Talk:Ali Asgher Razwy/Sources
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Restatement of the History of Islam and Muslims C.E. 570 to 661 By: Sayed Ali Asgher Razwy Size: 7 X 9.25’, 586 Page Paperback ISBN No: 0 95 09879 1 3
Many of the so-called "known facts" in the history of nascent Islam are little more than pious assumptions or even pious wishes which through persistent repetition by the long chain of the generations of Muslims, have acquired the "patina" if not the status of the "articles of faith". When I questioned some of the assumptions of many Muslims which are disguised as historical "truths", I noticed that they cannot withstand the scrutiny of critical analysis.
The reader himself may, therefore, decide if he would cling to them or would accept truths some of which he might find extremely bitter and brutal. There are those people who are afraid of truth. Truth threatens their illusions, their favorite myths, and their assumptions.
These latter, through long propinquity, have become so familiar to them that they feel it is safe and comfortable to live with them without the "intrusion" of truth. They equate truth with "insecurity." And yet, truth alone can bring them real security.
Truth must be upheld at all costs, and by all, but especially, by the historians. Truth must be upheld even if it hurts a friend and benefits a foe.
Prologue….. UPON HIS RETURN in June 1996, from one of many trips to the United States, the President of the World Federation, Mulla Asgher Saheb, handed me a voluminous 800 page typewritten manuscript. Little did I realize, then, what an experience, working on this project was going to be. Leafing through the pages I soon felt dwarfed by the erudition of the author, and mused over his penchant for the quaint turn of phrase, which only a scholar trained in the classical writing style of the days of yore could pen.
Reading this paraphrasing of history of Islam and Muslims, filled me with a deep admiration for the sheer effort required to pore over so many differing accounts of the incidents and episodes. And then to compare, deliberate and make acute observations on the narrations of the past historians (and spin doctors who passed themselves off as historians), in such an incisive manner, appeared a feat hard to match. Describing the process the author declares:
When I questioned some of the assumptions of many Muslims which are disguised as historical "truths ", I noticed that they cannot withstand the scrutiny of critical analysis. The reader himself may, therefore, decide if he would cling to them or would accept truths some of which he might find extremely bitter and brutal.
Comparing the task of a historian to a researcher rather than just a narrator, and defining this exercise as 'scientific history', in his book Society & History, Shahid Ustad Murtahhary wrote: 'the historian in this analytical endeavor, wishes to uncover the true nature of historical events and their casual relationship, and to discover the general and universal laws applicable to all similar events of the past and the present.'
In this monumental treatise, Sayed Ali Asgher Razwy, has acquitted himself well at the task of being a scientific historian. Using the raw materials of events and episodes of the past, the inferences that he deduced are neither confined to the past nor are they a mere regurgitation from the annals of history.
A poignant reminder that emerges, with unparalleled explicitness, is that the .present sorry state of the Muslim Community could well be traced to the short sighted and self-centered leadership decisions, soon after the death of the Prophet (SAW). Moreover, Syed Razwy articulates that, in their quest to, justify the actions of their masters, the court historians bent backwards, to gloss over many an incident, event, and episode, thus obscuring the real issues, have only served to add insult to injury.
Therefore, this piercingly perceptive restatement, will make a substantial contribution to the understanding of history of Islam and Muslims. Without doubt, students of history will find in this rendering, not just an invaluable resource in comparative history, but also a learning tool in the methodology of divesting history from the biases of historians. True to his spirit of scholarship and a quest for the truth, Sayed Razwi declares:
History has no supreme court rendering verdicts; it has only fallible chroniclers. And yet, history can find its own supreme court or objective tribunal in the logic of facts.
Right from the first page on, readers will discover that this is not just another roll of parchment, purporting to be history. Here at last is a refreshingly fresh epic, devoid of polemics, and divested from a historians' bias. Yet the rendition is so lucid, so readable and so succinct.
I only wish I had the privilege of meeting the author in person. Sadly, he passed away while the book was in its initial stages of publication. Allah willing, his legacy as the seeker of the truth in the light of Ahlul Bait (AS) will continue to live on through the minds of his readers.
Hasnain Walji Muharraln 1418. May 1997
About the Author Sayed Ali Asgher Razwy (1925-1996 )
MARHUM SAVED ALl ASGHER RAZWY is best remembered as a soft-spoken Islamic scholar, whose amiable personality and cheerful disposition endeared him to all who had the good fortune of meeting him. Invariably those who spoke to him left highly impressed, having learned something from this captivating savant.
Sayed Ali Asgher was born in Simla, India in 1925. His father Aqa Seyyid Muhammad Shah had migrated there earlier from Baluchistan. Aqa Seyyid Muhammad Shah was, himself, an alim, educated at Najaf and Qum, and was the representative of Marhum Ayatullah Seyyid Abul Hassan Isfahani (R.A.).
Sayed A. A. Razwy joined the Indian -Civil Service soon after graduating with a B.A. Hons. Degree from Kashmir University. Latet he actively participated in the movement for the creation of Pakistan and subsequently migrated to Pakistan where he joined the Foreign Service.
In 1950, he came to Washington D.C. as a member of the Pakistan Diplomatic Mission. In 1954, he was transferred to Kabul and a year later Bayed Ali Asgher migrated to Canada and then -on to the United States in 1960 where he worked with a commercial firm.
An active social worker, he joined The Muslim World League and was for many years, a source of guidance to the, then nascent, Shi'i community in North America. He has the unique distinction of being the first speaker, in North America, to address the congregation in English.
Among his earlier literary works are The Biography of Seyyidati Khadijatul Kubra, and Salman Farsi. Bayed Ali Asgher also wrote a number of tracts and pamphlets on various topics. This monumental manuscript, A Restatelnent of The History of Islaln and Muslilns was accepted for publication by Mulla Asgharali M. M. Jaffer, the President of The World Federation in July 1996.
With the publication of this book, which Marhum labored upon for decades, just eight months after his sad demise, on September 15, 1996 at Calvary Hospital, in New York, he has left a lasting legacy of his erudition and knowledge thus assuring himself of thawab e jari. Readers are requested to recite Sura e Fatiha in his memory.
Published by The World Federation “Of Khoja Shia Ithna-Asheri Muslim Communities” and Distributed by Khatoons Inc.
http://khatoons.net/zen_new/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=628
