Shams Naved Usmani (1931 – 26 August 1993) was an Indian Muslim scholar. He belonged to the

Usmani family of Deoband The Usmani family of Deoband are the descendants of the third Rashidun Caliph, Uthman, based primarily in the town of Deoband in India. The notable people of this family include Fazlur Rahman Usmani, Mahmud Hasan Deobandi, Azizur Rahman Usmani ...

and was an alumnus of the

University of Lucknow The University of Lucknow (informally known as Lucknow University, and LU) is a public state university based in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Founded in 1920, the University of Lucknow is one of the oldest government owned institutions of higher ...

. He held the titles of

Acharya In Indian religions and society, an ''acharya'' (Sanskrit: आचार्य, IAST: ; Pali: ''ācariya'') is a preceptor and expert instructor in matters such as religion, or any other subject. An acharya is a highly learned person with a ti ...

and Maulana together. He was known for his inter-faith dialogues.

Birth and education

Shams Naved Usmani was born in

Deoband Deoband is a town and a municipality in Saharanpur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India, about 150 km from Delhi. Darul Uloom Deoband, an Islamic seminary and one of the largest Islamic Institution of India is located there. Etymolo ...

into the Usmani family in 1931. Islamic scholar

Shabbir Ahmad Usmani Shabbir Ahmad Usmani (11 October 188713 December 1949) was an Islamic scholar who supported the Pakistan Movement in the 1940s. He was a religious scholar, writer, orator, politician, and expert in Tafsir and Hadith. Born in 1887 in Bijnor, Us ...

was one of his uncles. Usmani received his primary Islamic education at home. He learnt

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominalization, nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cul ...

on his own and did his post-graduation from the

Academic studies and literary works

Usmani studied Hindu scriptures and identified

Noah Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5� ...

Manu Manu may refer to: Geography *Manú Province, a province of Peru, in the Madre de Dios Region ** Manú National Park, Peru **Manú River, in southeastern Peru * Manu River (Tripura), which originates in India and flows into Bangladesh *Manu Temp ...

. He stated that ''

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute th ...

'' are divine, but corrupted books, as the Islamic traditions hold belief about '' Injil'' and ''

Torah The Torah (; hbo, ''Tōrā'', "Instruction", "Teaching" or "Law") is the compilation of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, namely the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. In that sense, Torah means the s ...

''. He has accused Hindus of attributing wrong beliefs to Manu. According to Tabish Mehdi, "the results that came out of his studies created an atmosphere of restlessness in the academic world". His studies received a wide criticism from the academics of India. Usmani held the titles of

and Maulana altogether. Usmani himself did not write any books. However, his anecdotes were collected and compiled by

Syed Abdullah Tariq Syed Abdullah Tariq (born 1953) is an Indian Islamic scholar, author and philanthropist who established the World Organization of Religions and Knowledge (WORK), an international interfaith organization based in India. Early life and education ...

. These works include ''Agar Abh Bhi Na Jāge To'' ().

Death and legacy

Usmani died on 26 August 1993. He was survived by his wife Khadeja Naved Usmani.

References

Bibliography

* {{Authority control 1931 births 1993 deaths People from Deoband Usmani family University of Lucknow alumni