Idris Kandhlawi

Idris Kandhlawi (ادریس کاندھلوی; 20 August 1899 – 28 July 1974) was a Pakistani Sunni scholar during the mid-twentieth century, widely recognized for his contributions to various fields of Islamic studies, including hadith, Quranic studies, Islamic jurisprudence, Prophetic biography, and theology. Holding the titles of Sheikh al-Hadith and Sheikh al-Tafsir, he traced his lineage to Abu Bakr on his father's side and Umar on his mother's side. He studied in Thana Bhawan under Ashraf Ali Thanwi. He studied hadith, first at Mazahir Uloom under Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri, and later at Darul Uloom Deoband under Anwar Shah Kashmiri. He started his professional career at Madrasa Aminia and later went to Darul Uloom Deoband. In 1929 he took a position in Hyderabad State, where he had access to the Asafia Library. This experience enabled him to produce a five-volume Arabic commentary on Mishkat al-Masabih titled Al-Taleeq al-Sabeeh, of which the first four volumes were published in Damascus. His scholarly work garnered recognition in the Arab world. He later assumed the roles of Sheikh al-Tafsir at Darul Uloom Deoband and Sheikh al-Hadith wa al-Tafsir at Jamia Ashrafia. In addition, he served as the Chancellor of Islamia University of Bahawalpur during its tenure as Jamia Abbasia.

He actively engaged in politics and worked in the Pakistan Movement as one of the top members of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam. Following the partition of India, he migrated to Pakistan. He wrote over a hundred works, including an eight-volume Quran commentary called Maarif al-Quran, which aimed to counter the influence of Western-oriented exegesis trends in South Asia. His approach to writing this Quran commentary drew from the methodology of Bayan al-Quran. He also wrote a biography in Urdu of Muhammad, called Seerat-e Mustafa. The initial three volumes were printed in 1941, with the final volume, designed as a supplement, published in Deoband in 1966. He also wrote many works to refute Christianity and Qadianism.

Name and introduction
In the introduction to one of his works, he introduces himself as "Hafiz Muhammad Idris ibn Maulana Hafiz Muhammad Ismail Kandhlawi, Siddiqi by nasab (lineage), Hanafi by madhhab (school of jurisprudence), and Chishti by mashrab (spiritual disposition, lit. 'spring')." Elsewhere, in one of his Arabic works, he writes, "as-Siddiqi al-Faruqi by nasab, al-Bawfali by birth and origin, al-Kandahlawi by home, al-Hanafi by madhhab, an-Naqshbandi, al-Mujaddidi."

He was Siddiqi on his father's side, tracing his ancestry to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, while on his mother's side he was Farooqi, claiming descent from Umar ibn Khattab. Thus he referred to himself as both Siddiqi and Faruqi. He adhered to the Hanafi school of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and his tariqah (order) in Sufism was the Chishtiyah Sabiriyah, which incorporates several orders, including the Naqshbandiyah Mujaddidiyah. He was born in Bhopal and so he was "al-Bawfali" (Urdu: Bhopali). However he is commonly known by the nisbat "Kandhlawi", referring to his home, Kandhla, a north-Indian town known for producing many Islamic scholars. A descendant of Mufti Ilahi Bakhsh Kandhlawi, his nasab (patronymic) is as follows: Muḥammad Idrīs ibn Muḥammad Ismā‘īl ibn Muḥammad Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad Abul-Qāsim ibn Ilāhī Bak͟hsh.

Birth and early life
Kandhlawi was born on 12 Rabi ath-Thani 1317 AH (c. 20 August 1899), the son of Maulana Muhammad Ismail Kandhlawi (d. 1942  ), in Bhopal, capital of the princely Bhopal State. Ismail, an Islamic scholar and a disciple of Haji Imdadullah Muhajir Makki, worked in Bhopal in the State's Forest Department. When Kandhlawi was a few years old, Ismail resigned from his post and began teaching hadith in the Jami Masjid in Kandhla. Kandhlawi grew up in a religious household. It was common for even the women in the family to know the Qur'an by heart. As per the family tradition, Kandhlawi memorized the Qur'an, completing it with his father at the age of nine in Kandhla.

Education
After Kandhlawi completed hifz (memorization) of the Qur'an, his father entrusted him to Ashraf Ali Thanawi for religious education at Khanqah Imdadiyah Ashrafiyah in Thana Bhawan. At the madrasah there he completed his primary education in the Dars-i Nizami curriculum with Thanawi as well as with Maulana Abdullah Gangohi. Then, as Madrasah Ashrafiyah only had arrangements for the primary curriculum, Kandhlawi was admitted to Mazahir Uloom Saharanpur for further training in the Islamic sciences. Thanawi took Kandhlawi to Saharanpur and presented him to Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri. At Mazahir Uloom his teachers included Maulana Saharanpuri, Maulana Sabit Ali, Maulana Abdul Latif, and Maulana Zafar Ahmad Usmani. After completing dawrah of hadith he received his sanad-i faraghat (certificate of completion) at the age of 19.

Thereafter, Kandhlawi completed dawrah of hadith a second time at Darul Uloom Deoband, with scholars including Allamah Anwar Shah Kashmiri, Allamah Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, Mufti Azizur Rahman Usmani, Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Nanautawi, Maulana Habibur Rahman Usmani, and Sayyid Asghar Husain Deobandi. At Deoband his fellow students included Mufti Muhammad Shafi and Qari Muhammad Tayyib.

Career
Kandhlawi spent the majority of his life in the service of institutions of Islamic learning. His career can be summarized as follows:
 * 1921–1922: Madrasah Aminiyah Delhi
 * 1922–1929: Darul Uloom Deoband
 * 1929–1939: Hyderabad State
 * 1939–1949: Darul Uloom Deoband in the post of Shaykh at-Tafsir
 * 1949–1951: Jamiah Abbasiyah Bahawalpur in the post of Shaykh al-Jamiah
 * 1951–1974: Jamia Ashrafia Lahore in the post of Shaykh al-Hadith wat-Tafsir

Madrasah Aminiyah
Upon completing his education, in 1921  / 1338 AH  he was appointed to his first teaching post at Madrasah Aminiyah, Delhi. This was during the time of Mufti Kifayatullah Dihlawi's leadership at the madrasah. However, after only one year, Maulana Muhammad Ahmad Nanautawi, muhtamim (vice-chancellor) of Darul Uloom Deoband, and Maulana Habibur Rahman Usmani, na'ib muhtamim, (pro-vice-chancellor), invited Kandhlawi to teach at the Darul Uloom.

First stint at Darul Uloom Deoband
Kandhlawi began teaching at Darul Uloom Deoband in 1922. He was never assigned the elementary books; instead, the books initially assigned to him were Hidayah awwalin in Hanafi fiqh and Maqamat-i Hariri in Arabic literature. Later he was assigned to teach the hadith collection Mishkat al-Masabih. Tafsir al-Jalalayn was also his responsibility. He remained with the Darul Uloom for nine years. During this time he regularly delivered a lecture on the Qur'an after Fajr prayer in the madrasah's Naudarah building. Attended by both intermediate and advanced students, in these lessons difficult issues in tafsir, hadith, ilm al-kalam, and fiqh were discussed.

Hyderabad State
In 1929, due to disagreements with the Darul Uloom's leadership, Anwar Shah Kashmiri and Shabbir Ahmad Usmani left the madrasah followed by other teachers and students. Kandhlawi left Deoband, taking up a post in Hyderabad State, where he remained for approximately nine years. There, in addition to teaching, he engaged in the writing and compilation of various works, including at-Ta'liq as-sabih, an Arabic commentary on Mishkat al-Masabih in several volumes. He had access to the Asafiyah Library, where he made use of books including a rare manuscript of at-Turbashti's sharh (commentary) of Masabih as-Sunnah, said to be the only such manuscript in India at the time. Though much of his time in Hyderabad was spent in research and authorship he did continue to teach; he taught the hadith collection Mishkat al-masabih in its entirety several times. In Hyderabad State Kandhlawi met Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall. The two lived across from each other for some time and would often engage in conversation regarding Islam. Other friends and contacts included Manazir Ahsan Gilani and Abdul Bari Nadwi, in whose gatherings many learned individuals would congregate. During his stay Kandhlawi also met Abul Ala Maududi and his brother Abul Khair Maududi, both with whom he remained in contact with until the end of his life.

Second stint at Darul Uloom Deoband
In 1936 and 1937 He was twice invited to take up a post at Madrasah Islamiyah Arabiyah in Dabhel, where Kashmiri and Usmani had shifted, but he refused both offers. However, in 1939 he was invited to take the post of Shaykh at-Tafsir at Darul Uloom Deoband by Usmani, who by then had returned to the Darul Uloom as sadr muhtamim (chancellor), and Qari Muhammad Tayyib, who was then muhtamim. Kandhlawi accepted, although the salary was less than half of what he was receiving in Hyderabad.

Thus in 1939 he returned to Darul Uloom Deoband as Shaykh at-Tafsir and remained there until 1949. In addition to teaching Tafsir Ibn Kathir and Tafsir al-Baydawi, the main books of the dawrah tafsir curriculum, he also taught Tafsir al-Jalalayn, Sunan Abu Dawud, and Tahawi. He also continued to conduct his regular Qur'an lecture.

Jamiah Abbasiyah Bahawalpur
After the independence of Pakistan in 1947, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani, who had migrated to Pakistan before independence, repeatedly called Kandhlawi to come to Pakistan. He decided to leave India in 1949, due to what he perceived as the worsening of conditions for Islam and Muslims in the country. In May 1949 he resigned from Darul Uloom Deoband and returned home to Kandhla. He received invitations from other institutions in India, which he refused. He was invited to take the post of Shaykh al-Hadith at Darul Uloom Hathazari in Chittagong, East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh). Despite the high salary, he also refused this offer since he wished to migrate to West Pakistan.

In October 1949 he was invited to Jamia Abbasia in Bahawalpur, West Pakistan. Jamia Abbasia was an old university in the princely Bahawalpur State whose educational and administrative system was in need of reform. The State's Ministry of Education had requested Shabbir Ahmad Usmani in the capacity of chancellor (raʾīs al-jāmiʿah) and Kandhlawi as vice-chancellor (shaykh al-jāmiʿah). he assumed this post on 25 December. Apart from administrative responsibilities he taught Sahih al-Bukhari and Tafsir al-Baydawi. Usmani, however, fell ill shortly after arriving in Bahawalpur and died there in December 1949.

Jamiah Ashrafiyah Lahore
In August 1951 he resigned from Jamia Abbasia and went to the recently established Jamia Ashrafia Lahore at the request of Mufti Mahmud Hasan, the madrasah's founder and muhtamim. At Jamia Ashrafia he served as Shaykh al-Hadith wa-at-Tafsir and taught Sahih al-Bukhari, Jami at-Tirmidhi, and Tafsir al-Baydawi. He remained with the Jamia until the end of his life. He died in Lahore on the morning of 7 Rajab 1394 / 28 July 1974, and is buried there.

Publication
The period of his writing and authorship has spanned over more than half a century. His first work is the Arabic commentary on the famous book Al-Hariri of Basra, which he wrote at the age of 21. The series of writing and authorship continued until fifteen days before his demise. In the span of fifty years, he wrote close to a hundred books. His writing can be classified into two categories. One category includes those written in a narrative style, not intended to highlight any particular group or theory. From a purely scientific and research point of view, it has clarified the path of Ahl as-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah. The second category comprises those intending to present a particular group or theory. His publications include:

Arabic

 * Al-Fath Al-Samadi: Tawdih Tafsir Al-Bukhari:
 * Wail Al-Furqan 'ala Madhhab Al-Nu'man:

Urdu

 * Maarif al-Quran:
 * Sharayat Mafar wa Mutarjam:
 * I'jaz Al-Quran:

Arabic

 * Al-Taleeq al-Sabeeh ala Mishkat al-Masabih:
 * Muqaddimah Al-Hadith:
 * Munhah Al-Hadith Fi Sharh Al-Fiyah Al-Hadith:
 * Hujjit al hadith
 * Al abwab wa at tarajim
 * Al hairul zari

Urdu

 * Kalimatu Allah Fi Hayat Ruhi Allah:
 * Al-Qawl Al-Muhkam:
 * Lata'if Al-Hikam Fi Asrar Nazul 'Isa Ibn Maryam:
 * Al-Din Al-Qayyim:
 * Ahsan Al-Bayan Fi Mas'alah Al-Kufr Al-Iman:
 * Nahayat Al-Adrak Fi Haqiqat Al-Tawhid:
 * Walaa Shirk:
 * Fath Al-Ghafur Sharh Manzumah Al-Qubur:
 * Islam Aur Marzaiyat Ka Usooli Ikhtilaf:

Urdu

 * Seeratul Mustafa:
 * Khilafat-e Rashida:

Legacy
In a Q&A on Darulifta-Deoband.com, he was acclaimed as an great commentator and hadith scholar.