Constructing Pakistan - pg. 96

With Shibli Nomani, then, Muslim literature is geared towards the Islamic past and its pan-Islamic present to define the particularities of the Muslims of India. In his popular works he insists upon the need to retrieve the stories of past Muslim heroes. He was, therefore, not necessarily opposed to Western education and viewed Sayyid Ahmad Khan's reformatory efforts in a positive light; but at the same time he did not want the Muslim youth to lose touch with their history. He stresses upon the importance of this aspect in one of his essays:

Someone has aptly pointed out that our misfortune is not only that we have been conquered by the Europeans; but they have also succeeded in conquering our dead. When we speak of courage, strength, honour and knowledge, it is the European heroes we talk of ... not our own. The reason for this does not lie in the fact that we no longer revere our own heroes, but because modern education does not provide us with an opportunity to learn the accomplishment of our ancestors.