The Essay Contest
By
C.H.Abul Raheem
The “Great Essay Contest ‘99” was conceived by the Forum with the main objective
of encouraging intellectual interaction among different religious groups through study and analysis of religious doctrines of each other. The contest on the subject “Islam As I know, was open to non-Muslim students of Indian Universities.
The contest consisted of two parts (a) A narrative section, carrying 80% of the marks and,
(b) a multiple choice question paper, carrying 20% of the marks.
The contest was announced during August-September 1998 in a number of national English language newspapers including Indian Express, Times of India, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Financial Express, Deccan Herald and Telegraph, in addition to the periodicals, The Week and Competition Success Review. Personal communications were sent to about 1000 prominent personalities all over India including intellectuals, academicians, political leaders, faculty heads, principals of colleges, university librarians and community leaders. An advisory Board was set-up with the following members, to give proper advice and guidance on the execution of the programme:
Justice V. Khalid (Former Judge, Supreme Court), Prof. M. Bahauddeen (Former Pro-Vice Chancellor, Aligarh Muslim University ), Dr. K.V.Ahmed Bavappa (Former Director, Central Plantation Crops Re-search Institute), Dr. N.A.Kareem (Former Pro-Vice Chancellor, (Kerala University), Prof. V.Mohammed (Former Principal , Farook College). Dr. K.M.Aboobacker (Former Scientist, BARC), Janab Muttanissery Koyakkutty (Quran Exegetist, Author).
Dr. C.K.Kareem (Historian, Author), Pulikool Aboobacker (Advocate).
The following reference books were dispatched to about 225 university college libraries all over India for reference purpose and the participants were informed about the same. The Holy Quran, Translation – Yousuf Ali.
What Everyone should know About Islam and Muslims – Suzane Haneef Muhammad And The Quran – Rafiq Zakaria.
The Widening Divide - Rafiq Zakaria Preaching of Islam – T.W. Arnold Muhammed, The Prophet Of Islam Prof. K.S. Ramakrishna Rao. The Essential Koran – Thomas Cleary This is Islam – Published by Forum For Faith And Fraternity.
The Forum’s own publication - This is Islam - a comprehensive work on Islam edited by
Dr. K. K. Usman, was sent to each participant individually. These reference and resource materials were supplemented by sending pamphlets on relevant topics to the participants during the course of their preparation.
We were encouraged in our efforts by many prominent personalities through their personal letters including Mr. Kurshid Alam Khan, Dr. Rafiq Zakaria, Dr. Asgar Ali Engineer, The Chancellor of Hamdard University. Dr. Thahir Mahmood. Prof. Iqbal A. Ansari, etc.
We also received messages of appreciation, encouragement and support from various Muslim institutions and organizations – Institute of Objectives Studies, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Mujahid Students Movement (M.S.M) The Muslim Educational Society (M.E.S), Muslim Service Society (M.S.S) – to name a few. The Heads and Librarians of a number of educational institutions (such as VisvaBharati, Santinikiketan; IGNOU; Banaras Hindu University; St.Stephen’s College, Delhi; Christ College, Irinjalakuda) were quite supportive and helpful.
We are indebted to all of them for the successful conclusion of this project.
The response from the student community was overwhelming – 1600 enquiries were received, 1200 registrations were obtained and 437 essays were submitted by the closing date September 30, 1999. Of this, 175 (40%) were from girls.
The participating students belonged to various faculties and professional courses including Engineering, Medicine, Business Management, Law, Computer Science and Humanities. Their parents included Doctors, Engineers, IAS/ IPS officers, Public Sector Undertaking Managers, Government Officials and Businessmen. We received essays from almost all the states in India, the maximum entries came from Tamil Nadu (77) and the minimum from Mizoram and Manipur (1 each)
The arduous and the most responsible part of the project was evaluation of the essays. After reading all the essays, each essay was included under one of the following four categories, namely A, B, C, D. The essays under category ‘A’ were of higher quality and constituted approximately 40% of the total essays received. These essays were further scrutinized, based on specific criteria including their dealings of such topics as: the doctrinal bases of Islam, rituals and practices of the religion, the teachings of the Quran, Islamic culture, heritage etc. Through this process a short list of 45 essays was selected. These essays were presented to a panel of judges consisting of Islamic scholars. Following the above, rather exhaustive process, 26 contestants were called to Cochin for a personal interview; 22 of them appeared. As part of interview, a written test (of 2 hours duration – touching upon various aspects of Islam) was given to the candidates.
The evaluation of essays as well as subsequent selections of the winners were a prolonged, tedious-and at the same time a highly responsible procedure. We believe that we have tried to do this Divinely entrusted task to the best of our ability, conscience and sense of justice. “If you judge between them, judge with equity; surely God loves those who are just” (5:42). The above Quranic injunction was our guiding principle. Based on the performance (essay, answers to Multiple Choice Questions, written test and the interview), we have declared the following contestants as winners of the ‘Great Essay contest ‘99’.
