muslims are devoid of the dialogue spirit. They want to impose their concepts on others. They don’t know the concept of dialogue, which is based on sharing and mutual understanding. In the light of my experience, Muslims are debaters and not dialoguers. Do you think that the fact that in the madrasas where the would- be ulema are trained, students are not trained in various languages other than Arabic (and in India, mainly Urdu) have to do with the fact that few ulema are engaged in dialogue—because such dialogues generally take place in other languages, particularly English? Many madrasas in Africa have adopted English as their medium of instruction. In the Arab world, the medium is Arabic, while in Iran it is Persian. But all the scholars who are taught in these madrasas are one and the same. All of them are trained in the concept of debating. They are not aware of the concept of modern dialogue. It is basically a question of the present Muslim mind, and not a question of language. The present Muslim mind is one and the same in every country, from the East to the West, in the Arab world, and among non-Arabs, too. I’ll also say here that where there is a will there is a way. I learnt English on my own and I also studied in a madrasa, and so I am sure that others with a madrasa background can do so, too, if they have the will. No one is stopping them. If you interact with others, gradually you will