Who are the Deobandis?

[dhameera]

SalamuAlaikum


I know this may be an ignorant question, but it should be ok because I just want to learn.

I know they are scholars and what not, but are these scholars mainly prevalent in the Paki/Indian community? Because honestly, I've never heard of deobandi until I became a member of SF, where there are a lot of Indians/Pakis.

I ask because, I never hear fellow African American refer to deobadis when refering to scholars. So I'm trying to figure how far does there knowledge go I guess...meaning do their opinions only matter to people of India, pakistan etc.?



Walikum Salam

[bugmenot]

They just represent the sunnah and trusted 'ulama in this part of the world. Knowing the label "deobandi" is not that important.

[avid]

yea i was also a little confused about this since i am also from the subcontinent but never really categorized myself as a deobandi,etc. mostly because i am not sure what that implies. a lot of people use this term but i am not sure whether it has any implications in terms of aqidah or fiqh ( i follow the hanafi fiqh )

[reeha]

I"m so glad that u asked this question@ dhameera.I'v got to knw abt Deobandi only recently.And in my country its never heard of.
Jazakallah Khair.

[marco100]

The Indian subcontinent is widely regarded as taking the sciences of Hadith to the next level with Darul Uloom Deoband at the epicentre of that revival. The mass production of Scholars both in quantitative and qualitative terms is staggering to say the least, and I like many am humbled and honoured to have been brought up with their methodology. They represent the Hanafi School of thought.

May Allah SWT keep it going till the Day Of Judgement. Ameen.

[Dotcom]

http://darululoom-deoband.com/english/index.htm

[Ali al-Hanafi]

I"m so glad that u asked this question@ dhameera.I'v got to knw abt Deobandi only recently.And in my country its never heard of.
Jazakallah Khair.

That's because Deoband is only a traditional institution of Islamic education albeit with thousands of affiliates around the world. If you read up on the history of the institution you'll hopefully learn that when Deoband was initially set up, its teachers and graduates never referred to themsleves as Deobandi (as far as I know). They simply regarded themselves as a continuation of the Hanafi School of Thought and in the same chain of Scholarship that are famously associated with this school like Imams Tahawi, Ibn Humam, Ibn Abideen, etc (may Allah have mercy on them all). At the time, there were only a handfull of Madrassas in India and thus Deoband became the main institution of Islamic education in the region and the main representative of the Ahlus Sunnah and the Hanafi School.

It was only with the uprising of deviant sects, all claiming to be of the Ahlus Sunnah and some Hanafi that the institution had to differentiate itself from them and was thus its teachers and graduates were called Deobandi. Therefore Deobandi is in reality, only another manner of expressing that you follow the Hanafi School, at least as far as I am concerned.

[dhameera]

Salams


Thx for helping me to understand, because I honestly had no clue, and being clueless is not what's hot. So basically they are scholars of the hanafi madhab in the Indian subcontinent?


@ Reeha what country are you from?

[Rahmaniyyah]

Below is transcription of a lecture given by Hadhrat Mawlana Zulfiqar Ahmad (DB). I found it to be a very concise and simple introduction to the 'Ulama of Deoband:

This material is strictly for non-commercial purposes only. It may be used for such a purpose provided it is reproduced without alteration or omission, and that a link is provided to the website www.tasawwuf.org. All other uses require the explicit written permission of the publisher.


THE SCHOLARS OF DEOBAND
By Shaykh Zulfiqar Ahmed


The Prophetic Tradition

The auspicious month of Rabi’ul Awwal is replete with lectures and speeches of the glorious life of our beloved Prophet Muhammad-e-Mustafa a, the most perfect of all creation who was sent as a mercy. Different gatherings sing praises of his beauty and character while others cite examples of his superb generalship and justice. Still other gatherings are adorned with stories of the honorable Companions (Sahabah) and the excellent love for the Prophet a within the breasts of the scholars of Islam.

The Muslims trace the roots of their knowledge to the esteemed scholars of Deoband, and, in essence, are their spiritual offspring. Hearts hence derive pleasure from listening to stories of their heroic struggles because of this spiritual connection. These people were heroes of Islam that shone like beacons of intense light to guide the Muslim nation to the right path again and again.

The European Scheme

The magnificent Mughals ruled India at the dawn of the seventeenth century, and Muslims were quite unaware of the coming European onslaught that was to rip through their normal and peaceful lives.

In 1602 India was ruled by King Abdali, and a European trade expedition under Vasco de Gama landed on the shores of Bombay in that year. Naïve and failing to understand their true evil intentions, Abdali became blinded by their fake diplomacy and allowed the foreigners open access to the land because he envisioned great advances for India in these trade agreements.

With such free and open access, it took the East India Company only a hundred years to sink its claws and establish itself firmly in India. In just one hundred years they understood the laws and culture of the land, from which they could work out the best policy for totally subjugating the land and people. The East India Company hence expanded very rapidly and extended its property holdings to include large estates and buildings within India, where they could exercise their own laws much like a city state. All the time that they talked about only being interested in trade and non-interference, they were secretly plotting ways and means to secure all of India in their hands.

In the traditional policy of divide and conquer, influential members of the Indian bureaucracy were lured by lavish gifts and financial means to buy their favor. Still others were married to British women and given concubines to enslave them to the British will, while the evil European ways themselves were sufficient to corrupt many. In many such cunning ways they were able to clear the way for themselves in India so that by 1740 the British governed four provinces.

The Birth of Shah WaliUllah

However, it turned out that Allah u had also been planning while the British were planning and executing their wicked game. At the same time that the Europeans first landed in Bombay in 1602, a child was born in the household of Shaykh Abdul Rahim i who was named WaliUllah.

Shaykh Abdul Rahim i was a highly learned scholar and one of the compilers of Aurangzaib Alamgir’s Fatawa Alamgiri. After this grand work was completed, Shaykh Abdul Rahim i was summoned to receive a grant of land from the Mughal emperor as a show of gratitude for exemplary service.

Shaykh Abdul Rahim i was extremely passionate in his love for and trust in Allah u, and did not focus on such earthly trivialities. He hence replied in writing:

“Allah u has said that this whole world is very small, and of this small world, you have been granted kingship over an even smaller portion. Now you are summoning me to accept a minute portion of your small section, so I do not think I can justify crossing out my name from the registry of Allah’s u Court just to enter it in the court of earthly kings.”



Education and Achievements

Allah u granted the boy WaliUllah a keen intelligence and wisdom from his adolescent years, hence doing justice to the name. He learned respect and character in the home and showed great love and desire for Islam. His father, Abdul Rahim i, sent him to the holy city of Makkah to complete his studies in Islam, where he perfected his study of hadith and explication (tafsir) of the Holy Quran under the tutelage of Shaykh Abu Tahir Makki i and other renowned teachers.

Completing his studies in knowledge and religion, he returned to his home country and became the first Muslim scholar to translate the Holy Quran into the Farsi tongue. This was a tremendous achievement because no such translation of the Holy Quran existed before this.

A Strong Posterity

Allah u soon granted children to Hadrat Shah WaliUllah Muhaddith Delhvi i. It is not surprising that all descendants of this great house become pillars of knowledge and strength in their own disciplines.

His eldest son Shah Abdul Aziz i wrote the famous Tafsir Azizi, and Hadrat Aziz’s two sons Shah Rafiuddin and Shah Abdul Qadir i rendered the first Urdu translation of the Holy Quran. Allama Shibbir Ahmed i wrote that their translation was so exact and meticulous that it would have been an exact match had the Holy Quran been revealed in the Urdu language. Hence this household rendered tremendous services to the sciences of the Holy Quran and hadith.

Hadrat Shah WaliUllah Muhaddith Dehlvi i wrote Hujjattullah hul Baligha, which became the subject of great praise from both Arab and non-Arab scholars alike. He then wrote Tafhimat Ilahia, followed by Fuyuzul Haramain – every one of his books was a pinnacle of knowledge for the people. Hadrat Shah WaliUllah i finally passed on from this life in 1662 at the age of sixty.

He was succeeded by his eldest son and heir Hadrat Shah Abdul Aziz i, whose gatherings of Quranic discussion became so famous that they attracted people from all over the world.

A Shortsighted Englishman

The British had been in India for sixty years and by now had firm control in most areas; they were learning Arabic and Hindi so that they could get a firm grasp on both language and culture by which to further strengthen their grip on the country.

One day an Englishman brought his son to Hadrat Shah Abdul Aziz i and observed children reading and learning the Holy Quran. He started arguing with Hadrat Shah Saheb that studying Arabic all day would only serve to close the children’s minds, whereas study of the English language and British culture would expand children’s horizons. There was a pond nearby and Hadrat Shah Saheb called the Englishman’s son close to him and asked, “How many cups of water could this pond hold?” The foreigner’s son stared blankly at Hadrat Saheb, who then summoned one of his own students and asked him the same question. The student immediately answered, “Hadrat, if the cup is as large as the pond then it will take only one, and if it is half the size then it will take two cups.” It is the study of the Creator that expands horizons and not of creation.

Beginnings of Organized Resistance

Hadrat Shah Abdul Aziz i realized that the British had other sinister motives and were only interested in ruling over India and robbing Muslims of their Islam. He hence issued a religious decree (fatwa) in 1672 that it had now become obligatory (fard) upon the Muslims to throw off British rule in India. This famous decree formed the foundation for all the movements that arose against British rule throughout Indian history. Hadrat Shah WaliUllah’s i son had predicted the sinister designs of the British, and this religious decree slowly started stirring and waking up the Muslims.

Sultan Tipu was a very well mannered young man who lived in the province of Mysore. The British had tried hard to taint his name but he was a very pious man from the household of Hadrat Ali g, so much so that Hadrat Makki i has written that Sultan Tipu used to offer tahajjud prayers regularly.

Sultan Tipu built the first Jamia Masjid of Mysore and announced that the first prayers would be led only by a Saheb-e-Tarteeb, a person by definition who has not missed the allotted time for more than five prayers in his lifetime. It is written that Sultan Tipu was the only one who could claim that honor, not even the noted scholars of the area, so Sultan Tipu led the first prayers in Jamia Masjid Mysore. In letters to Shah Ahmed Shaheed i he wrote that he wanted to rid his land of the British and establish the shariah (Islamic Sacred Law) throughout India. The British had tried hard to corrupt Sultan Tipu’s image in front of the Muslims as someone who was deprived of sunnah, but the letters of Hadrat Makki and Hadrat Shah Ahmed Shaheed i are enough proof for us that Sultan Tipu was an upright man. The British showed their enmity openly by naming their dogs Tipu, all in a continuous effort to cut the roots of the coming generations from their leaders and scholars.

War and Betrayal

Hypocrites and traitors flourish in every society and move like cancer; they are people without values who see nothing but their own gain. Mir Sadiq was a soldier in Sultan Tipu’s army who proved to be such a traitor. The British promised him more than nine hundred acres of land in India, and his betrayal resulted in the martyrdom of Sultan Tipu and several top commanders. Before this Sultan Tipu had waged four battles against the British, and it was this brave man who had stood up in the masjid and said, “Living one day as a lion is worth more than living a thousand days as a mouse.” Sultan Tipu was a very courageous man whose heart ached for his people.

After the fall of Mysore the British were content that they had succeeded in crushing all opposition. However, the Muslims rose up again in 1792 led by Nawab Siraj ud-Daula at the Battle of Plasi, but once again were betrayed by one of their own. This battle lasted only twenty-two hours because of the actions of Mir Jafir. Hence, the Muslims found themselves betrayed time and again by those who greedily sought their own ends. The Muslims were fighting two dangerous enemies, both within and without.

Determined to break Muslim will once and for all, the British established Ranjit Singh as the governor over Punjab and Sarhat in 1724. Singh was a particularly cruel man who decided to make Muslims his first target, just as the British had planned. This marked the beginning of a tremendous trial for Muslims. Muslim men were martyred in the streets and Muslim women were raped openly and killed. This was not all as the greedy Singh usurped Muslim lands in an open reign of terror on them.

Eternal Heroes

Hadrat Syed Ahmed i was a student of Hadrat Shah Abdul Aziz i who once went to his teacher in amazement because the pages of a book that he was studying one day suddenly went blank. Hadrat Shah Abdul Aziz i said that Allah u wanted to bestow him with special and hidden knowledge. Allah u filled Hadrat Ahmed’s i heart with knowledge and light, so much so that it is written that his enlightened face would compel thousands to become his students.
Guided thus by his teacher, Syed Ahmed Shaheed i was blessed by Allah u with undertaking the noble mission of preparing himself and his students for jihad . By his side in this cause of teaching and preparation was a loyal student and the nephew of Hadrat Shah Abdul Aziz i, Hadrat Shah Ismail Shaheed i.
Hadrat Shah Ismail Shaheed i liberated Peshawar from the British on Sunday the 1st of May, 1827, and announced in the city square that alcohol was banned now that the shariah was established. He governed Peshawar and strengthened Muslim control therein for three years, and the Muslims started marching forward in 1831, liberating Akorra Khatak and nearby towns in their wake. Taking notice of these advances, Ranjit Singh sent the message that he would not let the Muslims advance any further, to which Hadrat Ismail Shaheed i replied that he had no need for office or property, but rather for the shariah which called for him to rid Muslims of despots like Singh.

Based on intelligence from a nearby village, the British and Sikh forces massacred the Muslims when the two armies clashed at Balakot, and Hadrat Ismail Shaheed i was martyred after he had prayed tahajjud. This battle had raged for four bloody days from the 5th of May to the 9th of May, and the events leading to the death of Hadrat Shah Ismail Shaheed i, as written in the books, are fascinating.

Hadrat was engaged in battle with a Sikh when the latter blasphemed against the Messenger a of Allah, so Hadrat swore that he would not die until he had killed the Sikh. Saying these words, Hadrat lunged forward but at the same time a British soldier attacked from behind and severed Hadrat’s head from his body. However, Allah u was to make sure that the words that His loyal servant had uttered would come true, and the head fell to the ground but the body with sword in hand miraculously raced toward the Sikh. The blasphemer was so terrified that he fell back and Hadrat Shah Ismail Shaheed’s i body fell on top of him, stabbing him through the heart, so that he died first and Hadrat died after him.

Hadrat Shah Ismail Shaheed i was overflowing with love for the Prophet a, and he and others like him have offered their bodies as proof. He was the author of such monumental works like Taqwiatul Iman that led to four hundred thousand unbelievers accepting Islam.

The Muslims retreated after the martyrdom of Hadrat Shah Saheb, and the following years witnessed no such activity from them. The British had won every encounter and were strengthening their grip on the country, so it seemed that the Muslims had been defeated.

The Scholars Regroup

In 1856 the scholars who had united under Hadrat Shah Ismail Shaheed’s banner met again in Delhi to devise a plan of action. Present were noted scholars like Haji ImdadUllah Makki, Maulana Jafri Than Siri, Maulana Mamluk, and Hadrat Wilayat Ali i. These scholars collectively decided not to take any action for the time being since they had been defeated in almost every battle in the past and were so few in number as compared to the enemy.

It was in this landmark meeting that Hadrat Qasim Nanotvi i rose and said, “We are here crying in self pity on our small numbers; are we smaller in number than even the warriors of Badr ?” Hearing this awoke the passion of jihad in this council and they decided to resist the British whatever their number, for they would be successful in front of Allah u even if they failed in this life.

The Campaign of 1857 and English Terror

Two fronts were opened against the British in 1857 – one to the north of Amritsar commanded by Hadrat Jafar Than Siri i, and the second just to the south commanded by Haji ImdadUllah Muhajir Makki i. Together with Hadrat ImdadUllah i stood noted scholars and warriors of the time such as Hadrat Rashid Ahmed Gangohi, Hadrat Qasim Nanotvi, and Hafiz Damin Shaheed i.
The Muslims suffered a crushing defeat in the War of 1857, and scores of noted scholars including Hadrat Hafiz Damin Shaheed i met with martyrdom. The British now decided to tighten their noose and started a horrendous Reign of Terror to crush any resistance in the subcontinent.

Over a thousand religious schools (madaris) were burnt to the ground, and the rest shut down automatically as finances throughout the country were seized. Hadrat Shah WaliUllah Muhaddith Dehlvi’s i Madrasa Rahimia was leveled by a bulldozer. In the following year over a thousand Muslim scholars were hanged and their bodies left hanging throughout the country to instill terror in the populace. Still more scholars were chained to cannons and ripped apart as the cannons were fired to salute the British victory.

Infinite Treachery

Despite this mass slaughter to crush all resistance, the British were still anxious to find a solution to these rebellions. They launched a three year survey headed by William Moore to determine a way to permanently keep this resistance from showing its face again. After three years Moore submitted a proposal to the Viceroy that Britain would need to implement three measures to free itself from these frequent uprisings.

Moore’s first suggestion was that the Muslims’ strong link to the Holy Quran would have to be severed, and his second suggestion was that the British would have to find a means to root out the intense passion for jihad from the hearts of Muslims. The third and last thing he stated was that the British had to sever any ties that the common Muslims had with their scholars, and thus their knowledge base. Moore said that Britain would have total control only when these three measures were implemented and seen through to their completion.
The Viceroy of Britain issued orders to act on Moore’s recommendations. More than four hundred thousand copies of the Holy Quran were burned over a three-year period from 1861 to 1864. The second step in this diabolical plan was to kill the passion for jihad amongst the Muslims, and for this the British recruited various false scholars and hypocrites who started issuing fake and unlawful rulings that jihad against the British was prohibited (haram). This served to confuse and divide the Muslims and played right into the foreigners’ plans.

Trials and Tribulations of the Scholars

The culmination of this effort to completely subjugate the Muslims was to kill their scholars, which the British carried out mercilessly in the years 1864 to 1867. An upholder of the law on the outside, the British rulers in India staged mock trials in which scholars were falsely accused of killing Englishmen, and death sentences would be handed down within an hour of trial. Fourteen thousand scholars met with martyrdom in this three-year period. This inquisition had been so widespread that the British historian Thompson writes that the noble bodies of the Muslim scholars were hanging from every tree on the road between Lahore and Peshawar.

Thompson further writes in his autobiography that he was visiting Delhi when he stopped at one of the tents along the way set up as rest stops for travelers. He continues that he noticed a foul stench coming from behind his tent so stepped out to investigate. He describes a scene where forty scholars were stripped and thrown onto beds of coals, being taunted by British soldiers to admit their part in the War of 1857. The flesh and fat was melting and oozing out of their charred bodies and actually extinguishing the ambers. Thompson says that the bodies of these forty scholars stiffened and turned cold in front of him, only to be replaced by forty more who were thrust onto the burning coals.

Still other scholars were imprisoned and tortured in jail, not allowed food or rest in order to break them mentally. Maulana Jafar Than Siri i writes in his biography that he was in the Khot Laqpat jail when the order came to transport them to Multan. They were put into large cages that had metallic spikes fixed into them to maximize suffering, and in this way they reached Multan in three months. They would be denied food for days at a time to intensify their anguish, and be forced to relieve themselves in their cages. The spikes would stab and wound them at every turn, and thus also rob them of any sleep. Needless to say many died on the way because of these horrific conditions.

The surviving few who reached the Multan jail were further subjected to more torture, until it was ordered that all the scholars remaining in Multan be hanged. Hearing this, the scholars were very pleased and relieved, for they would be free of this life and attain martyrdom. Hence regardless of their past suffering, their faces were illuminated on the day their death sentences were to be carried out, something which surprised their captors. When asked why they appeared so peaceful and content on such a day that they were to be hanged, one of them said that they would at last be free and Allah u would give them the status of martyrdom. The British warden hence conferred with his officers and decided that the scholars should not be given the satisfaction of death, so they were now sentenced to a further fourteen years during which the British would intensify their torture.

Tears of Innocence

Maulana Than Siri i further says that his wife and child were brought before him as he and the rest of the scholars were being led away. Seeing him in shackles they both started crying, and his eight year old son said, “When are you coming back to us daddy, and why have these people tied you up like this?” To this Maulana Than Siri i had no reply, but said to his wife and child, “Be strong, and perhaps I will see you again in this life. If I do not then we will surely meet at the stream of Kauthar .”

Foundation of Dar ul-Uloom Deoband

After this slaughter had ended in 1867, the remaining scholars decided that they had to work to preserve the religion of the Muslims, for this would be the one thing of value on the Day of Judgment.

Deoband was a small village where Hadrat Maulana Qasim Nanotvi’s i in-laws lived. Maulana Nanotvi i chose this location for the site of a religious institution for it was too small to come under British scrutiny. This marked the beginnings of Dar ul-Uloom Deoband on the 3rd of May, 1867.

When the time came to erect a structure for accommodating the hundreds of students who were attracted there, the Messenger a of Allah visited Hadrat Maulana Nanotvi i in a dream and indicated with a line in the sand where the building was to stand.

The morning after the dream, Hadrat Maulana Nanotvi i related it to the people who had gathered there, and they noticed faint markings in the sand just as in the dream. Hadrat announced that in order to ensure the continued blessings of the Messenger a of Allah, such a person who had not even thought of committing major sin would lay the foundations. In line with these wishes, Hadrat Shah Rafiuddin i laid the first brick in the foundations of Dar ul- Uloom Deoband.

The Flower Blooms

Teachers and students were plentiful, but there was yet no arrangement for food. The residents of Deoband soon accepted the responsibility of providing food for the Dar ul- Uloom, and every year admission would only be given to a specific number whose meals the villagers could guarantee. Nourished by the blessings of Allah u and the immense sacrifices of the scholars, Dar ul-Uloom Deoband soon grew to be a shining beacon of Islam.

Different Points of View

Hadrat Qasim Nanotvi i had studied under Hadrat Mamluk Ali i, who had had another student by the name of Syed Ahmed Khan. Hadrat Nanotvi i was determined to mold the students into the future heirs of the prophets and to only teach them religious studies. Ahmed Khan disagreed and stated that they should be given secular education in complement to give them some sort of success in this life as well. This of course appealed to the British who later knighted him and so he became know as Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, who would soon after found Aligarh University.

Whereas Dar ul-Uloom Deoband produced countless and priceless muhaditheen and mufassireen , Aligarh produced doctors and engineers who contributed tremendously to economic stability and progress. Hence the two institutions remained in rivalry for years to come in regards to the best course of action for the people.

Preservation of Sunnah

In 1920, Hadrat Shaykh ul-Hind Mahmood Hasan i of Darul Uloom Deoband visited Aligarh University and lectured the students there on the necessity of preserving the sunnah of the Messenger a of Allah. He emphasized to the well-dressed and clean-shaven students that learning English and the ways of the British would be of little value if they failed to please Allah u. This landmark lecture of Hadrat Mahmood Hasan i served to wake Aligarh students to the necessities of preserving their heritage and religious values, and in the coming years Aligarh produced famous scholars like Hadrat Shaukat Ali i and Hadrat Maulana Shibli i. These personalities were forever indebted and a living monument to the honor of Dar ul-Uloom Deoband.

Heirs of the Prophets

These noble personalities lived Islam as well as studied it. Hadrat Madni i would offer prayers in the Dar ul-Uloom before retiring home from teaching all day. When he finished his prayers, the students of the Dar ul-Uloom would be seated behind him with their books in hand, eager for him to start a lesson for them. Hadrat Madni i would thus start a class on Bukhari hadith for the students. On the outside they seemed to be ordinary men, but the British feared them as they would an army. The latter were scared because they could not fathom the strength and stubbornness that drove the scholars. They could not fathom the force behind their indomitable spirit.

When finally arrested and brought before a British judge, Hadrat Madni i faced him fearlessly and showed his kerchief, saying “The most that you can do is hang or shoot us and martyr us. See that I have brought my shroud on my shoulder for I am fully prepared for my death. If you do not know what we are then let me tell you – we are the essence of Imam Abu Hanifa and the strength of Imam Malik. We are the steadfastness of Imam Ahmed bin Hanbal; the purity of heart of Hadrat Mujjadid Alf-Thani; the insight of Hadrat Shah WaliUllah Muhaddith Dehlvi i, and we are the heirs of those people who have died and sacrificed to bring us our religion. So you may be able to take our lives but you will never take our Islam from our hearts.”

Hearing this, Maulana Muhammad Ali Johr i kissed Hadrat’s hands and said, “Hadrat, you have fulfilled the right of the heirs of the prophets.” The Messenger a of Allah had said that the greatest of jihad is proclaiming the truth in front of a tyrant, which Hadrat Madni i did fearlessly. The British did not dare act against him at that time because he commanded such respect.
It is written in the biography of Hadrat Madni i that his face was so illuminated with the brilliance of Allah u that the students would not be able to look straight at it. They would in fact discuss strategies among themselves and would sit around fixated upon Hadrat’s face when he would be in prayer. These students had intense love in their hearts for their teachers.

Migration for Allah u

Hadrat Maulana Muhammad Ali Johr i started a literary and journalistic campaign to rid his people of the British. He started a revolutionary newspaper condemning British occupation and giving voice to the people of India. He finally decided to travel to England in an effort to awaken the public there to the atrocities of its government abroad, and he left his home with the intention that he would only return once his people had won their freedom.

After two years in England, his young daughter Fatima fell fatally ill back home and the doctors decided that she did not have long to live. Realizing that she was about to die, she wrote a detailed letter to her father longing to see him for the last time. Maulana Muhammad Ali Johr i was very distressed at the family’s predicament as every father would be, but he had left his home for a greater purpose and had taken an oath not to return until his land was free. Thus, very painstakingly, he replied to his daughter in a poem.

I find myself restricted (by circumstance)
But Allah u is without restrictions,
I may be far, but He is never far.
I want nothing but your health, but if He does not,
Then I bow to His Will.

Maulana Muhammad Ali Johr i was succeeding in his efforts in England to incite public opinion against the British occupation of India, so much so that the government became apprehensive. He was awakening the public to British atrocities in India by his efforts through the media, and the English people themselves started demanding that their government leave India and allow the people to govern themselves.

Maulana Johr i was threatened with arrest, torture, and even assassination - but this did not deter him. In turn, he replied to such threats with another poem.

You may think that death will finish me.
My treasures in the Hereafter are everlasting.
Honored am I to receive the message
That was received by Husain ibn Ali g
Joyful am I to embrace that same fate,
For me death in Allah’s u Way is a cure for all.
Tauheed is for Allah u to say on the Day of Judgment,
“My servant is he who shunned the world (for My sake.)”

An Enduring Legacy

A time came when Allah u liberated India out of the clutches of the British because of the tremendous sacrifices of our courageous scholars and soon created a whole new nation where Islam could be practiced freely. The blood and sacrifices of the great scholars of Deoband have paid for the freedom that Muslims enjoy today and take for granted.

The tremendous blessings of their knowledge spread far beyond India to every corner of the globe; the schools and mosques founded and functioning upon their principles can be found all over the world shining like diamonds across the vast seas.

Hadrat Maulana Madni i and other scholars used to travel to various surrounding lands making tremendous efforts to propagate Islam. One such country is Bangladesh, where five hundred to four thousand students now study the Holy Quran and hadith in schools founded through the teaching and hard work of the scholars of Deoband. Hence, these great personalities laid the first foundations upon which numerous forthcoming scholars are building and thus enlightening peoples’ hearts through the blessings of knowledge. No one has rendered or is rendering more service for Islam in terms of spreading religious knowledge than the scholars of Deoband or the institutions founded upon their magnanimous examples.

Some Examples from the Lives of the Scholars

Hadrat Qasim Nanotvi i loved the Messenger a of Allah so much that he would walk barefoot when within seven miles of the Grand Mosque in Makkah when going to Hajj, risking injury to his feet in face of dangerous rocks and the scorching sand. His attendants and students would beg him to wear shoes to protect his delicate feet. In reply he would say, “We learn from hadith that the Messenger a of Allah often walked here, and I cannot justify wearing shoes where the Messenger a of Allah may have walked barefoot.”

For his respect, Allah u rewarded Hadrat with tremendous love for the Messenger a of Allah, and his face would always be glowing whenever he returned from paying his respects at the noble grave of the Prophet a. At the completion of Hajj he was once asked his innermost desire, and he replied, “I only wish to die in Madinah so the insects of this sacred land may eat my flesh.” Casting a final glance at the Mosque of the Prophet a as he was leaving, he recited some verses from a poem.

My desire is Madinah and never would I leave you
I would not leave you even after my death.
May your Dome keep shining eternal
May we also be blessed with the desire of Abu Dharr
May we also attain the spirit of Bilal.

Upon his return to his hometown, someone gifted him a pair of green shoes that were very popular in that time. Hadrat accepted them politely but kept them aside and would not wear them. He was asked one day why he was not wearing the shoes and he said, “I do not dare to wear something on my feet that is the same color as the dome of the Mosque of the Prophet a.”

These great scholars ascended to great heights because of the intensity of this love and attention to these minute but important details. Perhaps the biggest testament to Hadrat Qasim Nanotvi’s i love for the Messenger a of Allah is the time when the British were hunting for him after the War of 1857. His students hid him away in a safe house but he came out into the open after three days. They were aghast and begged him to remain in hiding for his life. However, Hadrat replied, “I have studied the life of the Messenger a of Allah and cannot find evidence of him staying in hiding for longer than three days in the Cave of Thaur. I am content upon losing my life but I cannot loosen my grasp on the sunnah. Life and death are in the hands of Allah u; our work is to follow the sunnah.”

The strength of these noble men stuns the imagination because they would rather stare death in the face rather than sacrifice the sunnah of the Messenger a of Allah.

Hadrat Rashid Ahmed Gangohi i was another such lover of Allah u and His Messenger a. One day there was a cloudburst when he was teaching in the mosque’s courtyard and all the students ran for shelter. Hadrat Gangohi i spread out his shawl and gathered all their shoes in it and brought it to them on his head. The students protested and were ashamed of themselves saying that a man of his stature should not be doing such demeaning work. Hadrat Gangohi i simply replied, “What can Rashid Ahmed do except to carry the shoes of those who study the Word of Allah u and the Word of the Messenger a of Allah?”

In another excerpt it is written that someone once brought Hadrat Gangohi i some dust from around the tomb of the Prophet a, which he immediately mixed with his kohl to apply daily to his eyes. He said, “This might be ash to you but to me it is the coolness of my eyes.”

One of his students once asked him his life’s desire. Hadrat Gangohi i remained silent but the student kept insisting. Hadrat’s eyes swelled with tears and he finally said, “I wish that Allah u grant me just a portion of the intense love that the Sahabah had for the Messenger a of Allah.”

Models for Eternity

Mere words cannot begin to express the stamina and devotion of these grand people. These heirs of the prophets sacrificed all for the sake of Islam and meticulously followed every sunnah in their intense love for the Messenger a of Allah. The scholars of Deoband were not only the heirs of the prophets as far as knowledge and learning is concerned, but are also the inheritors and preservers of the sunnah of the beloved Prophet a. An important factor in this was the extreme love for the Prophet a that Allah u had instilled in their breasts, without which they would not have been as successful as they were.
It seems that they were a continuing part of a large caravan rolling gently through time that had started with the Messenger a of Allah and the Sahabah who had preserved the traits and character of the earlier heroes so that later generations of Muslims could see a fraction of what had transpired before. Truly their hearts were overflowing and enlightened with the love for the Messenger a of Allah.


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[marco100]

I'm very emotional when I read this. Hopefully it will open some peoples' eyes.