Mirzā Mazhar Jān-i Jānān ( ur, ), also known by his
laqab
Arabic language names have historically been based on a long naming system. Many people from the Arabic-speaking and also Muslim countries have not had given/ middle/family names but rather a chain of names. This system remains in use throughou ...
Shamsuddīn Habībullāh (1699–1781), was a renowned
Hanafi
The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools (maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named afte ...
Maturidi
Māturīdī theology or Māturīdism ( ar, الماتريدية: ''al-Māturīdiyyah'') is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Persian Muslim scholar, Ḥanafī jurist, reformer (''Mujaddid''), and scholastic t ...
Sufi
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
poet of
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
Sunnah
In Islam, , also spelled ( ar, سنة), are the traditions and practices of the Islamic prophet Muhammad that constitute a model for Muslims to follow. The sunnah is what all the Muslims of Muhammad's time evidently saw and followed and passed ...
.
He established the Naqshbandī suborder Mazhariyya Shamsiyya.
Birth and early life
The date of birth is variously given as 1111 or 1113 A.H, and it took place in Kālā Bāgh, Mālwa, according to one source, while according to another source he was born in
Agra
Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...
Ramadan
, type = islam
, longtype = Religious
, image = Ramadan montage.jpg
, caption=From top, left to right: A crescent moon over Sarıçam, Turkey, marking the beginning of the Islamic month of Ramadan. Ramadan Quran reading in Bandar Torkaman, Iran. C ...
1111 AH. He was born into a noble family of Afghan parentage that served in the administration of the
Mughals
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...
. His father Mirzā Jān was employed in the army of the mighty Mughal Emperor
Aurangzeb
Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...
. Following a custom according to which the Emperor had the right to name the sons of his officers, Aurangzeb is reported to have said:Medieval Muslim views of Indian religion, Y. Friedmann, JOAS 95, 1975.
"A son is the soul of his father. Since the name of his father is Mirzā Jān, the name of the son will be Jān-i Jānān."
His early religious instruction was entrusted to ''hājjī'' Afzal Siyālkōtī (
hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
) and ''hāfiz'' Abd al-Rasūl Dihlawī (
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
). At the age of 18, he joined the Naqshbandī order under Nūr Muhammad Bada'ūni, who was closely connected to the teachings of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindī, and completed his studies in four years. He was also initiated in the Qādirī, Chishtī and Suhrawardī orders.
In his prime, Mazhar was advised to write poetry in
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
as the days of the latter language were said to be numbered in India. Besides authoring poetry and polemics, Mazhar also wrote a large number of letters relating to Sufi thought and practice.
Legacy and influence
Among his 'disciples' or
Murid
In Sufism, a ''murīd'' (Arabic مُرِيد 'one who seeks') is a novice committed to spiritual enlightenment by ''sulūk'' (traversing a path) under a spiritual guide, who may take the title murshid, '' pir'' or ''shaykh''. A '' sālik'' or Su ...
Tafsir
Tafsir ( ar, تفسير, tafsīr ) refers to exegesis, usually of the Quran. An author of a ''tafsir'' is a ' ( ar, مُفسّر; plural: ar, مفسّرون, mufassirūn). A Quranic ''tafsir'' attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, in ...
of the Qur'an by the name ''Tafsir-i Mazharī'', which he named after his teacher. Also in his spiritual lineage (
silsila
Silsila ( ar, سِلْسِلَة) is an Arabic word meaning ''chain'', ''link'', ''connection'' often used in various senses of lineage. In particular, it may be translated as "spiritual genealogy" where one Sufi Master transfers his ''khi ...
) came the great Hanafī jurist Imam Ibn 'Abidīn and the Qur'an exegete Allāma Alusī.
His Naqshbandī lineage came to be known as Mazhariyya Shamsiyya. Mazhar apparently authorized more disciples than any of his predecessors. He regularly corresponded with his deputies, and his letters form much of the basis of our knowledge about his life and ideas.The Naqshbandiyya: orthodoxy and activism in a worldwide Sufi tradition, Itzchak Weismann, Routledge, 2007.
He was succeeded by his khalifa (deputy) Abdullah alias Shah Ghulam Ali Dahlavi, who is considered
Mujaddid
A ''mujaddid'' ( ar, مجدد), is an Islamic term for one who brings "renewal" ( ar, تجديد, translit= tajdid, label=none) to the religion. According to the popular Muslim tradition, it refers to a person who appears at the turn of every ...
of the 13th Islamic century by most
Naqshbandi
The Naqshbandi ( fa, نقشبندی)), Neqshebendi ( ku, نهقشهبهندی), and Nakşibendi (in Turkish) is a major Sunni order of Sufism. Its name is derived from Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari. Naqshbandi masters trace their ...
followers today. His tariqah spread to whole India and Middle East.
Death
Mirzā Mazhar was shot and seriously injured on the 7th of Muharram, of the year 1195 AH/1780 CE. The author of Āb-i Ḥayāt writes:
"The cause of this murder was widely rumored in Delhi among high and low: that according to custom, on the seventh day f Muḥarram the standards were carried aloft n procession Mirzā Mazhar sat by the side of the road in the upper veranda of his house, with some of his special disciples. Just as ordinary barbarous people do, his unnigroup and the hiaprocession group may perhaps have hurled some insults and abuse, and some barbarous person was offended. Among them was one stony-hearted person named Faulād
steel
Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant t ...
Ḳhān, who was extremely barbarous. He did this evil deed. But Ḥakīm Qudratullāh Ḳhān 'Qāsim', in his anthology, says that in his poetry Mirzā Sahib used to compose a number of verses in praise of Hazrat ʿAlī, and some Sunni took this amiss and did this evil deed.
The author of Āb-i Ḥayāt, a determined Shi'a, has been suspected of indulging in partisan religious bias. Professor Frances Pritchett has noted that the latter account of the death of Mirzā Mazhar in Āb-i Ḥayāt is a deliberate distortion. Professor Friedmann, as well as Annemarie Schimmel and Itzchad Weismann, have all noted that Mirzā Mazhar was killed by a Shi'ite zealot.
Most of his Urdu biographers have also written that he was killed by a gunshot by a Shi'ite on 7th Muharram, and he died on 10th Muharram 1195 AH.Jalwa Gah-e-Dost (Urdu) 2nd edition (2008) by Muhammad Tahir Bakhshi Naqshbandi:
Sufism
Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, ...
, which is the main branch of
Naqshbandi
The Naqshbandi ( fa, نقشبندی)), Neqshebendi ( ku, نهقشهبهندی), and Nakşibendi (in Turkish) is a major Sunni order of Sufism. Its name is derived from Baha-ud-Din Naqshband Bukhari. Naqshbandi masters trace their ...
Sufi tariqah. His spiritual lineage goes through Shaikh
Ahmad Sirhindi
Aḥmad al-Fārūqī as-Sirhindī (1564-1624) was a South Asian Islamic scholar from Punjab, Hanafi jurist, and member of the Naqshbandī Sufi order. He has been described by some followers as a Mujaddid, meaning a “reviver", for his work in ...
, the
Mujaddid
A ''mujaddid'' ( ar, مجدد), is an Islamic term for one who brings "renewal" ( ar, تجديد, translit= tajdid, label=none) to the religion. According to the popular Muslim tradition, it refers to a person who appears at the turn of every ...
In Maqamat Mazhari, his foremost Khalifa and successor Shah Ghulam Ali Dahlwai writes short biographies of many of his Khulafa (deputies). Among them were:
#
Qadi Thanaullah Panipati
Sanaullah Panipati (1143 AH -1225) was a Sunni Muslim scholar and an exegete from Panipat who authored the ''Tafsir al-Mazhari''.
Biography
Pānipati was born in 1143 Hijri year, AH. Aged seven, he memorized the Quran and then completed the studie ...
, author of Tafsir Mazhari and other notable Islamic books, descendant of Usman the third caliph of Islam
# Mawlana FadalUllah, elder brother of
Qadi Thanaullah Panipati
Sanaullah Panipati (1143 AH -1225) was a Sunni Muslim scholar and an exegete from Panipat who authored the ''Tafsir al-Mazhari''.
Biography
Pānipati was born in 1143 Hijri year, AH. Aged seven, he memorized the Quran and then completed the studie ...
# Mawlana AhmadUllah, eldest son of
Qadi Thanaullah Panipati
Sanaullah Panipati (1143 AH -1225) was a Sunni Muslim scholar and an exegete from Panipat who authored the ''Tafsir al-Mazhari''.
Biography
Pānipati was born in 1143 Hijri year, AH. Aged seven, he memorized the Quran and then completed the studie ...
, famous for his braveness and fighting skills
# Wife of
Qadi Thanaullah Panipati
Sanaullah Panipati (1143 AH -1225) was a Sunni Muslim scholar and an exegete from Panipat who authored the ''Tafsir al-Mazhari''.
Biography
Pānipati was born in 1143 Hijri year, AH. Aged seven, he memorized the Quran and then completed the studie ...
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...
India office
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...
.
# Shah Abdul Ghani Mujadidi
# Maulvi Kalim Faruqi, scholar of Hadith and founder of the Maulvi family in Sylhet
See also
*
Urdu poetry
Urdu poetry ( ur, ) is a tradition of poetry and has many different forms. Today, it is an important part of the cultures of South Asia. According to Naseer Turabi there are five major poets of Urdu which are Mir Taqi Mir (d.1810), Mirza Ghali ...
*
List of Urdu language poets
The following is a List of Urdu-language poets.
13th century
15th century
16th century
17th century
18th century
* Mirza Muhammad Rafi, ''Sauda'' (1713–1780)
* Siraj Aurangabadi, ''Siraj'' (1715–1763)
* Mohammad Meer Soz Dehlvi, ...