When colonial powers took control of Muslim lands, a deliberate strategy was often employed to marginalize the scholarly languages of those regions, effectively severing Muslims from their intellectual heritage.
In Turkey, the historic Ottoman script was abolished and Latinized. Similarly, the Jawi (Arabic) script used for Malay and Indonesian was systematically replaced by the Latin alphabet under British and Dutch influence.
In Central Asia, the Soviet empire forced local languages like Uzbek and Tajik to transition from the Arabic script to Latin, and eventually to Cyrillic. Likewise, in North Africa, the French systematically imposed their own language over Arabic in education and administration, while in the Indian subcontinent, the British officially replaced Persian—the historic language of scholarship—with English in 1835.
Despite these overwhelming colonial pressures, Urdu managed to survive in both speech and text in India right up until 1947.
In the post-independence era, however, it is the Muslim community itself that has largely neglected the language, bringing it to the brink of extinction. A vast majority of our youth are now entirely disconnected from literary Urdu, with only a rare few possessing the ability to read it fluently.
The detrimental effects of this linguistic disconnect are already taking a toll on Indian Muslims. They have been effectively severed from the works of their past scholars.
Consequently, they are unable to benefit from a wealth of exceptional Islamic research and literature produced exclusively in Urdu, much of which remains unavailable in Arabic.
Because of this barrier, many students of knowledge struggle to adapt to the local Da’wah landscape. Unable to independently read the biographies, nuances, and methodologies of their Urdu-speaking predecessors, they often end up awkwardly trying to superimpose Arabian or Western Da’wah models and Fatawa onto the unique Indian context.
It is time we view the revival of Urdu not merely as an act of cultural nostalgia, but as an urgent intellectual mission. Reclaiming this language is the key to unlocking the rich biographical history, nuanced legal rulings, and profound scholarship of our predecessors.
By mastering Urdu, a new generation can bridge the gap between past wisdom and present challenges, ensuring that the localized, historical Da’wah efforts of the subcontinent are not lost to time. We must make learning, preserving, and translating this literary heritage a deliberate priority in our homes and communities, so that we may confidently carry our authentic intellectual legacy into the future.
(Penned by Mohammed bin Thajammul Hussain Manna)
Saheehus-Seerah 