Rahmatullah Kairanawi al-Hindi (; 1818–1891) was a

Sunni Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

and

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

who is best known for his work, '' Izhar ul-Haqq''.

Background

Kairanawi was born in

Kairana Kairana () is a city and a municipal board in Shamli district of the Indian States and territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh. It is approximately from Shamli, Shamli city. Demographics As of 2011 Indian Census, Kairana had a total popu ...

Muzaffarnagar Muzaffarnagar (, ) is a city under Muzaffarnagar district in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh. It is situated midway on the Delhi - Haridwar/Dehradun National Highway ( NH 58) and is also well connected with the national railway network. It ...

in 1818. He is a descendant of the third Caliph,

Uthman ibn Affan Uthman ibn Affan (17 June 656) was the third caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruling from 644 until Assassination of Uthman, his assassination in 656. Uthman, a second cousin, son-in-law, and notable Companions of the Prophet, companion of ...

, his full lineage is mentioned in family sources. Abd al-Rahmānn Gazruni is a forefather of Kairanawi, was the military Chief Justice in Mahmood Ghaznavi Armies. Abd al-Rahmān Gazrūni is buried near the Panipat fort. (Qur'an se Bible Tak
Kairanvi Biography in Arabic
, Madrasa Saulatia website. Part of the family wealth, a large property in Kairana, was granted by

Akbar the Great Akbar (Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar, – ), popularly known as Akbar the Great, was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Humayun, under a regent, Bairam Khan, who helped the young emperor exp ...

. Many family members held high positions and/or were intellectuals. Sheikh Hakeem Abdul Kareem who was an 8th great-grandfather of Rahmatullah was the Emperor Akbar's physician. Kairanwi began receiving traditional Islamic education at the age of 6, memorizing the Qur'an at 12. He also learned

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

and

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 ...

. Later he moved to

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, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

where he studied different disciplines including

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

. Working as a

Mufti A mufti (; , ) is an Islamic jurist qualified to issue a nonbinding opinion ('' fatwa'') on a point of Islamic law (''sharia''). The act of issuing fatwas is called ''iftāʾ''. Muftis and their ''fatāwa'' have played an important role thro ...

and

Sharia Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...

teacher, he founded a religious school in Kairana.

Name and lineage

His ism (

given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a f ...

) was Rahmatullāh. His ''

nasab Arabic names have historically been based on a long naming system. Many people from Arabic-speaking and also non-Arab Muslim countries have not had given, middle, and family names but rather a chain of names. This system remains in use througho ...

'' (

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (more specifically an avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. It is the male equivalent of a matronymic. Patronymics are used, b ...

) is: Rahmatullāh ibn Khalīlullāh ibn Najībullāh ibn Habībullāh ibn Abd al-Rahīm ibn Qutb al-Dīn ibn Fuzail ibn Abd al-Rahīm ibn Abd al-Karīm ibn Hasan ibn Abd al-Samad ibn Abu Ali ibn Muhammad Yūsuf ibn Abd al-Qādir ibn Jalāluddīn Muhammad ibn Mahmūd ibn Yaqūb ibn Īsā ibn Ismā'īl ibn Muhammad Taqi ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ali Naqi ibn Usmān ibn Abdullāh ibn Shihābuddīn ibn Abd al-Rahmān Gāzrūni ibn Abd al-Azīz Sarkhasi ibn Khālid ibn Walīd ibn Abd al-Azīz ibn Abd al-Rahmān ibn Abdullāh Sāni ibn Abd al-Azīz ibn Abdullāh Kabīr ibn Amar ibn

Uthman Uthman ibn Affan (17 June 656) was the third caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, ruling from 644 until his assassination in 656. Uthman, a second cousin, son-in-law, and notable companion of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, played a major role ...

Debate with Pfander

In 1837 the

Church Mission Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British Anglican mission society working with Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as ...

appointed Karl Gottlieb Pfander, described by Eugene Stock as "perhaps the greatest of all missionaries to Mohammedans", to

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 Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

Northern India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

, where in 1854 he engaged in a famous public debate with leading Islamic scholars. The main Muslim debater was Kairanawi, being assisted by

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

-speaking

Muhammad Wazîr Khân Muhammad Wazir Khan (reigned 1834–1864) was the second ruler of the princely state of Tonk (in the present day Rajasthan state of India). He was the son of Muhammad Amir Khan whom he succeeded. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 he allied ...

and influential Islamic writer

Imad ud-din Lahiz Imad ud-din Lahiz () (1830–1900) was an Indian writer, preacher and Quranic translator, who List of converts to Christianity#From Islam, converted to Christianity from Islam. Background Imad ud-din Lahiz was among the fourth generation of Isla ...

.Schirrmacher, Christine
"The influence of German Biblical criticism on Muslim apologetics in the 19th century"
''Contra Mundum'', 1997. Accessed 27 September 2007. Kairanawi used arguments from recent European theologically critical works that Pfander was unfamiliar with, having left Europe before these were published, though his main source of reference was the apocryphal sixteenth-century

Gospel of Barnabas The Gospel of Barnabas is a Biblical apocrypha, non-canonical, Pseudepigrapha, pseudepigraphical gospel, written during the Late Middle Ages and attributed to the early Christian disciple Barnabas, who (in this work) is one of the Apostles in ...

, which he held to be authentic.

Indian Rebellion of 1857

Following armed uprisings against the British in which he personally took part, Kairanawi (his property was confiscated by the Imperial British Raj) had to leave all of his property (auctioned later), and board a ship in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

. Arriving at the port of

Mocha, Yemen Mokha (), also spelled Mocha, or Mukha, is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Until Aden and al Hudaydah eclipsed it in the 19th century, Mokha was the principal port for Yemen's capital, Sanaa. Long known for its coffee trade, the city ...

, he walked to

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

. The journey took two years.

Author

Kairanawi wrote books in Arabic, Persian and Urdu.

Izhar ul-Haq (Truth Revealed)

Written originally in Arabic, the book Izhar ul-Haqq in six volumes was translated later into Urdu, and from Urdu into a summarized English version published by Ta-Ha. The book aims to respond to Christian criticism of Islam. It is the first Muslim book to use Western scholarly works in order to ascertain the errors and contradictions of the Bible. The doctrine of Trinity is purportedly contested using biblical, Christian and other sources. Christine Schirrmacher, a German scholar of Islamic Studies, states in an article on the Pfander-Kairanawi debate: "The Demonstration of the Truth' (izhâr al-haqq) served as a summary of all possible charges against Christianity and was therefore used after al-Kairânawî's death as a sort of encyclopaedia since al-Kairânawî extended the material of former polemicists like 'Ali Tabarî, Ibn Hazm or Ibn Taymiyya to a great extent."

The Madrasa Sawlatia

While residing in Mecca, Kairanawi founded a religious school there named

Madrasah as-Sawlatiyah Madrasah as-Sawlatiyah (, ''Madrasah aṣ-Ṣawlatīyah;'' or abbreviation: "al-Sawlatiyya") is an Islamic school in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is the oldest continuing school in Saudi Arabia. History Al-Sawlatiyya was founded in 1873 by Rahmatul ...

. Rahmatullah Kairanawi was appointed as a lecturer at the Masjid-e-Haram by the Sheikh-ul-Ulama (The Leading Scholar) Sheikh Ahmad Dahlan As-Shafiee. Kairanawi started teaching and realized that lessons were delivered as sermons, rather than, planned academic lectures. He gathered some of the Indian Muslim immigrants, wealthy benefactors to establish an authentic Islamic Law School to teach the Islamic sciences through a sound curriculum. He established the Madrassah in 1290 hijrah corresponding to 1874 A.D. The major contributor was a lady of Calcutta by the name of Sawlat-un-Nisa, on whose name the Madrassah is named. The Madrassah is still in existence and has well known alumni around the world,

Death

Kairanwi died in 1891 (22

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

1308 AH) in

and was buried in

Jannat al-Mu'alla Jannat al-Mu'alla (), also known as the "Cemetery of Ma'la" ( ') and ''Al-Ḥajūn'' (), is a cemetery to the north of ''Al-Masjid Al-Haram'', and near the Mosque of the Jinn in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. It is the place where the Islamic prophet Mu ...

References

Bibliography

مولانا رحمت اللہ کیرانوی کی علمی و دینی خدمات کا تحقیقی جائزہ
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kairanawi, Rahmatullah Hanafis Maturidis 19th-century Muslim theologians Sunni Sufis Scholars from Uttar Pradesh Indian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam 19th-century Indian non-fiction writers 1818 births 1891 deaths Indian critics of Christianity Burials at Jannat al-Mu'alla People from Shamli district Academic staff of Madrasah as-Sawlatiyah Deobandis Critics of Christianity Indian Muslims Indian Muslim scholars of Islam