Idarah Ulum al Qur’an, Aligarh, India (Institute of Qur’anic Sciences, Established 1984) organised a seminar on Qur’anic sciences on 6 October 2019 at its premises. Idarah Ulum Qur’an organises seminar every year on various themes related to the Qur’an, particularly on themes that have relevance to the problems of present day.

This year the annual seminar of the Idarah was somewhat different from previous years. Usually, seminars and conferences have plenty of research papers with hardly any time for the presenter and audience for question and answer. This time around the seminar was confined to only two research papers. For both the papers, two discussants were identified and provided advance copy of the papers so that they get enough time to prepare themselves for discussion. After presentation of the papers, discussants presented their detailed comments. After that the audience was also given enough time to ask questions and offer comments. At the end the presenters were provided opportunity to respond to the comments and questions.

First research paper was presented by Dr. Abu Saad Islahi. It was entitled “The controversies around compilation of the Qur’an: A critical Review”. He mentioned the work done so far, both by traditional and contemporary scholars on the subject. Books of critics (orientalists) and their objections were also taken note of. The researcher also discussed in detail the Muslim response to the criticism by the orientalists.

The second research paper was presented by Dr. Mohiuddin Ghazi. His theme was “Reform Mission of the Qur’an: Narrative and Resources”. His paper emphasized that the Qur’an has placed great importance on the betterment of the individual and the society. The paper highlighted the difference between what the Qur’an enjoins the believers to do and what the believers are actually doing. The paper discussed in detail as to how this objective could be achieved and what methods and resources could be used for it.

On this occasion two books were also released:

• “Methodology for The Translation of the Holy Quran“. Containing the views of late Maulana Amantullah Islahi. It has been compiled by Mohiuddin Ghazi,
• ‘Relations with Non-Muslims and the Holy Qur’an‘. This book is a collection of papers from an earlier seminar.

This is a good initiative and hopefully the management of the institute will keep up this tradition in future as well. Rather than quantity, focus should be on quality which can be maintained only if limited number of papers are presented and discussed in detail. This will allow the researchers to further refine and develop their papers before publication. For more details about Idarah Ulum al Qur’an, please visit www.alquran.in

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