The knowledge and erudition of Shaykh Ul Islam Imam Muhammad Anwaarullah Farooqui (May Allah shower His Mercy on him)

 Allah Most High has made Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam Imam Muhammad Anwaarullah Farooqui the leader and the Imam in both worldly and religious matters.  He was the leader and guide of all the scholars of his time.  He is a master of exegesis, Hadith, jurisprudence, history, theology and logic.

 

Allah Most High had granted him unusual erudition in the Shariah and the Tariqah and selected him to serve Islam.

 

He is from among the descendents of Hadhrat ‘Umar Farooq (May Allah be well pleased with him) and it seems that he has been given a bountiful share of the knowledge and subtleties of Hadhrat ‘Umar (May Allah be well pleased with him).  Thus, there had been many saints and revivers (Mujaddiddeen) in his family and they were such personalities that in their times no one else was considered to be more erudite than them.  His forefather Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam Shihabuddin Farkh Kabuli (May Allah shower His mercy on him) was such a saint that Hadhrat Fareeduddin Ganjshakar (May Allah shower His mercy on him) and Hadhrat Imam Rabbani Mujaddid Alf Thaani Shaykh Ahmed Sirhindi (May Allah sanctify his secret) were among his progeny.

 

Many persons of his family were made justices and chief justices of their lands.  It was the blessing of this that Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam (May Allah shower His mercy on him) was blessed with both breadth and depth of knowledge.  He was granted such jurisprudential acumen that one and all sang his praises. 

 

His status in Islamic knowledge can be understood by reading his works.  He had a great insight into all the branches of the science of Hadith.

 

His work, “Al Kalaam Ul Marfu’ Feemaa Yata ‘Allaqu Bil Hadeethil Maudhoo’” and his manuscript in Arabic, “Majmu’a Muntakhaba Min As Sihaah” are living proofs of his mastery over this branch of Islamic sciences.

 

The opinion of the scholars of the Arab and non-Arab lands about the erudition of Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam

 

What can we say about his knowledge and erudition when his own teachers and spiritual mentor testify that he is an epitome of both the outward and inward kinds of knowledge!  This by itself is authoritative enough.  Thus, the teacher of Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam Hadhrat ‘Allama Abdul Hai Firangimahalli (May Allah shower His mercy on him) who is widely considered to be an Imam in jurisprudence, whose annotations on Sharh Wiqaya and Hidaya, are shining proofs of his erudition.  Apart from this, even in Hadith his mastery can be seen with his annotations on Muwatta Imam Malik.  He writes in his famous book on theology and logic, “Hallal Mughlaq Fee Bahthil Majhoolil Mutlaq:

 

“I have written this book when intelligent, one with an illuminated heart and mind when Maulvi Hafidh Muhamma Anwarullah bin Maulvi Muhammad Shujauddin used to study.

 

The spiritual guide and mentor of Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam (May Allah shower His mercy on him), Hadhrat Haji Imdadullah Muhajir Makki (May Allah shower His mercy on him) who had reached the stage of Annihilation (Fanaa), whom the whole world recognizes as a great lover of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam), writes in the review of “Anwaar-e-Ahmadi”:

 

Translation: The scholar of the age………the irreplaceable scholar, the epitome of outward and inward knowledge, A’arif Billah Maulvi Muhammad Anwaarullah Farooqui Hanafi Chishti…

 

In the review of Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam’s book, “Anwaar Ut Tamjeed Fee Adillatil Tauheed, Hadhrat Muhajir Makki (May Allah shower His mercy on him) praised the book to no end.  He said:  There is nothing objectionable in this book.  He also said:  Anwaarullah Khan is enough for the seekers of the Shariah and the Tariqah and whoever traverses the path to Allah Most High (Sulook) in the illumination of his radiance (Anwaar) will reach the goal with the help of Allah Most High.  (Anwaar Ut Tamjeed, Pg. No. 140, Published in 1341 Hijri by Shaykh Ul Islam Press, Hyderabad, Deccan)

 

The words used by these great saints for Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam are, in fact, divine inspirations.  There is such profound meaning in them that if each and every word is explained, a whole book can be prepared on it.

 

Thus, Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam (May Allah shower His mercy on him) had all the excellence in knowledge, wisdom and piety.  He enjoyed God-given mental capabilities and acumen and was also endowed with religious foresight as well.  He adroitly handled the great responsibility of guiding the Ummah.

 

More than 100,000 Hadith were spread by Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam (May Allah shower His mercy on him)

 

Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam (May Allah shower His mercy on him) founded “Daairatul Ma’arif” for the publication of Arabic books on Islamic and related topics.  Many books were researched and published by them.  The world can never forget or forsake those intellectual jewels which were polished and presented from among the manuscripts.  This very organization has become an intellectual landmark of Hyderabad and enjoys an international repute.

 

During his stay in Madina, Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam (May Allah shower His mercy on him) had spent a lot of money and had gotten copies written of many rare books of Hadith, the most prominent among them being Kanz Ul ‘Ummal.  This is that great book of Hadith which is considered to be a compendium of more than 70 books of Hadith.  It has 46,624 Hadith in it.  It is but the blessing of Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam (May Allah shower His mercy on him) that this book was published through Daairatul Ma’arif, because of which the scholarly world started drawing benefit from this great work of Hadith.

 

Also, Mustadrak ‘Alas Sahihain, which has 8956 Hadith, was published after due research was also published from Daairatul Ma’arif.  The great student of Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam, Abul Hasanaat Syed Abdullah Shah Naqshbandi Mujaddidi Qadri (May Allah shower His mercy on him) authored the most definitive work of Hadith in support of the Hanafi school of jurisprudence.  This book, which is in 5 volumes, has 6634 Hadith.  Similarly, another great classic of Hadith, Musannaf Ibn Abi Shaiba was published with the requisite research done by a great alumni of Jamia Nizamia, ‘Allama Aziz Baig (May Allah shower His mercy on him).  It has 37,943 Hadith.  Thus, more than 100,00 Hadith were published and spread into the world through the efforts of Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam (May Allah shower His mercy on him).

 

Rigorously authenticated Hadith are not present only in the Sihah

 

For those people who demand Hadith only from the Sihah Sittah, the six most authoritative books of Hadith, Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam (May Allah shower His mercy on him) advises them in the following words:

 

Translation: All the rigorously authenticated (Sahih) Hadith are not present only in the six great books.  Thus, Hadhrat Shaykh Abul Faiz Muhammad bin ‘Ali Al Faarsi (May Allah shower His mercy on him) has written in Jawahir Ul Usool that in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, without any repetitions, there are (only) 4000 Hadith.  Hadhrat Shah ‘Abdul ‘Aziz Sahib has written in Bustaan Ul Muhadditheen that Sunan Abu Dawood has 4800 Hadith.  This includes repetitions and those Hadith which are present in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim as well.

 

Other books from the six great books also contain Hadith that are present in these 3 books.  Thus, if one counts them all, all the Hadith of the six great books are not more than 10,000 - 12,000.  Although, Imam Qustullani has reported Imam Bukhari’s utterance in his commentary on Sahih Bukhari that 100,000 rigorously authenticated Hadith are known to me alone.  A similar thing has been written by Imam Sakhawi in Fath Ul Mugheeth.  In Jawahir Ul Usool, Imam Ahmed’s words have been reported that more than 750,000 Hadith are rigorously authenticated (Sahih)

 

Thus, if anyone considers only the Hadith of the six great books as rigorously authenticated, thousands upon thousands of other Hadith will be wasted and the writing of these books will be held futile.  Those Hadith-Experts whose greatness shines likes the very sun couldn’t have been doing something futile.  Scholars know that in their commentaries, great Hadith-Experts like Ibn Hajr ‘Asqalani (May Allah shower His mercy on him) and others certainly draw deductions from Hadith which are NOT present in the six great books that too thousands of times.

 

Then insisting on Hadith from only the six great books is an exercise in futility.  In fact, this is akin to blaming Imam Bukhari and other great experts of Hadith.  They knew thousands and thousands of Hadith but didn’t relate all of them.  We can’t even think that they did so because of miserliness (in matters of knowledge).  In fact, the real reason is that every Hadith-Expert had a particular objective in writing his book in pursuit of which end they strove and no one had the thought of reporting all the Hadith that they knew.  Otherwise, they would have (openly) claimed that apart from the Hadith in their books, all other Hadith are false and fabricated although we have just seen that Imam Bukhari and Imam Ahmed bin Hambal (May Allah shower His mercy on them) have admitted that rigorously authenticated Hadith number in the lakhs.  (Anwaar-e-Ahmadi, Pg. No. 3-4)

 

Reason behind the decline in jurisprudential acumen

 

People object to the research, deductions and rulings and their spiritual states stating that these are not established by the Hadith and the Traditions of the Companions.  Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam (May Allah shower His mercy on him) gives the following interesting argument for this:

 

The fact is that as the fervor of faith decreases, the intellectual acumen also decreases day by day (along with it).  If someone presents a huge number of writings, then it can be refuted with the Hadith, which declare that era to be the best of all eras and that knowledge will be lessened in the last times.  Ibn Taimiya has written in ………..:

 

Translation: No scholar doubts that the predecessors possessed much more knowledge than us.  Many Hadith didn’t reach us at all and if at all they reached us, then with weakness (in their chains of authority).  For the predecessors, those very Hadith were rigorously authenticated.  (Anwaar-e-Ahmadi, Pg. No. 263-264)

 

There are 10,000,000 Hadith – Research of Shaykh Ul Islam

 

It is well established that there a large number of Hadith.  When compared to them, the Hadith in the books of Hadith before us are very less.  Hadhrat Shaykh Ul Islam (May Allah shower His mercy on him) writes in this regard:

 

Translation: The large number of Hadith can be proved with the fact the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) conveyed the divine rules to the people for 23 years and speaking is imperative for Prophethood.  If 10, 11 sentences are accepted to be the bare minimum daily, then only the spoken Hadith of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) turn out to be more than 100,000.  The Companions are more than 100,000 but if every sentence is reported by only 10 Companions then as per the terminology of the experts of Hadith, 10,00,000 is the number of only the spoken Hadith, as the Hadith-Experts often consider the compendium of the substance of Hadith and its chain of authority as Hadith.  (Haqeeqatul Fiqh, Vol. 1, Pg. No. 150)

 

Thus, if only 100,000 Hadith are reported by the Companions, they become 10, 00,000 Hadith.  Then the way the words of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) are Hadith, in the same way, His actions and His tacit approval (Taqreer) are also termed Hadith and the words, actions and tacit approval of the Companions………..

 

When only the sayings of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) number to more than 10, 00,000, then the actions and the approvals of the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) and the same of the Companions and their successors, keeping in mind their huge numbers, easily runs into billions although this huge a number of Hadith aren’t present on the face of the earth today.  However, we learn this from the words of Imam Ahmed bin Hambal (May Allah be well pleased with him) as Shaykh Ul Islam Tajuddin Subki (May Allah shower His mercy on him) has written:  ……….then the rigorously authenticated among them number to somewhat more than 750,000 are established by the saying of Imam Ahmed bin Hambal (May Allah shower His mercy on him) as written by Imam Suyuti in Tadreeb Ur Rawi.  Imam Bukhari (May Allah shower His mercy on him) states that I know 100,000 rigorously authenticated Hadith and 200,000 not so rigorously authenticated ones, as written by Shaykh Ul Islam Ibn Hajar ‘Asqalani (May Allah shower His mercy on him) in the foreword of Fath Ul Bari.  (Haqeeqatul Fiqh, Vol. 1, Pg. No. 152.