Next |
SADRUL MUDARRISEEN (PRINCIPALS)
From
its very inception, Darul Uloom Deoband has been the greatest center of the
science of Hadith and it is due to the attraction of this peculiarity that
students from distant countries besides India resort to it in large numbers. On
the Masnad (seat) of principal ship in Darul Uloom there have always been
appointed such Ulema who, besides their knowledge and learning, particularly
that of the science of Hadith, are considered peer legs at the time for their
asceticism and piety, and spiritual wayfaring and gnosis. Along with the
exoteric sciences, students derive the esoteric grace also from them.
On this
great post in Darul Uloom it was Maulana Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi who was
appointed first of all. He had acquired the knowledge of sciences from his
august father, Hadhrat Maulana Mamlook Ali, and Hadhrat Shah Abdul Ghani
Mujaddidi Dehelwi.
Maulana Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi was born in Nanauta on 13th Safar, A. H. 1249. Manzoor Ahmed, Ghulam Husain and Shamsul Dhuha are his chronogrammatic names.
He
memorized the Holy Quran in Nanauta. In Muharram, A. H. 1260, when he was eleven
years old, his august father took him to Delhi. His education began with Mizan,
Munsha'ib and Gulistan. He acquired all the then current sciences from his
august father but the science of Hadith he completed under the instruction of
Hadhrat Shah Abdul Ghani Mujaddidi. In the traditional and the rational
sciences, he was like his father. He had been endowed with a very nimble mind.
Maulana
Mamlook Ali died in Zil-hijja, A. H. 1267/1851. Thereafter he stayed in Delhi
for one year and then was appointed in Government College, Ajmer. It is stated
in Maktubat-e-Yaqubi:
"He
went to Ajmer employed on Rs. 30/= At that time, he was very young. On seeing
him the principal of Ajmer College remarked: 'The Maulawi is good but he is much
too young, a teenager'. At the principal's recommendation he was given the
Deputy Collector's post but he did not accept it. Thereafter he was sent to
Benares on Rs. 100/= per month. From there he was appointed on Rs. 150/= as
Deputy Inspector at Saharanpur. It was here that he witnessed the event of
Mutiny".
During that
period he stayed at Nanauta. He became relieved of responsibility by resigning
from government service, and joined service in Munshi Mumtaz Ali's press at
Meerut. He himself writes in Sawanh-e-Qasimi:
"Munshi
Mumtaz Ali established a press at Meerut. He called Maulawi (Muhammad Qasim)
Sahib for old friendship's sake and gave him the work of emendation. This work
was nominal; his purpose was to keep Maulawi Sahib with himself. This humble
self, after visiting Bareilly and Lucknow, got employed in the same press at
Meerut".
In
1283/1866 he (Maulana Yaqub) came to Deoband and was appointed on the post of
principal. He was the first Professor of Hadith of Darul Uloom. The grace of his
education and training produced many distinguished Ulema who shone like sun and
moon on the firmament of knowledge and learning. In the brief span of 19 years
77 students acquired the prophetic sciences from him. Among them were the
celebrated and matchless Ulema of their time like Maulana Abdul Haq Pur Qazwi,
Maulana Abdullah Anbahtawi, Maulana Fateh Muhammad Thanwi, Shaikhul Hind Maulana
Mahmood Hasan Deobandi, Maulana Khalil Ahmed Anbahtavi, Maulana Ahmed Hasan
Amrohi, Maulana Fakhrul Hasan Gangohi, Maulana Hakim Mansoor Ali Khan
Moradabadi, Maulana Mufti Azizur Rahman Deobandi, Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi,
Maulana Hafiz Muhammad Ahmed and Maulana Habibur Rahman (Allah's mercy be on all
of them).
Looking to Maulana Muhammad Yaqub and the educational benefaction of his disciples it would be no exaggeration to say that the majority of the Ulema who are in existence at present in India, Pakistan, Bangla Desh, Afghanistan and Central Asia have mostly feasted at this very table of knowledge.
Although
there was domination of power (jalal) in his disposition, he used to behave with
all and sundry with great affability and condescension. As was the case with
his elders, there was great independence in his nature which can be estimated
from this event that once a gentleman who had great influence over his
temperament said to him: "It is an earnest wish of such and such a Nawab
Sahib that once you condescend to go to his place". The Maulana said:
"We have heard that any Maulawi who goes to the place of that Nawab Sahib,
the latter gives him one hundred rupees. Since he is himself calling us, he may
perhaps give us two hundred rupees. But for how many days will these hundred or
two hundred suffice us? By going there we will not smirch the reputation of
Maulawi-ism".
The
preface-writer of the Maktubat-e Yaqubi, Hakim Amir Ahmed Ishrati,
writes:
"Hundreds of his pupils and proselytes
and pupils of his pupils are present in the cities of India, Kabul and Bukhara,
etc. He is skilled both in the rational and the traditional sciences. And even
as he was a spiritual physician, he used to treat external (physical) ailments
also. He was very well mannered, well behaved, well conditioned, well toned
and well spoken.
He
went on pilgrimage (to Mecca) twice. The first Hajj he performed in 1277/1860,
in the company of Maulana Muhammad Qasim (may his secret be sanctified). Maulana
Muzaffar Husain Kandhlawi and Haji Muhammad Abid Deobandi were also with them.
This journey was made 'en route' Punjab and Sind. He has himself written a
detailed memorandum of this journey in his Bayaz-e Yaqubi. For the second Hajj
he went in 1294/1877. This time also there was a large company of the Ulema,
Besides Hadhrat Maulana Nanautawi, Hadhrat Maulana Gangohi, Maulana Muhammad
Mazhar Nanautawi, Maulana Muhammad Munir Nanautawi, Maulana Hakim Ziauddin
Rampuri, Shaikhul Hind Maulana Mahmood Hasan Deobandi, etc. there were nearly
one hundred men in this holy caravan'.
Maulawi
Jamaluddin Bhopal was a pupil of Hadhrat Maulana Mamlook Ali. On account of this
connection he invited Maulana Muhammad Yaqub on a large salary to Bhopal but the
Maulana, despite his meager pay at the Darul Uloom, did not like to sever his
connection with it and instead sent his sister's son, Maulana Khalil Akhtar
Anbahtawi, to Bhopal.
Maulana
Muhammad Yaqub had a taste for versification and poetry. His non de plume was
Gumnam. During his student days in Delhi he had seen the peerless poets of the
time like Ghalib, Momin, Zauq, Sehbai and Azurda, and his ears were acquainted
with the resounding furor of their poetical symposiums. In a letter to his
proselyte, Munshi Muhammad Qasim Nayanagri, he has counseled him to read the
poetical compositions of Dard, Sauda and Zauq as there is painfulness and
effectiveness in them. The Maulana's poetical compositions in Persian and Urdu
have been recorded in Bayaz-e-Yaqubi. Besides mastery of
composition, pathos, touchingness and power of affecting are also found in them.
In
authorial works he has left three treatises. Though Sawanh-e-Qasimi is a very
brief biography, it is very valuable in respect of language and expression, and
events and chronicles.
His
second collection is entitled Muktubat-e-Yaqubi, which consists of
64 letters, These letters had been written in answer to queries, describing the
solution of the difficulties of the mystic path, religio-Iegal propositions, and
the modus operandi of the mystical path and system.
The
third collectives are Bayaz-e-Yaqubi: it consists of the
chronicles of the pilgrimage journey, chains of authorities of the tomes of
Hadith, poems, devotional exercises, etc. containing some medical (tibbi)
recipes at the end. Hadhrat Maulana Ashraf AIi Thanwi has written marginal notes
wherever necessary on both these collections.
A few days
prior to his demise lie had gone to his native-place, Nanauta; there he died on
3rd Rabiul Awwal, AH. 1302/1884, of cholera.
It is stated in a note in the Muktubat-e-Yaqubi;
"On
Saturday night, 1st Rabiul Awwal, AH. 1302, Maulawi Muhammad Yaqub
Sahib (Allah's mercy be on him) was suddenly, soon after having finished the
Isha Prayer, involved in cholera. He fainted. He passed away from this mortal
world at about 1-00 a.m. on the night of Monday. His noble grave is situated at
Nanauta, in the northern direction, near the road to Saharanpur, in the new
garden that has been cultivated by Mo’eenuddin. 'We belong to Allah and unto
Him is the retreat. This is a soul-crushing event".
The
chronicles of his life are met with here and there in Maktubat-e-Yaqubi
and Arwah-e Salasa.
2.
HADHRAT MAULANA SYED AHMED DEHELWI
The lauded Maulana was one of the most glorious Ulema. Besides the traditional
sciences, he was considered a leading authority in poetics; in the science of
mathematics and astronomy particularly his fame had reached Europe. Hadhrat
Maulana Muhammad Qasim used to say: "The Beneficent Lord has endowed
Maulawi Syed Ahmed with such ability in and affinity with the mathematical
sciences that the inventors of these sciences too perhaps had this much
only".
In
the third year of the establishment of the Darul Uloom, 1285/1868, he was
invited as a second teacher. After Hadhrat Maulana Muhammad Yaqub's death, he
was appointed on the post of principal in which capacity he worked for six
years. During this brief period 28 students completed the Daura-e-Hadith
under his instruction. During his tenure of principal ship he went for Hajj in
A.H. 1305.
Having
resigned from Darul Uloom in 1307/1885, he went to Bhopal and died there (after
some time).
Maulana
Syed Ahmed Dehelwi owed allegiance to Hadhrat Nanautawi. Hadhrat Thanwi writes
in the margin of his Masnawi Zer-o-Bum: - "Janab Maulana (Syed
Ahmed) commanded exceptional skill particularly in the science of mathematics;
his consummate, expertise in these sciences was well-known and famous".
The
periphrastic translation of' the couplets on which the said marginal note has
been written is as follows;
"Secondly,
the wayfarer of the path of the Prophet is Maulawi Syed Ahmed Dehelwi.
If
I put into writing the worth of his geist, it will not be over and
hundreds of pens will have broken.
He
is the seal of noetics and the science of philosophy, as also of mathematics and
other difficult sciences.
He
is virtuous and pious, short-spoken, clement, as well as generous and liberal
and bountiful"
It is a
pity that details of Maulana Syed Ahmed's life could not be found.
3.
HADHRAT SHAIKHUL HIND MAULANA
MAHMOOD HASAN
Hadhrat
Shaikhul Hind was the first ever pupil in Darul Uloom. It is about him that it
has been said that the student who first of all opened the book before the
teacher, it was Mahmood. Shaikhul Hind was born in 1268/1851 at Bareilly where
his august father, Maulana Zulfiqar Ali, was attached to the government
education department. Primary education he acquired from his uncle, Maulana
Mehtab Ali, who was a famous divine. While he was reading Qaduri and
Sharh-e-Tehzib, Darul Uloom came to be established, and he entered
it. After completing the course of Darul Uloom in A.H. 1286, he lived in
attendance on Hadhrat Nanautawi and acquired the science of Hadith. Thereafter
he studied certain higher books of different sciences under the instruction of
his august father; and in 1290/1873, he received the "turban of
proficiency" at the auspicious hands of Hadhrat Nanautawi. During his
student career itself he was counted amongst the distinguished pupils of Hadhrat
Nanautawi, who used to show special affection to him. As such, in view of his
high academic and mental capacities, the elders choice fell upon him for the
teacher ship in the Darul Uloom, and in 1291/1874, he was appointed as the
fourth teacher from which post he gradually progressed and got promoted to the
post of the principal in .1308/1890.
Like his
external knowledge and learning his interior was also rich. In 1294/1877, he
acquired the honor of performing the Hajj in the company of his revered teacher
Hadhrat Nanautawi. In the holy Mecca he also received the honor of vowing
allegiance to Hadhrat Haji Imdadullah (may his secret be sanctified). A big
caravan of Ulema had been formed in this pilgrimage journey in which, besides
Hadhrat Nanautawi, preeminent Ulema like Hadhrat Maulana Rasheed Ahmed Gangohi,
Hadhrat Maulana Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi, Hadhrat Maulana Muhammad Mazhar
Nanautawi, Maulana Muhammad Munir Nanautawi, Hakim Ziauddin Rampuri and Maulana
Ahmed Hasan Kanpuri were in the company. Totally there were nearly one hundred
men in the caravan. Shaikhul Hind had also had khilafat from Hadhrat Haji
Imdadullah Mahajir-e-Makki. The salary of the principal in those days in Darul
Uloom was Rs. 75/- but he never took more than Rs. 50/= the remaining Rs.
25/= he used to contribute to the fund of the Darul Uloom. Due to his great
academic personality the number of students had gone up from 200 to 600. During
his tenure 860 students completed the course of Hadith. The Shaikhul-Hinds educational
grace prepared a group of famous and illustrious Ulema like Hadhrat Maulana Syed
Muhammad Anwar Shah Kashmiri, Maulana Ubaydullah Sindhi, Maulana Mansoor Ansari,
Hadhrat Maulana Hussain Ahmed Madani, Maulana Mufti Kifayatullah Dehelwi,
Maulana Shabbir Ahmed Usmani, Hadhrat Maulana Syed Asghar Hussain Deobandi,
Maulana Syed Fakhruddin Ahmed, Maulana Muhammad Izaz Ali Amrohi, Maulana
Muhammad Ibrahim Ballyawi and Maulana Syed Manazir Ahsan Gilani (may Allah have
mercy on all of them).
As regards
the Shaikhul Hinds circle of teaching and its peculiarities, Maulana Mian Asghar
Hussain has stated:
"Seeing
his circle of teaching, the circle of Hadith of the pious ancestors and great
traditionists used to come before the eyes. The Quran and Hadith were on his
tongue and the practical methods (Mazahib) of the four Imams he had by heart,
and the statements of the Companions and Followers (Tabe'in), and Mujtahids
were safe in his memory. While lecturing neither the veins of his neck swelled
nor did the mouth foam, nor he would make his lecture obtuse and
incomprehensible by the use of abstruse words. He would use such light and easy
words in idiomatic Urdu and speak with such fluency and fervor that it would
seem as if a river was overflowing. It is no hyperbole. Thousands of those who
had seen him are present (to testify) that the same man of spare frame,
unassuming, skeletal, frail man of God who looked an ordinary, meek student in
the rows of prayer, used to appear on the seat of teaching while lecturing as if
he was a lion of God who was proclaiming truth with all the force and grandeur
at his command. There was no hoarse high-pitch in his tone but intelligible,
audible voice easily reached up to the door of the Madrasah. There was not a
scintilla of pretence and affectation in his tone but God Most High had endowed
his speech with effect and his talk used to be cogent so that the hearer would
rise up after being convinced that what he was saying was true.
"Many
talented, intelligent and shrewd students who, after having attended upon and
deriving benefit from different teachers, used to come to Hadhrat Maulana's
presence, and, on getting satisfactory answers to the searching of their hearts
and hearing the imports and lofty topics of the Quranic verses and the prophetic
Hadiths, would bow their head in submission and admit that no other person had
such knowledge and such a research scholar was not there in the world.
"In
open questions he used to describe the practical methods (Mazahib) of the three
Imams (Allah's mercy be on them 0, rather of other Mujtahids also and used to
quote arguments also briefly, but when Imam Abu Hanifa's turn came, there used
to appear expansion in Maulana's heart, liveliness on his face, fluency in his
speech and fervency in his tone. He would go on stating argument after argument,
witness after witness, and context after context; there would be no pause in
speech and he would give preference to the great Imam's Mazahib in such a
way that the right-minded and the just would rock with admiration. Presenting
corner and far-fetched Hadiths of different topics he would prove the purport
thereof in such a way that it would sink into the heart and the audience's heart
would bear testimony and would see with their eyes that he was right.
"Inspite
of all the respect and reverence to the Imams of Islam and admission of their
accomplishments had become an inseparable part of his teachings. He would
himself lecture in such a manner and would clearly instill that all the
practical methods of the Mujtahid Imams are true, reasoned through and
ratified by the Book and the Sunnah, that to find fault with them is the
cause of misfortune and rudeness towards them is the cause of loss.
"He
had had a special attachment to Imam Bukhari amongst the traditionists and to
the great Imam amongst the Mujtahid Imams".
Maulana
Ubaydullah Sindhi writes: "1 read Maulana Muhammad Qasim's Hujjatul-Islam
under the instruction of Hadhrat Shaikhul Hind. Sometimes, while reading the
book, I used to feel as if knowledge and faith (Iman) were descending upon my
heart from on high".
THE
BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE FOR THE INDEPENDENCE OF INDIA
The First World War had not begun yet but its portents had begun to appear. The
British Government had begun a cold war against the Ottoman Empire and day by
day the situation was growing more and more delicate, so much so that the
dreadful flame of war blazed up in 1914/1333. This was a period of great
restlessness and anxiety for the Shaikhul Hind. The ideal of the Indian National
Congress till then had not proceeded beyond the demanding of rights. Such were
the circumstances that compelled Shaikhul Hind to launch a revolutionary
movement; he prepared a plan to overthrow the British Government through an
armed revolution. As you proceed further it will be known that it was a very
well organized plan.
The
period of 1330/1911 was a very calamitous period for the world of Islam. The
European powers had decided through a secret pact to make a short work of the
Turkish Empire. The implementation of this pact began with Italy’s invasion on
Tripoli, which was then a part of Turkish territory; France usurped Morocco and
the Christian states of Balkan began a series of attack upon the Turks. It was
wholly British politics that was working behind the scene. These events were
very disquieting for every sympathetic Muslim. The way the English and other
European nations were up in arms and at war with the Turks and had resolved to
obliterate them from existence, had extremely provoked the Muslims sentiments,
and as such Anglophobia was on the increase. At this time great ferment and
frenzy were prevalent among the Indian Muslims. The Muslims of the whole world
used to consider the Ottoman caliphate as the bulwark of Islam and they used to
look upon it with respect and reverence. Its monarchs were called with, the
titles of Khalifatul Muslimin (the Muslims Caliph) and Khadimul Harmayn al-Sharifayn
(the Servant of the Holy Sanctuaries).
During this
time Shaikhul Hind had prepared a plan on a large scale to finish off the
English paramount power in India through an armed revolution for which he had
chalked out a well-organized programme. A large group of his disciples and
colleagues who had fanned out in India and abroad was striving ardently and with
temerity to put into action his prepared plan. From amongst his disciples,
Maulana Ubaydullah Sindhi, Maulana Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari and many other
disciples were participating, having devoted all their lives to implement the
Shaikhul Hind's political and revolutionary programme. It was a very organized
movement, which made the atmosphere in the whole of India favorable for future
freedom. This work had been started at two fronts, one inside the country and
the other outside; preparation for an armed struggle was going on at both the
fronts.
The
general idea prevalent then was that it was not possible to eject the English
from India without might, and since weapons had been seized from the Indians, it
was thought necessary to obtain foreign help and assistance in the supply of
arms and soldiers to make the war of independence. In this connection Shaikhul
Hind first of all looked at Afghanistan; the borders of India and Afghanistan
touching each other, it was easiest to get help and weapons from there. Along
with this help could also be taken from the free trips inhabiting the border of
India, and hence the free territory of Yaghistan had been made the center for
the soldiers.
Shaikhul
Hind established rapport with those Ulema of the North West Frontier Province
who had been students in the Darul Uloom. The plan was to spread a network
against the English from Afghanistan to India and then, at an opportune time,
the united and organized might of India and the free tribe was to launch an
attack upon British India and, on the other hand, a war of independence was to
be started in the whole country. It was his belief that it would be such a
situation, which the English would not be able to face.
