Mazahir Uloom (also known as Mazahir Uloom Waqf Qadeem) is an Islamic seminary located in

Saharanpur Saharanpur is a city and a Municipal corporation (India), municipal corporation in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is also the public administration, administrative headquarters of Saharanpur district. Saharanpur city's name was given after the Sain ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

. Started in November 1866 by Saadat Ali Faqih, and developed further by Mazhar Nanautawi and Ahmad Ali Saharanpuri; it is regarded as the second most influential and major

Deobandi The Deobandi movement or Deobandism is a revivalist movement within Sunni Islam that adheres to the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. It was formed in the late 19th century around the Darul Uloom Madrassa in Deoband, India, from which the nam ...

seminary in India. The earliest graduates of the seminary include famous Hadīth scholar

Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri (; December 185213 October 1927) was an Indian Islamic scholar of the Deobandi movement. He authored '' Badhl Al-Majhud Fi Hall Abi Dawud'', an 18-volume commentary on the hadith collection ''Sunan Abi Dawud''. He was ...

. In 1988, the seminary split into two with the establishment of Mazahir Uloom Jadeed as a new independent seminary. Since then the seminary has been named as Mazahir Uloom Waqf Qadeem. The incumbent rector of the seminary is Muḥammad Saeedi.

History

Mazāhir Uloom was established as "Mazhar Uloom"; on 9 November 1866, six months after the foundation of the Deoband seminary. Its founding figures included Ahmad Ali Saharanpuri, Mazhar Nanautawi, Qādhi Fazlur Rahmān and Sa’adat Ali Faqih. Mazahir Uloom is thought to be the second major

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

after

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 ...

One of the earliest buildings of Mazahir Uloom

The first generation teachers, apart from the founders; include, Aḥmad Hasan Kanpuri, Sa'adat Hussain Bihari, Sakhāwat Ali Ambethwi and Muḥammad Siddīq. The first generation students include

, Mushtāq Aḥmad Anbethwi and Qamruddīn Sahāranpuri. In

Muharram Al-Muharram () is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is banned. It precedes the month of Safar. The tenth of Muharram is known as Ashura, an important day of commemoration in ...

1338 AH, the seminary established its Darul Ifta (the fatwa institute). The seminary's jurists include Ashfāqur Rahmān Kāndhlawi, Mahmood Hasan Gangohi, Abdul Qayyūm Raipuri and Muḥammad Shuaib Bastawi.

Recent developments

Following the split of Darul Uloom Deoband in 1982; this seminary also bifurcated into two and Mazahir Uloom Jadeed took birth as an independent offshoot in 1988.

Program

The seminary teaches the

dars-e-nizami Dars-i Nizami () is a study curriculum or system used in many Islamic institutions (madrassas) and Darul Ulooms, which originated in the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century and can now also be found in parts of South Africa, Canada, the United ...

curriculum. The former rector of the seminary Abdul Latīf wrote a detailed defense of the dars-e-nizami curriculum; when some scholars asked the syllabus to be updated. The seminary has changed few books in the curriculum timely, but they did not modify it completely and they do not agree with the changes, or systems otherwise.

Administration

Mazāhir Uloom follows the dogma of

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

and the jurisprudence of

Abu Hanifa Abu Hanifa (; September 699 CE – 767 CE) was a Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, ascetic,Pakatchi, Ahmad and Umar, Suheyl, "Abū Ḥanīfa", in: ''Encyclopaedia Islamica'', Editors-in-Chief: Wilferd Madelung and, Farhad Daftary. and epony ...

. It adheres to the

Chishti order The Chishti order () is a Sufi Tariqa, order of Sunni Islam named after the town of Chishti Sharif District, Chisht, Afghanistan where it was initiated by Abu Ishaq Shami. The order was brought to Herat and later spread across South Asia by Mu ...

of Sufism, following Rashid Ahmad Gangohi and Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri. The seminary focuses on educational purposes only. It has stayed away from discussing politics. The management of the seminary was controlled by its local members. Owing to their differences,

Rashid Ahmad Gangohi Rashīd Aḥmad ibn Hidāyat Aḥmad Ayyūbī Anṣārī Gangohī (12 June 182611 August 1905) was a Deobandi Islamic scholar from Indian subcontinent, a leading figure of the Deobandi jurist and scholar of hadith, author of '' Fatawa-e-Rash ...

was appointed the senior patron of the seminary in 1896. Gangohi resigned from the position in 1319 AH; and an executive council called "Majlis Shūra Sarparastān" was formed to look after the seminary affairs on 3 January 1903. The first such council included Abdur Rahīm Raipuri,

Ashraf Ali Thanwi Ashraf Ali Thanwi (often referred as Hakimul Ummat and Mujaddidul Millat; 19 August 1863 – 20 July 1943) was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist, thinker, reformist and a revivor of classical Sufi in the Indian subcontinent during the Briti ...

and Zulfiqar Ali Deobandi. Scholars such as Abdur Rahīm Raipuri, Ashraf Ali Thanwi,

Mahmud Hasan Deobandi Mahmud Hasan Deobandi (also known as Shaykh al-Hind; 1851–1920) was an Indian Muslim scholar and an activist of the Indian independence movement, who co-founded the Jamia Millia Islamia University and launched the Silk Letter Movement for ...

, Fazlur Rahmān Sahāranpuri,

Abdul Qadir Raipuri Shah Abdul Qadir Raipuri (1878 – 1962) was a scholar and reformer in the Deobandi tradition of Islam in British India and then Pakistan. Life He was born in Toha Moharram Khan of Potohar of Chakwal District in British India. His father belo ...

, Aashiq Elāhi Meerthi,

Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi Muḥammad Ilyās ibn Muḥammad Ismā‘īl Kāndhlawī Dihlawī (1885 – 13 July 1944) was an Indian Islamic scholar of the Deobandi movement who founded the Tablighi Jamaat, in 1925, in Mewat province. Early life and education Muhammad I ...

Zakariyya Kandhlawi Zakariyya Kandhlawi (; 3 February 1898 – 24 May 1982) was a mid-twentieth-century traditionalist Sunni scholar and an authority in the study of hadith, also known as Sheikh al-Hadith, hailing from India. He was an influential member and ideol ...

, Muhammad Yusuf Kandhlawi, Inamul Hasan Kandhlawi, Iftikhar-ul-Hasan Kandhlawi,

Mahmood Hasan Gangohi Mahmood Hasan Gangohi (July 1907 – 2 September 1996) was an Indian mufti, Islamic scholar and former Head Mufti of Darul Uloom Deoband and Mazahir Uloom, Saharanpur. He was the most senior disciple of Zakariyya Kandhlawi. Among his notable ...

and Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi have been the members of the executive council.

Publications

Mazahir Uloom publishes ''Ā'īna-e-Mazāhir-e-Uloom'' as a monthly journal. The religious edicts issued by the seminary's Dārul Ifta are kept in record. The edicts issued by Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri were compiled by Muhammad Zakariyyah Kāndhlawi, and published as ''Fatāwa Khalīliya''.

Rectors

Sa'ādat Ali Saharanpuri was appointed as the first rector of the seminary. Following the division and establishment of Mazahir Uloom Jadeed; Muzaffar Hussain who was the last rector of the unified seminary; occupied on the position at the Mazahir Uloom till his death in 2003. He was succeeded by Muḥammad Saeedi. In the early years of the seminary, the administrative tasks of the seminary were also performed by a vice-rector; Abd al-Wāhid Khān served on the position from 1881 to 1896, and thus there appears to be confusion in dates, until a permanent position of rector was adopted which follows in sequence after Munshi Maqbool Aḥmad. The following is a list of seminary's rectors.

Notable alumni

Alumni include: *

* Saeed Ahmad Palanpuri *

Zafar Ahmad Usmani Zafar Ahmad Usmani (also known as Zafar Ahmad Thanwi) () (4 October 1892 – 1974), was a 20th Century Sunni Muslim Jurist who became an influential figure of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence's Deobandi Movement. He also was a prom ...

Badre Alam Merathi Badre Alam Merathi (; 1898 – 29 October 1965) was a mid-twentieth-century hadith scholar and poet originally from Meerut, initially migrated to Pakistan and eventually settled in Medina. Best known as the interpreter of Anwar Shah Kashmiri's t ...

References

Bibliography

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