Unknown Heroes

Mehraj Din 

Disremembering our roots turns out into forgetting our identity and divorcing our identity ends up erasing the roots and fruits of our civilization. We often see our newspapers appreciating the potential of our budding Kashmiri youth who are getting internationally reputed fellowships—Fulbright Fellowship, Commonwealth scholarship and Ford Foundation fellowship etc—but we pay little attention to those who always strive to remain sincere to the roots and values vis-à-vis enriching the intellectual storehouse of Islamic and Muslim Civilization.

One among those unknown scholars is Dr Zahoor Ahmad Mir who recently completed his PhD from the faculty of Islamic Studies in JamiaIslamia Medina University.

I am not here to criticize those who get the western funded internationally acclaimed fellowships—whatsoever maybe the reasons and whatsoever be their ethico-moral standing and contribution towards their society.

But, why do we fail to recognize the contribution of those people as well who spend decades of their life learning the foundational structure of our sacred discourse which furthermore helps us to remain connected to the roots of our civilizational discourse.

Dr Zahoor Ahmad Mir left the luxuries and securities of life and took up this task of engaging with the intellectual history of Islamic tradition and went to study in one of the best Islamic universities in the world—Jamia Islamia Medina.

Zahoor Ahmad Shah left Kashmir in 1995 to study in one of the internationally acclaimed Islamic Universities of the world—Jamia Islamia Medina for two year language course and did his bachelors programme in Islamic Jurisprudence from the university of Medina. The son of this soil was honored with Medina Award 2001 for his erudite scholarship in the field of Islamic studies. He strengthened his roots in Islamic jurisprudence and further on enrolled in the Masters programme in the same field. He wrote his master’s thesis on a book “Legacy and Pearls in resolving the words of al-Rehabia” which was published by the University of Medina. Keeping up with his intellectual engagements and pursuit for Knowledge in the field of Islamic studies—he started his PhD programme in the faculty of Islamic Studies (Kulliyah al-Shariah) on the “Opinion of Shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih Uthaymeen on contemporary developments in Fiqh in context of marriage and fornication” (aqwal shaykh Muhammad ibn Salih al-uthaymeen al-fiqhiya fi al-mustajadat al-asriya fe baab al-nikahwa al-zaniyah) under one of the famous professor ShaykhHamad al-Hamaad from the faculty of Islamic Studies, Medina University.

Zahoor Ahmad is one among the very few who studied in one of the luminary and purely traditional institute and completed his PhD in this very year of 2015. He has written, annotated and referenced certain important books in the field of Islamic Studies and was recently honored with the responsibility for heading the revised version of Kashmiri translation of Quran which is published from Medina University. He continues to serve the Islamic studies discipline in Medina University and intends to help Kashmiri students who are interested in Islamic studies to understand and engage with the foundational texts of Islam to answer the contemporary problems faced by Muslim world in general and Kashmiri society in particular.

He is an inspiration to students like me to take up this journey of Knowledge as Imam Shafi would say “Travelling is Knowledge” which quintessentially sensitizes the importance of a pursuit for Knowledge.

I would end with the quote of Imam Ghazali “The aim of Knowledge is to free you from the slavery of creation to the slavery of Creator”.

Mehraj ud din is a doctoral Candidate in the department of Islamic studies and can be mailed at bhat.mehraj7@gmail.com

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