Atīqur Rahmān Usmānī (1901 – 12 May 1984) was an Indian Muslim scholar and an activist of

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

who co-founded

Nadwatul Musannifeen Nadwatul Musannifeen () was an academic research institution and publishing house in Delhi. The institution was co-founded by scholars including Atiqur Rahman Usmani, Hamid al-Ansari Ghazi, Hifzur Rahman Seoharwi and Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi ...

and the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat. Usmānī was an alumnus of the

Darul Uloom Deoband Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic university and seminary ( darul uloom) in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh, India, at which the Sunni Deobandi Islamic movement began. Established in 1866 by Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi, Fazlur Rahman Usmani, Sayy ...

. He taught at Deoband seminary and the

Jamia Islamia Talimuddin Jamiah Islamiah Talimuddin Dabhel (or Dabhel Jamiah Islamiah or Jamiah Islamiah Dabhel) is a Deobandi Islamic seminary in Dabhel, Gujarat, India. Education pattern The Jamiah has the following departments: * Nazirah-e-Qur'an (reading the Qur ...

Dabhel Dabhel is a town in Gujarat state of India. It is famous for its Islamic education, most notably given in Jamia Islamia Talimuddin. Dabhel lies south of Surat and north of Navsari, to the east is Vesma crossroad on National Highway 8 (India) ...

. He served as the president of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat.

Biography

Atiqur Rahman Usmānī was born in 1901 in

Deoband Deoband is a town and a municipality in Saharanpur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, about 150 km (93 miles) from Delhi. Darul Uloom Deoband, an Islamic seminary and one of the largest Islamic Institutions of India is located ther ...

. His father

Azizur Rahman Usmani Aziz-ul-Rahman Usmani (also written as Azizur Rahman Usmani; died 1928) was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar who served as first Head Mufti of Darul Uloom Deoband. He is best known for his '' Fatawa Darul Uloom Deoband''. His brother was Shabbir A ...

was the Grand Mufti of

. He graduated from Darul Uloom Deoband where he studied under

Anwar Shah Kashmiri Anwar Shah Kashmiri (; 26 November 1875 – 28 May 1933) was an Islamic scholar from Kashmir in the early twentieth century, best known for his expertise in the study of hadith, a strong memory, and a unique approach to interpreting traditions, ...

. Usmānī began teaching at the Darul Uloom Deoband and practiced "

fatwa A fatwa (; ; ; ) is a legal ruling on a point of Islamic law (sharia) given by a qualified Islamic jurist ('' faqih'') in response to a question posed by a private individual, judge or government. A jurist issuing fatwas is called a ''mufti'', ...

" under the supervision of his father and later became the deputy-

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 ...

. He then briefly taught at the

. In 1938, Usmāni established

along with Hamid al-Ansari Ghazi, Hifzur Rahman Seoharwi and

Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi (1908 – 24 May 1985) was an Indian Islamic scholar and an Urdu-language author who co-founded the Nadwatul Musannifeen. He served as the dean of the Faculty of Theology in Aligarh Muslim University. Akbarabadi was an ...

. Usmānī was a close associate of Hifzur Rahman Seoharwi and served as the working president of

Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind or Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind ( ) is one of the leading organizations of Islamic scholars belonging to the Deobandi school of thought in India. It was founded in November 1919 by a group of Muslim scholars including Abdul Bari Fir ...

after the death of Ahmad Saeed Dehlvi. He disassociated himself from the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind in 1963 and a year later, in 1964, he co-founded the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat and became its president after Syed Mahmud. Usmānī died on 12 May 1984 in

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 ...

. He was buried in Mehdiyan, near the grave of

Shah Waliullah Dehlawi Qutb ud-Din Ahmad ibn ʿAbd-ur-Rahim al-ʿUmari ad-Dehlawi (‎; 1703–1762), commonly known as Shah Waliullah Dehlawi (also Shah Wali Allah), was an Islamic Sunni scholar and Sufi reformer, who contributed to Islamic revival in the Indian s ...

Activism

Usmāni participated in the

Indian freedom struggle The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

and gave a religious verdict saying that no government has any right to impose taxes on items like water and salt and if any government does so, it is necessary for the people to oppose this action and to struggle against it.

Literary works

Usmāni translated and annotated ''Al-Kalim al-Tayyib'' of

Ibn Taymiyah Ibn Taymiyya (; 22 January 1263 – 26 September 1328)Ibn Taymiyya, Taqi al-Din Ahmad, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam. http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195125580.001.0001/acref-9780195125580-e-959 was a Sunni Muslim scholar ...

into

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

. At Nadwatul Musannifeen, he started a monthly journal, ''

Burhan Burhan (, ) is an Arabic male name, an epithet of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. It is especially popular in Turkey, as it respects Turkish language, Turkish vowel harmony and the end syllable "-han" can be interpreted as the Turkish variant of " ...

''.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Usmani family 1901 births 1984 deaths Darul Uloom Deoband alumni Academic staff of Darul Uloom Deoband Usmani family Nadwatul Musannifeen Students of Anwar Shah Kashmiri Burials at Mehdiyan People from Deoband Indian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam 20th-century Indian Muslims Arabic–Urdu translators Urdu-language writers from India Members of the Majlis-e-Shura of Darul Uloom Deoband