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Set amidst quiet and green tree avenues inside the University of Kashmir campus in Srinagar, the Shah-i- Hamadan Institute of Islamic Studies seeks to promote the study of Islam in a wider and inter-disciplinary manner.


Islamic Studies is the academic discipline that studies Islam as a religion, a history and a civilization. Knowledge of beliefs forms its theology, its socio-political expression its history and its overall manifestation (intellectual, scientific, artistic and cultural) represents its civilization.


Named after the renowned saint-scholar of the 14th century Muslim world, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani, the Shah-i-Hamadan Institute of Islamic Studies was established in 1989 under the auspices of the UGC and the Government of Jammu and Kashmir. Since then, it has been actively engaged in imparting studies on Islam and Muslims through an inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary paradigm. Studies focus on Muslim religious sciences (tafsir, hadith and fiqh), theology (kalam), philosophy (falsafa), mysticism (tasawwuf), political and civilizational history of Islam (the pious Caliphs, the Umayyads, the Abbasids, Muslim rule in Spain, Iran, Central Asia and the Indian sub-continent) and teaching of other major world religions.


Set amidst quiet and green tree avenues in the University of Kashmir campus, the Institute attracts over 200 applicants every year and 40 students are finally taken in. The Institute aims at the study of Islam in a wider and inter-disciplinary manner. It also aims at the harmonious integration of the scientific schemes of knowledge. Students are encouraged to inculcate the values of inter-religious dialogue and social harmony.


The programmes offered by the Institute comprise M.A (two years), M. Phil. (one year) and Ph. D (two years). The Institute has a library with over 4000 books on Islamic Studies. Moreover, the students can refer to many books available at the University’s Iqbal Library. The Institute also publishes an annual journal, Insight Islamicus. The University of Kashmir has three boys’ hostel and one girls hostel. Students coming from far-flung areas are eligible to use the hostel facilities.


Interesting research has been conducted at the Shah-i-Hamadan Institute of Islamic Studies since its inception. Titles of Ph.D. theses submitted to the Institute illustrate the wide range of issues that students have sought to explore. These include ‘The Impact of the Qur’an on the Development of Social Sciences’, ‘The Socio-Political Role of the Ulema in Egypt’, ‘The Philosophy of Al-Ghazali and its Impact upon Western Philosophers’, ‘Shah Waliullah: An Analysis of the Trends in His Religious Thought’, ‘Islamic Response to Western Culture: A Study of Sayyid Jamal-al-Din Afghani’, ‘A Study of Environment in the Light of the Qur’an and Hadith’, ‘Dawah Methodology in the Contemporary Perspective’, and so on.


The Institute regularly organizes seminars and conventions that bring together scholars, teachers and students on a common platform.


For more information, contact Dr. Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi, Professor, Shah-i- Hamadan Institute of Islamic Studies, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar-190006. Ph: 0194-420078, 420405, Ext: 2199, 2202. Email:hamid001@rediffmail.com

While the Jammu & Kashmir Islamic Research Centre is a treasure-house of valuable and rare manuscripts, it also initiates awareness campaigns against smoking and dowry.


Locating an address in Kashmir is an adventure by itself. The autorickshaw I am sitting in takes me through a seemingly interminable maze of lanes till I arrive at the Jammu & Kashmir Islamic Research Centre in the heart of Srinagar.


Established in 1996, the Centre is the brainchild of Abdur Rahman Kondoo, a well-known Kashmiri scholar. The Centre is a voluntary and non-political organization devoted to education, research literary and cultural pursuits. The promoters, patrons and advisors of the Centre include a galaxy of luminaries from diverse disciplines. Since its inception, the Centre has been working in various fields for the moral upliftment and welfare of the people, despite the unfavourable situation in Jammu and Kashmir.


While the Centre has many long-term programmes, a short term programme of establishing a research library in Srinagar with modern facilities and an ambitious plan of publishing a number of books have been taken up on priority basis. “ During the last decade, some of our literary treasures, notably the rich libraries of Madinat-ul-Uloom at Hazratbal, the Islamia College in Srinagar and a part of the libraries of the Information Department of J & K Government and the J&K Cultural Academy, also in Srinagar, got burnt down to ashes”, says Kondoo. “Further”, he adds, “Innumerable rare manuscripts and other documented wealth inherited over generations by some of our respectable families got decayed due to lack of proper care and preservation. Subsequently, these were destroyed as house-refuse or sold off to junk dealers or to foreigners for petty sums. As a result, much of our literary treasure either vanished or decorated the shelves of western and other libraries in the world. It is in such a grim situation that the Jammu & Kashmir Islamic Research Centre is trying its best to acquire henceforth whatever little is left of our rich cultural heritage with a view to preserving it for the coming generations.”


Abdur Rahman Kondoo has already donated his own library to the Centre, which comprises thousands of valuable books on a wide range of subjects, including Tafsir, Hadith, Fiqh, Seerah, Sufism, world religions, history, literature journalism, economics, law, and even logic, culture, polemics and humour. Kondoo has a treasure house of invaluable manuscripts, literary periodicals, magazines and pamphlets in English, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Kashmiri, Hindi and Sanskrit. He has collected, after considerable efforts, photocopies of rare books from prestigious libraries, including the Indian Office Library (London), the British Library (London) and the Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Library (Patna). Research scholars and students are benefiting from this collection, and the Centre is providing help and facilities are offered to them free of chare to help them complete.


The Centre has been very active in educating the masses to campaign against social evils such as dowry, drug addiction, smoking, obscenity, pornography and extravagance during weddings and festivals. An attractive colourful poster printed and released by the Centre against smoking and its harmful effects adorns numerous shops and restaurants in Srinagar.


Apart from these activities, the Centre is in the process of publishing a comprehensive “Hajj Guide” in the light of the Qur’an and Sunnah for Hajj pilgrims. One of the latest books published by the Centre is Waq’iat-i- Kashmir by Khawaja Muhammad Azam Didamari (d. 1765) and translated into Urdu by Dr. Shamsuddin Ahmad. Originally in Persian, it covers more than a thousand years of Kashmir’s political and social history, mainly dealing with kings, mystics, saints, scholars and poets of the soil. Abdur Rahman Kondoo has provided a thought-provoking introduction to the translation.


(For more information, contact Abdur Rahman Kondoo, President, Jammu & Kashmir Research Centre, Kokerbagh, P.O, Nowshahra, Srinagar, J & K 190011. Ph: 0194-400098)

“Teaching Islam in its Pure Form,” is the philosophy of the Hira Institute of Arabic Language & Islamic Research in Ganderbal, Srinagar. Established in 1999 by Mashkoor Ahmed, an employee in the Government’s sheep husbandry department, the Institute was set up in a house donated by a pious philantrophist.


“Sectarian and ideological differences among Muslims have taken them far away from Islam. We wanted to cut across all sects and groups and bring Muslims together to help them mould their lives as per the pure tenets of Islam,” says Ahmed, who is affectionately called “Abbuji” by the students and the staff at the Institute.


Every morning, an hour-long class is organized at the Institute for men and women separately where lessons from the Qur’an are discussed, and Qur’anic verses are analysed and sought to be related to contemporary challenges of living Islam as a way of life. They learn the basics of Islam, Hadith, Tajweed and Comparative Religions. The students consist of school teachers, college and university students, career professionals and housewives, too.


These students, in turn, function as teachers as well. The knowledge that they acquire at the Institute is then transmitted by them in small centres where they teach daily on a voluntary basis, often after they return from their jobs.


“We want to make young Muslims firm in their faith. At the Institute, they get an opportunity to apply the principles of Islam in their daily lives. If people fear God and safeguard their hearts, they will be able to face any situation” says Ahmed.


(For more information, contact Mashkoor Ahmed, Hira Institute of Arabic Language & Islamic Research, C/0 Farooq Ahamad Dar, Kumar Mohalla, 90 feet Road, Pandach, Ganderbal - 190006).n