A comparative study of Seyyed Jamāloddīn-e Asadābādī and Sir Seyyed Ahmad Xān reform thoughts

Seyed Jamāloddin Asadābādī has been one of the most prestigious initiators of reform movement in the last 100 years. He believed that the reasons for Muslims backwardness were local despotism and foreign colonialism. He thought that political awareness and active participation of Muslims in politics were needed for fighting against those two inflicting factors. To him Muslims would have the glory days of the past provided they would refer to the original Islam. At the same time, Sir Seyyed Ahmad Xān has begun its reform movement in India. He believed that the principal solutions to the problems of the Islamic community were the development of India, fighting against superstitions and beliefs that had been impediments to progress, and learning the new sciences and technologies. These two thinkers had common grounds while having fundamental differences. Their approaches to science and technology, correcting people beliefs and foreign colonialism were considerably different. The present research is an effort to explore the commonalities and differences in the reform thoughts of these two Muslim scholars.