A series of public lectures on the history of Islam and the development of the Tatar Muslim community continues in Kazan. Thus, the topic of the new meeting was the religious and philosophical views of Gabdulla Bubi, presented by Aidar Zakirov, PhD in Philosophy, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Islamic Studies, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan.
The life journey of Gabdulla Bubi
Gabdulla Bubi was born on November 9, 1871 in the village of Izh-Bubi in Sarapul District in the Vyatka Province (currently, the Agryz District of the Republic of Tatarstan) to the family of mullah and mudarris Gabdullgalyam Nigmatullin and his wife Badrulbanat. Bubi was educated in his father’s madrasah.
A special atmosphere of respect for knowledge and books prevailed in the family, surrounding the boy from his childhood. His parents and uncle Gabdulla, his father’s younger brother, mudarris of the famous madrasah Sterlibash, were a true model of knowledge and enlightenment for him. His brother Gubaidulla played a significant role in spiritual formation of Gabdulla. Under their influence, he got passionate about reading at an early age, and read a lot and enthusiastically. The works by Shigabutdin Marjani, Kayum Nasyri and newspaper ‘Tardjeman’ by Ismail Gasprinsky had a great impact on him in his youth.
Being a shakird, Gabdullah began to help his father in the madrasah. In 1895, by that time an ardent supporter and follower of Gasprinsky, he was appointed as an ordained mullah and with his father’s blessing started reorganization of Izh-Bubi madrasah. In the autumn of the same year his elder brother Gubaidulla returned from Istanbul, having finished his studies in the leading Turkish educational institution ‘Mektebe Mulkiyi Shahane’. The madrasah then passed entirely into the brothers’ hands.
Izh Bubi Madrasah
Gabdulla Bubi was the main organizer, soul and inspirer of the establishment of the centre for enlightenment in Izh-Bubi. Later, the brothers, together with their sisters and wives, took an active part in the life of the madrasah. Their parents supported their endeavors with their authority.
When Gabdulla Bubi set about transforming the madrasah, he sent one of his shakirds to Bakhchisaray to Gasprinsky to be taught a new method, and with the money from merchant Akhmetzyanov he constructed a building for a primary Jadid school of four large rooms.
By 1902 the Bubi family had established a men’s and women’s high school complex, where a broad secular education was provided along with an in-depth study of theology. However, the Bubi family never stopped and constantly improved the curriculum, introducing more subjects and opening new classes.
The Bubi men’s and women’s madrasahs soon began training teachers for new-methodical schools. Young people from all over Russia – from Kazan and Orenburg, Moscow and Irkutsk, Ufa and Tashkent, Chistopol and Troitsk – came to Izh-Bubi for knowledge. In 1903, the Russian language was introduced in the curriculum, and in 1905-1907 the Bubi got permission from the Sara-Pulsky District to open one- and two-classed Russian-Tatar female and male schools, and later to issue certificates of education in Tatar primary schools to the graduates. Thus, Izh-Bubi madrasah became the first Tatar educational institutions to graduate certified specialists.
By 1910, Bubi madrasah had become the educational institution with the most complete form. The reason was simple: the transformations which had begun in madrasah ‘Husaniya’ in Orenburg and ‘Mukhammadiya’ in Kazan several years earlier than in Bubi, were stalled due to absence of competent management in the first aforementioned madrasah and expulsion of Galimdjan Barudi, the Head of Mukhammadiya madrasah, from Kazan in 1908. The Galiya madrasah in Ufa, opened by Z. Kamali in 1906, was still in its infancy. These educational institutions gained the greatest popularity in 1913-1917, when Bubi madrasah was already defeated.
In the summer of 1919, immediately after the establishment of the Soviet power in the region, Gabdullah organized summer teacher training courses in Izh-Bubi and became one of the leaders of the congresses of clergy and intelligentsia of five provinces (Sarapul, Elabuga, Birsk, Bardymsk and Osinsk) in support of the young Soviet power. With his active participation, a secondary school was established in Izh-Bubi, where he taught until the end of his life.
Innovations in village life
A great contribution, according to the lecturer, was made by Gabdulla Bubi in transforming life in the Tatar village. Apart from reforming the madrasah, for the first time in Russia a box for collecting donations appeared in the mosque. Zakyat funds collected were used for public needs, which had not been the practice before. At the same time, the language of Friday sermons was changed from Arabic into Tatar.
‘From 1907 onwards, literary and scholarly evenings became part of the daily life of the madrasah, and shakirds engaged in gymnastics and sports in their spare time. In 1908 a fixed tuition fee was established. At the same time, the first three-month teacher training courses appeared in the madrasah,’ Aidar Zakirov added.
Religious and philosophical views of Gabdulla Bubi
In his essays, Gabdullah Bubi posed pressing questions to readers and to himself: How do we find the path of truth? Is our method consistent with the method of Prophet Muhammad? Is it permissible to follow the opinions of previous generations of scholars, leaving the reflection on Qur’anic ayats behind? How should zakyat money be spent and to whom should it be given nowadays? What is the meaning of the expression ‘in the way of Allah’ in the ayat on zakyat? Does Allah prescribe to follow Shariah rulings in a reckless manner? What is the difference between Shariah and religion? What should be a Muslim’s attitude towards material wealth?
It is worth mentioning that Bubi gained his wide popularity thanks to his work ‘Hakyikat’ (‘The Truth’), which deals with the consideration of 20 ayats considered by Imam Jalaladdin as-Suyuti (1445-1505) as ‘abrogated’ by later ayats of the Quran. Of the twenty-two parts of the Truth, unfortunately only eight published parts have survived. The treatise is written in a polemical spirit and reflects the realities and atmosphere in which the author lived.
Already at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries he produced a number of works of theological and educational character, such as ‘Terekkiyai fenun ve megarif din-sezlekke mozhbme?’ (‘Does the Progress of Science and Enlightenment Account for Faithlessness?’) and ‘Diyanete islamiyai kawagide medeniyya tatbik, yahud bor’ane satyg’ (‘Comparing Muslim Religion with the Foundations of Civilization, or Vivid Evidence’).
‘According to Bubi, the reason for the decline of science and enlightenment was blindly following the opinions of inactive pseudoscientists. He also argued that righteousness did not lie in following tradition but in the path of happiness prescribed by Islam. And in this search for truth and happiness, reason plays a leading role,’ the lecturer explained.
In his writings, Bubi argued that progress in science and knowledge did not create faithlessness and emphasized that Islam required believers to gather knowledge wherever they go.
Islam, according to Bubi, is a perfect religion, and the seeming contradictions come from people. There are ignorant people who try to corrupt the religion, and this is not because the religion is wrong, but because of the ignorance of these people. Religion does not force its followers to accept only one explanation of this or that ayat made hundreds of years ago, he said. On the contrary, believers need to think, to seek the perfect meaning of the ayat, based on the achievements of modern thought, he believed and criticized his contemporaries, who accused of heresy people who sought to penetrate the meaning of the ayats of the Quran.
As far as zakyat is concerned, Gabdulla Bubi argued that it was permissible to spend zakyat money on non-Muslims in order to predispose them to Islam. It is important that zakyat should be distributed according to the principle of justice and targeted, that is, it should reach those in real need. After all, the main purpose of zakyat is not only to distribute money for the sake of the idea of distributing money, but to seek ways of improving the welfare of people and to implement them.
Bubi argued that leaving a will is a godly thing, as financially secure heirs are better off than those who are in distress. At the same time, bequests for public and national needs were encouraged too.
In his writings the theologian noted: ‘Just as it is wrong to give zakyat to parents, since one should help them according to conscience, it is wrong to make a will in favor of relatives, since the distribution of inheritance is clearly described in the Quran. Indeed, it is permissible to make a will, as well as zakyat, in the way of the Almighty, for the benefit of the nation’.
‘According to Bubi’s worldview, reason is the main and only tool for verifying knowledge, and the Quran and Sunnah are the main sources of inspiration and finding the true path. He was also convinced that the economic and intellectual backwardness of Muslims was the fruit of the activities of ignorant false scholars,’ Zakirov summarized the lecture.
Ilmira Gafiyatullina
Photo: Creative Commons