In the intellectual topography of Kashmir, few names re-echo with lucidity and sound knowledge of Professor Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi. A scholar of uncustomary calibre, he has long stood as a torchbearer of Islamic thought, commixing the traditional Wahy (revelation)-based epistemology with a toilsome academic edifice. He wrote more than 30 important books on Islam and culture and also hundreds of research articles. He introduced Imam Ghazali’s approach and the critical analysis of Allama Ibn Taimiyah among his students as a serious research methodology in the domain of Islamic Studies. However his contribution is not merely confined to classroom or academic journals — it reflects a living engagement with the spiritual and intellectual crisis of our time.
Having served with distinction at the Shah-i-Hamdan Institute of Islamic Studies, University of Kashmir, and later as the Head of the Department of Religious Studies at the Central University of Kashmir, Professor Rafiabadi has influenced generations of students and scholars. His scholarship spans a wide range of subjects, from the Islamization of knowledge and religious awakening to interfaith dialogue and social work. His call for a ‘knowledge-based dialogue’ remains one of the most relevant responses to the fragmented discourse within the Muslim society today.
Yet, despite his monumental contribution, Professor Rafiabadi — like many serious scholars of our region has not received the recognition he deserves. There lies a deep and painful irony in our societal preferences: we extol comedians, social media influencers, and populists while our real intellectual assets are side-lined, often deliberately ignored. This cultural transposition, where entertainment overshadows enlightenment and intellectual awakening, has created a vacuum that breeds both spiritual stagnation and intellectual decline.
In a time when Muslim Ummah faces complex challenges that require tradition-based yet forward-looking wisdom, scholars like Professor Rafiabadi offer apparatus of understanding and vision of unity and peace. If we fail to appreciate such personalities, we fail ourselves — and we risk perpetuating a cycle of ignorance disguised as engagement/or scholarship. Therefore It is high time that we reclaim and recuperate our respect for knowledge, honour our scholars, and try to reinvest in the intellectual capital that thinkers like Professor Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi so selflessly represent.

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