Azhar Or Deoband?

Al Salamu 'Alaykum.

A thread on SF was on the question of where to study the Islamic sciences, Azhar in Egypt or Deoband in India.
Many respected brothers and sisters gave cogent reasons for choosing either of the two. I do not wish to comment on al Azhar because of my lack of knowledge and the geographical distance between my country and Misr but I have had the opportunity of visiting Dar al 'Uloom and of having a ta'alluq with Fida-e-Millat Shaykh al Sayyid Hadrat Mawlana Arshad Madani and being in touch with various other Deobandi 'Ulama. The following lines from an Urdu tarana best express what one will get, Inshallah from studying in Deoband:

"......Ruumi ki ghazal,

Raazi ki nazar,

Ghazzaali ki talqeen yahaan,

Raushan hai Jamaal-e-Anwar se Paimaana-e-Fakhruddin yahaan……"

'Alaykum Salam.

Positive Roles Of Islamic Schools.

 

The Positive Role of Madrasas

MUFTI MOHAMMAD ANWAR KHAN

Once, the turbulent period of 1857 was brought under control by the British, the economic plight and the literacy rate of Muslims had dropped to an alarming degree. Their overall situation was so grave that they were suffering untold miseries and unbearable pains of having lost power to a military force of an alien country, which had no right to be in India. The Muslim scholars and spiritual leaders of the community were farsighted enough to visualize the nightmares that the Muslims were going through. The British had left such a deep impact on their memories after spilling their blood and killing those caught in the most savage manner, so much so, that they decided to erase from the subcontinent all traces of rich eastern values taught by Islam to Muslims along with their traditions and cultural heritage.
In turn, this inspired other Muslims to enter into the all-embracing fold of enrolling their wards in English Schools and Colleges, who became deeply impressed with the technical know-how that imparting knowledge to vulnerable young Muslim minds became the monopoly of the British who made light of their religion and culture of Islam until they started hating them. By and large, Muslims had become alien in their own lands. Having born and bred up as Muslims, they started despising everything about Islam under British tutelage, which encouraged them to learn more about the Western Thought by making Christianity as a subject that was taught compulsorily to all Muslims, until the Muslims knew more about Christianity than they knew about Islam. The process was contusing in different parts of the country with an alarming speed.
There were countless number of other Muslim intellectuals who could recite by heart large passages from Shakespearean dramas, and quoted Emmanuel, Kant, Marx, and Engels – the philosophers of Europe – much better than they knew about the tenets of the Religion of Islam, or the sacred book of Islam, the Qur’an.

For a time, chaos reigned in the minds of Muslims of India. The war of 1857 had also brought with it new ideologies, which were imported from foreign shores. All over the country, the Eastern values were being erased. The Western power had spread the network of modern English schools and colleges to change the mentality of Muslims. The foreign minds were busy making plans to this effect. For this reason, the parliament of London had dispatched a huge number of Christian priests and missionaries to India to obliterate the religious and cultural existence of the Muslims. The Muslims of India were introduced to foreign philosophers and English literature.
On the other hand, there was an accursed person who was born in India and who was raised under the supervision of the British power titled “Mirza Ghulam Ahmad Qadiyani” who claimed to be the promised Messiah. At last, he came with the claim that he was the Messenger sent to the world by Allah. In this way, he impressed millions of Muslims negatively. It was felt by many that Islam was in great danger in the future. It was totally jeopardized. Under these pernicious times, some of the chosen servants of Allah started the campaign of Islamic education.

The Muslim scholars of India did not lose hope of reforming the other Muslim intellectuals to revert back to the fold of Islam in its entirety. Keeping this objective in mind, the luminous personalities of Islam, Maulana Muhammad Qasim Nanawtawi, his companions Maulana Zulfiqar Ali, Haji Abid Hussain and Maulana Fazlur Rahman and a few others laid the foundation of Darul Uloom, Deoband, the most prestigious university in the subcontinent. At the same time, Maulana Mazhar Nanawtawi laid the foundation of Mazahir Uloom at Saharanpur (U.P). The Tablighi Jama‘at, the largest grassroots Muslim organization in the world, headquartered in Nizamuddin, New Delhi, was founded in 1926 by Maulana Muhammad Ilyas, the greatest thinker of twentieth century. These Islamic institutions, especially Darul Uloom, and Tablighi Jama‘at have played a key role in the preservation of Islamic culture and heritage across the globe. The graduates trained in these institutions defended every possible attack against Islam and its teachings. These institutions produced a unique galaxy of Muslim scholars who performed permanent key roles in preserving the social background of the Indian Islamic culture and eastern values.

Wa Salamu 'Alaykum.

http://deobandcenter.com/The-Positive-Role-of-Madrasas.php

John Muhammad Butt.

Al Salamu 'Alaykum.

I found this beautiful real life story of a revert on cambridgekhutbas. Alhamdulillah, a really heartwarming story of a brother's reversion and then his study in the greatest Islamic Seminary in the world, Dar al 'Uloom Deoband and his subsequent life. Short and sweet.

By Nadene Ghouri Deoband, India

Forty years after following the hippie trail to South Asia, John Butt is still living in the region, and still spreading a message of peace and love - though now as an Islamic scholar.
As our car turned around the bumpy Indian road, a gleaming white marble minaret came into view. My fellow passenger, John Mohammed Butt, could barely contain his excitement.
"Can you see it?" he asks. "It's like the Oxford University of Islamic learning. For me these minarets and domes are just like the spires and towers of Oxford.

John Butt is the only Westerner to have graduated from Darul-Uloom Deoband

"It's been almost 30 years since I was last here and I am still getting the same thrill. This is my alma mater."
The alma mater in question is Darul-Uloom Deoband, South Asia's largest madrassa, or Islamic school.
Driving through the madrassa gates, we entered a world rarely seen by Western eyes.
Deoband was built in 1866 by Indian Muslims opposed to the then British rule. Little has changed since - winding streets and tiny courtyards lined with stalls selling fragrant chai, bubbling pots of rice and paintings of Mecca.
Everywhere are the Talibs, religious students, young men with dark-eyed fervent expressions carrying books or quietly reciting the Koran.
And in another scene reminiscent of Oxford, students riding bicycles.
A chai seller recognises John and runs towards him. "John Sahib, John Sahib."
The two had not seen each other in decades, yet the man remembers him instantly. "John Sahib was the only student I ever saw who used to go jogging.
"There was only one John Mohammed - unique," he laughs.
That is perhaps not so surprising, when you learn that John Butt remains the first and only Western man ever to have graduated from Deoband.
He showed me his old dormitory room, a windowless cell where he spent eight years in a life of virtual seclusion, living under a regime of prayer and Koranic study.

Imposing figure
But that is just one facet of this man's extraordinary life.
Aside from his time at Deoband, he has spent most of the past 40 years living among the fierce Pashtun tribes, who inhabit the lawless hinterland between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He went there in 1969, he says, as a dope-smoking young hippie and never came home.
He laughs. "When people call me an ageing ex-hippie, I always reply that I am ageing maybe, but I'm certainly not ex. I'm still a hippie."
John Butt cuts an imposing figure.
At 6ft 5ins (1.95m) tall, he sports a long white beard and alabaster skin that is almost translucent.
Dressed in flowing white ethnic robes, he reminds me of a Benedictine hermit monk or a Victorian explorer, swashbuckling straight out of the pages of an historical novel.
He tells me he adores the Queen, Stilton is his favourite cheese and that football is his passion.
Yet among the border tribes, he is regarded as a native Pashtun and revered as an Islamic scholar.

Home for him, until recently, was a tiny village in Pakistan's Swat valley.
Swat was once a popular tourist destination but is now the scene of regular battles between the Pakistani military and the Taliban.
But back in 1969, the young John was hooked from the moment he saw Swat, describing to me snow-capped mountains, rivers like flowing jewels, forests and alpine pastures.
It was, he says, "like Tolkien's Middle-earth, magical and other worldly" inhabited by tribal people who were "very pleasant, big-hearted, tolerant, easy-going and welcoming".
When his fellow hippies grew up and went home to become accountants and lawyers, John stayed on - becoming fluent in the Pashto language and studying Islam.
But John's world changed in the late 1980s, with the arrival of jihadists, who came to the border areas from all over the world to fight the war against the Russians in Afghanistan.
"I saw the rural, religious Pashtun way of life I had come to love so much being diluted, contaminated and poisoned, in particular by Arabs from the Middle East," he says.
"The way they practise Islam is very different to the tribal areas, but they used money and influence to impose their own set of values."
So he decided to fight for his adopted culture.

Peaceful Islam
In the early 1990s, he joined the BBC World Service Pashto service and helped to set up New Home New Life, a now iconic Afghan radio soap opera, known as The Archers of Afghanistan.

I've hired some of the best Islamic scholars in the region - pious, good and brave men

Six years ago, he set up a radio station which broadcasts across the Afghan-Pakistan border and which tries to promote tribal traditions along with peace and reconciliation.
More recently, John has switched his attentions back to Afghanistan and is spearheading the formation of a new Islamic university in the predominantly Pashtun city of Jalalabad.
"It makes perfect sense. There is currently nowhere in Afghanistan where a young man can do higher Islamic studies. They go to Pakistan, where as we know some of them have become radicalised," he says, emphasising that his university will give a platform to moderates.
But this promotion of peaceful Islam has set him on a collision course with militants. His beloved Pakistan has now become too unsafe for him.

 

"Swat is a militarised zone and people I see as foreigners there now treat me like I'm the foreigner, even though I lived there for 40 years.
"It's hard to work out who is who any more - who is Taliban, who is criminal. The waters are very muddy."
Last year, waters of another kind finally put paid to his idyll, when his house was washed away in the floods which devastated the area and killed thousands.
"It was a relief in some ways. When I lost the house, I knew I'd never go back there."
Afghanistan has also become increasingly perilous after Taliban death threats.
The Taliban have delivered so-called night letters - notes hand-delivered in secret and at night for maximum impact - warning students not to study at the university and denouncing John as a Christian missionary or an "orientalist".
Death threats have also been made to his teachers and staff.
"I've hired some of the best Islamic scholars in the region - pious, good and brave men," he says. "They know this is for the benefit of Afghanistan and they insist they will stay working with me despite the dangers."
As I said goodbye, he was planning to travel to Jalalabad on the local bus. We talked about the possibility of him being attacked and he admitted he could easily be killed.
But when I asked if he was scared, he brushed me off with a shrug. "You only die once. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow."
Wa'laykum Salam.

Mawlana Muhammad Qasim Nanautwi (rah).

Al Salamu 'Alaykum.

He is amongst the last gleaners of the Waliullahian harvest of knowledge. He was born in 1248/1832. In the environs of Saharanpur there is an old village, Nanauta, reputed for producing men of high caliber. It was from this productive mine that this unique jewel of the first water came out whose scintillating knowledge illumined and made resplendent the academic and religious assemblies in the later half of the 13th century Hijri.

Primary education he received at his native-place after which he was sent to Deoband where he read for some time in Maulawi Mahtab Ali's primary school. Then he went away to his ma­ternal grandfather at Saharanpur where the latter was practicing as a pleader. In Saharanpur he studied the elementary books of Arabic gra­mmar and syntax under the instruction of Maulawi Nawaz. At the end of 1259/1843, Maulana Mamlook Ali took him to Delhi. There he began the Kafia and read other books. Thereafter he was admitted to the Delhi College but he did not take the annual examination. Mau­Iana Muhammad Yaqub Nanautawi writes: ­

"My late father got Maulawi Sahib admitted to the Government Arabic Madrasah and said: 'See Euclid yourself and do exercises of ari­thmetic. After some days, it was talked about that Maulawi Sahib had seen all the ordinary discourses and had completed the exercises of ari­thmetic. Munshi Zakaullah brought some questions, which were very difficult. On solving them Maulana became very well known. When the annual examination drew near, Maulawi Sahib did not take it and left the Madrasah. All in the Madrasah, particularly the head-master who was the principal English teacher, regretted this very much".

Before entering Delhi College, he had read books of logic, philo­sophy and scholastic theology like Mir Zahid, Qazi Mubarak, Sadra, Shams-e- Bazigha under the instruction of Maulana Mamlook Ali at the latter's house. In the end, he joined that study-circle which then posse­ssed a central position in the whole of India with regard to the teaching of the sciences of the Quran and Hadith. Hadhrat Shah Abdul-Ghani Mujaddidi was then gracing the Masnad of knowledge of Shah Waliullah. From him he acquired the science of Hadith; during his student-days, it­ self the fame of his acuteness, knowledge and learning, comprehension and discernment had become widespread.

Hadhrat Maulana Nanautawi's illustrious contemporary, Sir Syed, has expressed his impressions of the former's acuteness, knowledge and learning, asceticism and piety, understanding and discernment during student days in the following words: ­

"The people thought that after Maulawi Muhammad Ishaq no man like him in all those qualities was to be born, but Maulawi Muhammad Qasim has proved by his consummate righteousness, religiosity, piety, abstinence and humili1y that, through the education and training of this city of Delhi, Allah has created another man a like of Maulawi Muhammad Ishaq, rather superior to him in certain things.

"There are many people alive who have seen Maulawi Muhammad Qasim receiving education at Delhi at a very young age. He had studied all the books under the late Maulawi Mamlook Ali. From the very beginn­ing the signs of piety, abstinence, virtuousness and devotion to God were apparent from his ways and manners and the following couplet was per­fectly applicable to him: ­

'Over his head through his intelligence was shining the star of loftiness'.

"During the period of prosecuting studies, even as he was well-known and reputed for his intelligence, keenness of mind, understanding and dis­cernment, he was equally well spoken of by men of learning and accom­plishments for his virtuousness and devoutness. Maulawi Muzaffar Hussain Sahib's company had inclined him very much towards conformance to the prophetic Sunnah and top grace of the company of Haji Imdadullah had made his heart into a top-ranking heart. He himself conformed to the Shariah and the Sunnah and tried his level best to make people also conform to the Shariah and the Sunnah. Nevertheless he was always anxious about the weal of the Muslims. It was through his efforts that a very useful Madrasah for imparting the education of religious sciences was established at Deoband and a very fine mosque was built. Besides this, through his effort and endeavor, Islamic Madrasahs were established at other places too. He did not at all wish to be a mysta­gogue, a spiritual preceptor, and yet, thousands of people in India, parti­cularly in the northern and western districts, believed in him and considered him their spiritual leader.

"As regards controversial questions some people were displeased with him and he too was displeased with some, but as for as we understand we cannot impute any action of Maulawi Muhammad Qasim, whether it be of displeasure with anyone or of pleasure, to egoism, obduracy and an­tagonism. All the works and deeds that he performed were purely for God's sake and with an eye on the recompense of the hereafter; and he used to follow whatever he considered true and right.

Both, to be dis­pleased or to be pleased with anyone, were for the sake of God. Maulawi Muhammad Qasim did not consider any man good or bad due to his per­sonal relations but because a man does bad works or speaks bad things, he considered him bad for the sake of God. The question of love for the sake of Allah' and 'aversion for the sake of Allah' was peculiar to his treatment. All his habits were angelic. We all used to cherish sincere love for him, and such a man who may have passed his life with such virtuo­usness is indubitably worthy of utmost love.

"In these days all people admit and perhaps those people too who dissented from him in certain open questions might be admitting that Maulawi Muhammad Qasim was a matchless man in this world. His rank in knowledge in those days may perhaps be less than that of Shah Abdul Aziz to some extent; otherwise in all other things it was superior. In humility, virtue and simplicity, if his rank was not higher than that of Maulawi Muhammad Ishaq, it was, not inferior either. He was realty a man of angelic habits and celestial disposition, and the world's being bereaved of the existence of such a man is the cause of extreme sorrow and regret for those who survive after him".

After the completion of his education, Maulana Nanautawi took up as a means of livelihood the work of correcting the press at Matba-e Ahmedi, Delhi, which was then owned by Maulana Ahmed Ali Muhaddith Saharanpuri. In those days, at Maulana Ahmed Ali's instance, he also wrote a scholium on the last few portions of the Sahih Bukhari.

THE METHOD OF TEACHING HADITH

Hadhrat Nanautawi has played a great part in developing that method of affirmation and preference for the Hanafite Mazhab (method, creed) and that style of sifting and explanations, which are today the distinc­tive feature of the Darul Uloom Deoband, and are also current and in use more or less in the lessons of Hadith in the Arabic Madrasahs. Till the middle of the thirteenth century Hijri only the translation of Hadith and the stating of the four methods (mazahib-e arba'a) was considered enough; but when the Hanafites were accused by the Ahl-e Hadith very emphatically that their method was not in accordance with Hadith , Hadhrat Shah Muhammad Ishaq and some of his learned disciples paid attention to the affirmation and superiority (tarjih) of the Hanafite method. In Darul Uloom Deoband Hadhrat Nanautawi, Hadhrat Sheikhul-Hind and other Ulama developed it to such on extent that today no teaching institution of Hadith of repute is to be found devoid of it.

From Hadhrat Nanautawi's lectures only those students could benefit adequately who were themselves talented, intelligent and sharp-witted and, moreover, might have already read the book with close attention. Hadhrat Nanautawi's geist, maturity of vision and power of argumentation can be estimated on the whole from his books. His statement was that "all the commandments of the Book and the Sunnah are wholly rational; however, the intellect of every person cannot have access there". Hakim Mansoor Ali Khan Muradabadi, who is amongst the well-guided pupils of Hadhrat Nanautawi, writes in his Mazhab-e Mansoor about the peculiarities of his teacher's giving lessons and lectures as under: ­

"The fact is that whenever Hadhrat Nanautawi proved any important and difficult proposition to be contrary to the masses concepts, great men of light and learning used to be amazed and astonished. The commandment, which looked absolutely without any argument and demonstration used to look perfectly rational after his lecture. Great men of knowledge and learning would not dare to say anything against me arguments put forth by him".

The following statement of Hadhrat Shaikhul-Hind has been men­tioned in the Arwah-e Salasa; he says: ­

"I used to attend Hadhrat Nanautawi's lecture after having read Hadhrat Shah Waliullah's books and would ask him those things which used to be very difficult in the Shah Sahib's books. And what used to be the lost answer in Shah Sahib's books, Hadhrat (Nanautawi) would mention it first. I have experienced this thing several times".

During the incipient period of Darul Uloom Deoband he taught Euclid for some days in the Chhatta Mosque. During teaching whenever he felt it necessary to explain a figure to the students, he would draw the figure with his finger, without the help of instruments and explain it to the students, although he had studied mathematics and Euclid in Delhi College by himself, without the guidance of any teacher. Hadhrat Nanautawi's lecture generally used to be within the four walls of the Printing presses and was attended by particular person only. The grace of his teaching produced such a party of accomplished, Ulama like Hadhrat Shaikul Hind Maulana Mahmood Hasan Deobandi, Maulana Ahmad Hasan Amrohi, Maulana Fakhrul Hasan Gangohi, etc. the example where of is not to be seen after Hadhrat Shah Abul Ghani's time. And then he established the system of religious sciences through the central educational institution like the Darul Uloom Deoband , which now, due to its variegated quality, is the greatest seminary in Asia.

Some peculiarities of Hadhrat Maulana Nanautawi's teaching-work are very important. A great one among them is that he never made it a means of earning his living. Due to not being rich, he, of necessity, adopted a service for earning his livelihood, but, instead of the educa­tional line, he sought a job of collation and emendation of books in a press; and then, contrary to the general wont, instead of increment in pay, he used to insist on decrement, and used to be content with such little pay, a mere pittance, on which he could subsist with great diffi­culty, He never agreed to take more than ten, fifteen rupees as pay. The highest post during the time that could be given to an Indian could be his --- as Maulana Muhammad Yaqub has said --- 'at the slightest wink of his eyes'; as such, many of those who were his contemporaries during the educational career and were far inferior to him in academic ability had been appointed on high government posts in the education department, but he never approved of accepting an educational service. His father possessed a small plot of cultivable land and was cherishing the hope that when the son would become a religious doctor after com­pleting education, he would get a job of reasonable salary. When Maulana's contemporaries were appointed to good posts and he did not show any inclination towards service, his father felt very sorry and told, by way of a complaint, Hadhrat Haji Imdadullah: "This was my only son on whom I had pinned many hopes. If he earned something and did service, our poverty would be removed. God knows what you have done to him that he is not willing to take up a job", Haji Sahib listened and held his peace then, but later on sent him a word: "You complain of narrow circumstances. Allah Most High will give him so much even without service that he will be better off than in service, and holders of high posts, will take pride in serving him".

The method of the Ulama of the former times was different from the system of teaching and learning the Arabic sciences, Madrasahs and cliquism that prevails and is current nowadays. Generally the Ulama, sitting in their homes and mosques, used to teach purely for the sake of Allah; and for earning their livelihood they either took to commercial dealings or used to pass life trusting in Allah. Very often it also happened that the Ulama who did no business for livelihood and engaged themselves in teaching, trusting in the Providence, were given reasonable stipends from the government of the day. The courage and perseverance and contentment of the heart with which Hadhrat Nanautawi, inspite of severely unfavorable circumstances, maintained this precious practice (lit., thing, effects) of the predecessors behaved him only. Hadhrat Haji Sahib used to say about him: Formerly sometimes there used to be such people; now they do not happen to be since long".

After having completed his educational career, Hadhrat Nanautawi, as a means at Livelihood, adopted the job at collating and emending of books in Matba-e Ahmadi, Delhi, and this remained the means of earning till the end. Along with emendation, the practice of teaching also continued. Besides the Sihah Sitta, he also used to teach Masnavi-e Maulana Room and other books, but the teaching work was done, instead of in a Madrasah, inside the four walls of printing presses or a mosque or a house, where particular students only used to sit respectfully.

HUMILITY & INDEPENDENCE-FROM-WANT OR CONTENTMENT (lSTIGHNA)

Independence from want, humility and meekness were to such a degree in his disposition that he never used the peculiar style or dress of the Ulama - the gown and the turban. He used to feel much em­barrassed by veneration. He used to say: "This nominal knowledge spoilt me otherwise I would have marred, my condition so much that none would have known that a man named Qasim was at all born". He used to keep off generally from those matters in which there could be a chance of being conspicuous.

In 1277/1860 he went for Hajj and on return from there he took up the job of collating books in Matba-e Mujtabai, Meerut, and remained attached to the same press till 1285/1868. Meanwhile, he again hap­pened to go for Hajj, and thereafter he joined Matba-e Hashimi, Meerut. During this period, the occupation of teaching continued but he never liked service in any Madrasah. The author of Sawanh-e Makhtutah has stated: ­

"It is a fact known to all that the Madrasah Islami of Deoband was founded and developed by him only, and what a small government it is, this establishment; but he never took advantage of anything. In the incipience, the members of the council requested him to accept teacher ship in this Madrasah and in return for it a meager salary, but he did not accept and at no time, by any manner or method, tolerated to have even a grain from the Madrasah. Although day and night, he used to be busy in the good management of the Madrasah and engaged in teaching. If perchance he wrote any of his letters with the pen and inkpot of the Madrasah, he would immediately pay one Anna to the treasury of the Madrasah.

SERVICES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF ISLAM & THE STARTING OF MADRASAHS

Hadhrat Nanautawi's greatest and most glorious achievement is the revivifying of an educational movement for the renaissance of religious sciences in India and the formulation of those guiding principles for the religious schools on which their survival depends. Through his atten­tion and persuasion, religious Madrasahs were started at different places, like Thana Bhawan (Dist. Muzaffarnagar), Gulaothi (Dist. Buland Shahar), Kerana (Dist. Muzaffarnagar), Danapur (Dist. Buland Shahar), Meerut, Moradabad, etc. Most of them still exist, rendering educational and religious services in their vicinity.

Shoulder to shoulder with the English power, Christianity too had risen high in India and prodigious efforts had been made to convert the people of India, particularly, the Muslims, to Christianity in every possi­ble way. With the support and co-operation of the Company bases of Christian preaching and organization were established throughout the length and breadth of the country, and after the revolution of 1857/ 1274, this system received further; impetus and expansion. Padres began to impeach and impugn Islam and the Prophet of Islam (Allah's peace and blessings be on him) in markets, fairs and common gatherings. When Hadhrat Nanautawi, during the period of his stay in Delhi witnessed this situation, he also ordered his pupils to stand like that in the bazaars to give sermons and repugnant and repudiate the padres. One day he himself, without introduction and giving out his name, reached a gathering and, breaking lance with Padre Tara Chand, repulsed him publicly in the bazaar. Thereafter he came to be introduced with the famous polemic of Islam, Maulana Abul Mansoor Nasirddin Ali Dehlawi (d. 1320/1902). This event took place between Rabi'ul Awwal, 1292, and Jamadul-thania 1292. This was the period when Hadhrat Nanautawi was staying in Munshi Mumtaz Ali's Matba-e Mujtabai, Delhi.

http://alhaadi.org.za/articles/biographies/113-ml-qasim-nanotwi.html

 

Wa'laykum Salam.

Stay Away From 'Urs.

Al Salamu 'Alaykum.
This post is dedicated to all lovers of Tawhid, those who turn only to Allah for their needs and do not approach the Ghayr Allah for what they cannot give:

Urs celebrations used to be held by some people in Gangoh at the Khanqah of Hadhrat Shaikh Abdul Quddoos Gangohi (rahmatullahi alaih) (long after his demise). Later on, this Khanqah became the residence of Moulana Rasheed Ahmad Gangohi (rahmatullahi alaih). However, during the three days of Urs, Hadhrat used to leave the Khanqah and depart from Gangoh. He used to grant leave to his students and mureeds as well, saying: “Brothers, go away for three days.” They would only return when the Urs was over.

It was the practice of Shaikh-ul-Hind Hadhrat Moulana Mahmood Hasan Deobandi (rahmatullahi alaih) that after teaching the sixth period on Thursdays, he would usually travel from Deoband to Gangoh to visit Hadhrat Gangohi (rahmatullahi alaih). Once, Hadhrat Shaikh-ul-Hind’s (rahmatullahi alaih) friend who was close to him during their student days and had later on become a government employee asked, “O Mahmood, tell me, what is there in Gangoh that makes you go there every Thursday?” Hadhrat replied, “O ignorant one! You haven’t tasted anything. Come with me.” He agreed to go along. Coincidentally the day that he accompanied Hadhrat to Gangoh turned out to be one of the days of Urs at the Mazaar of Shah Abdul Quddoos Gangohi (rahmatullahi alaih).

Initially, Imam-e-Rabbani, Hadhrat Gangohi (rahmatullahi alaih) used to leave Gangoh completely for the duration of these days but when he became blind he stopped travelling. However, he would not come to the Khanqah on these days. Yes, he used to come for all the Salaahs and lead the congregation himself. The organizers of the Urs were considerate to stop their qawwaali from the time of azaan until the musallees had completed their sunnats, etc., after namaaz.

Hadhrat would not allow anyone to visit him during the days of Urs. He would not even shake hands with anyone. Hadhrat Shaikh-ul-Hind (rahmatullahi alaih) reached Gangoh at night and proceeded directly to Hadhrat’s house. As soon as Hadhrat saw him, he began reprimanding him. He also instructed him to return to Deoband immediately. Another friend of Shaikh-ul-Hind (rahmatullahi alaih), Shah Mazhar Husain Sahib Gangohi (rahmatullahi alaih), was also present. (He was the brother of Moulana Fakhr-ul-Hasan Sahib Gangohi (rahmatullahi alaih), who had written marginal notes on Abu Dawood.) He spoke up and said, “Hadhrat, they haven’t come to attend the Urs. They have come to you.” Hadhrat replied, “I also know that they haven’t come to attend the Urs. Even I am not so gullible. They have come to me, but they have passed through the crowd attending the Urs. Thus, they have increased their numbers. And the Hadeeth says: ‘Whoever increases the number of any group of people, he is from them.’ On the Day of Qiyama, he may try to absolve himself.”

Thereafter, Shah Mazhar Husain Sahib took them home and said, “At least eat something before you leave.” Hadhrat Shaikh-ul-Hind (rahmatullahi alaih) broke into tears and said, “Hadhrat instructed me to leave immediately. With what face should I eat?” Hence he departed immediately from Gangoh.

(Maslak 'Ulama-e-Deoband aur Hubb-e-Rasul [sallahu alaihi wa sallam])

Subhanallah.

Wa'laykum Salam.