Islamic Movement
A local perspective on the ICIT/Crescent
Seerah conference in Sri Lanka
By Hamza Haniffa
[Crescent International, July 16-30, 2000.]
In November last year, when Brother Zafar Bangash, the Director of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT), suggested that the Al-Islam Foundation of Sri Lanka might help the ICIT and Crescent International to organise an International Seerah Conference in Colombo this year, we agreed with some trepidation.
Our hesitation was not due to any lack of faith in Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala’s help, or any lack of confidence in the ability of our members, particularly of our youth section, but because of the situation here in Sri Lanka. Tamil Tiger separatists were already indulging in various terrorist acts, and the vast majority of the Muslims, including the intellectuals, seemed to have become completely indifferent to Islamic activities and conferences, unless of course they were supported or attended by ‘VIPs’, meaning the President or powerful ministers.
However, we gave Brother Zafar, who had come to our country to be the Chief Guest at the Finals of the Al-Islam Foundation’s annual All-Island Inter-Schools Islam/General Knowledge Quiz Competition, a positive answer and set about preparing for the big event. Alhumdulillah, the rest is now history, and now, more than a fortnight after the end of the three-day gathering, the feedback we are getting about it makes us thank Allah the Most Gracious for its success.
What makes the achievement particularly pleasurable is the fact that we in the Al-Islam Foundation, in alliance with ICIT and Crescent International, organised the event in a country which had been placed on a war footing, and inaugurated it about ten days after the assassination of a senior cabinet minister just a few kilometres away from the venue.
The conference itself was attended on all three days at full hall capacity. In fact, in the last few days before it started, requests for invitations poured in from all parts of the Island, and we were forced to book a larger hall for the second day in order to accommodate as many people as possible. We had originally planned to hold the inauguration in Committee Room B of the Bandranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH), and then use the smaller Cinema Hall for the following two days. In the event we remained in Com-mittee Room B, which has seating for 350 people, for the second day of the conference too. Despite this last-minute change of plan, many people had to be told that we could not accommodate them, and others could only be admitted for one of the days.
Despite these problems, caused by the remarkable and unexpected interest in the program, those who attended came not only from all sections of the community — maulavis, doctors and engineers, Supreme Court judges, university academics and undergraduates, and of course youth, boys and girls being educated by the Al-Islam Foundation — but also from all parts of Sri Lanka, from Kattankudy in the East to Matara in deep South, Akurana in the Hill Country to the gem city Ratnapura.
Responses to the conference? The al-Azhar and Cairo University Islamic Studies graduate, and popular Friday-prayer-leader-turned-politician, Maulavi S. L. M. Hasan, declared after attending all the conference sessions that he would give it full marks not only for organisation but also for the contents. This tribute came from someone who has, in the last few years, attended numerous seminars and conferences in Sri Lanka and abroad.
Al-Haj M. A. M. Marleen, the President of the Moors Islamic Cultural Home, one of the leading Muslim institutions in the country, told this writer that he had planned to attend only the inauguration of the conference as he had a family wedding to attend that weekend. After listening to the speeches on the first day, however, he changed his plans and returned not only for the second day but for the final sessions as well. Muhammad Nagoorpitchai, secretary of the YMMA (Young Muslim Men’s Association) from Tennekumbura in Kandy, said that large numbers of Muslims from Kandy had wanted to join him for the trip to the conference in Colombo, but were disappointed that we were not able to invite them because of the problem of numbers. He hopes that the conference deliberations would be available in cassette or print form soon.
However, it was the youth and many Islamically-active academics and writers who made us, the co-organisers, realise the importance and the fruits of the efforts that we had put into bringing a major international conference to our island. Many told us that the conference had given a new meaning to the study of the Seerah of the Holy Prophet (saw), and inspired them to resolve to re-examine it from the ‘power perspective’ highlighted by Zafar Bangash, Imam Muhammad al-Asi and other learned lecturers at the conference.
Nor were the local delegates the only people to express their appreciation of the conference. The speakers and guests from other countries in the region, including Malaysia, Pakistan, Iran and India, also found it useful. The papers they presented provided insight on both the Seerah and the situations in their countries. They were also able to see the local situation in Sri Lanka, and to meet and exchange ideas and experiences in a relaxed atmosphere. Brother Zafar Bangash had said before the conference that such interaction was one the ICIT’s major objectives at such programs, and the importance of it was plain to see.
This conference, alhumdulillah, was yet another tribute to marhoom Kalim Siddiqui, the late Director of the Muslim Institute, London, whose idea it was to re-launch the study of the Prophet (saw)’s Seerah, from a new perspective, in order to inspire and inform the contemporary Islamic Ummah, and whose leadership and example guided the institutions and individuals involved in this effort. Allahu akbar.
[Hamza Haniffa is Chairman of the Al-Islam Foundation in Sri Lanka. The conference would not have been possible without a massive effort on his part, with assistance from other members of the Al-Islam Foundation and the local Muslim community – Editor.]