Hafizur Rahman Wasif Dehlavi (10 February 1910 – 13 March 1987) was an Indian Muslim scholar, jurist, literary critic, and a poet of the

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Madrasa Aminia Madrasa Aminia Islamia Arabia (best known as Madrasa Aminia) is an Islamic seminary in Delhi. History Amin al-Din Dehlawi, an Islamic scholar who was a student of Mahmud Hasan Deobandi, developed an idea of establishing a madrasa in Delhi. He ...

from 1955 to 1979. He participated in the Indian freedom struggle movement and authored books such as ''Adabī bhūl bhulayyān̲'', ''Urdū Masdar Nāmā'' and ''Taz̲kirah-yi Sā'il''. He compiled the religious edicts of his father

Kifayatullah Dehlawi Kifayatullah Dehlawi (also known as Mufti Kifayatullah; c. 1875c. 31 December 1952), was an Indian Islamic scholar and a Hanafi jurist, who served as the first president of the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, and the second rector of the Madrasa Aminia. H ...

as ''Kifāyat al-Mufti'' in nine volumes.

Biography

Hafizur Rahman Wasif Dehlavi was born on 10 February 1910 in Shahjahanpur. He was the eldest son of

, the

Grand Mufti of India The Grand Mufti of India is the most senior and influential religious authority of the Barelvi Muslim Community of India. The incumbent is Sheikh Abubakr Ahmad, general secretary of All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama, who was conferred the ti ...

. He studied at the

with his father Kifayatullah Dehlawi and scholars including Khuda Bakhsh and Abdul Ghafoor Aarif Dehalvi. He studied

Islamic calligraphy Islamic calligraphy is the artistic practice of handwriting and calligraphy, in the languages which use Arabic alphabet or the alphabets derived from it. It includes Arabic, Persian, Ottoman, and Urdu calligraphy.Chapman, Caroline (2012). '' ...

with Hamid Hussain Faridabadi and Munshi Abdul Ghani. Wasif was a calligrapher, literary critic, poet and an Islamic jurist. Aged 15, he started to write poetry in

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 ...

. His earliest poetry in

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

marsiya about Hakim Ajmal Khan, which appeared in the 22 January 1928 edition of ''Al-Jamiat''. He wrote in the

ghazal The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...

, nazm, qasida,

musaddas Musaddas () is a genre of Urdu poetry in which each unit consists of 6 lines- sestain- (''misra''). Famous early writers employing this form are Mir Anis and Dabeer. Maulana Altaf Husain Hali and Waheed Akhtar Syed Waheed Akhtar ( ur, ) (12 A ...

and other genres of Urdu poetry. He was a student of Saail Dehlavi and Nooh Narvi in poetry. Jameel Mehdi would say that, "Wasif is the only poet after

Jigar Moradabadi Ali Sikandar (6 April 1890 – 9 September 1960), known by his pen name as Jigar Moradabadi, was an Indian Urdu poet and ''ghazal'' writer. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958 for his poetry collection "Atish-e-Gul", and was the secon ...

who has an equal command over calligraphy. If he was not a poet, he would have been a great calligrapher." Wasif started his career as a teacher of

Arabic language Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

and literature in the Government of Delhi's education department. In 1936, his father made him the manager of Kutub Khana Rahimiya. He was appointed the vice-rector of

in 1953. He became the rector in September 1955 and resigned in 1979. He also participated in the Indian freedom struggle. He died on 13 March 1987 in Delhi.

Literary works

Wasif compiled the religious edicts issued by his father

as ''Kifāyat al-Mufti'' in nine volumes. Pakistani historian

Abu Salman Shahjahanpuri Abu Salmān Shahjahānpūri (30 January 1940 – 2 February 2021; ur, ) was a Pakistani scholar, researcher and historian. He was regarded as an authority in the historical and political movements of the Indian subcontinent. He was an alumnus ...

has regarded this as his major academic, political, religious and living work. Wasif's other works include: * ''Adabī bhūl bhulayyān̲: zabān-o-qawā'id aur Urdū imlā par tanqīd'' * ''Jamī'at-i Ulamā par ek tārīk̲h̲ī tabṣirah'' (A book discussing the history 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 Fi ...

and its establishment) * ''Sih lisānī Masdar Nāmā'' (Dictionary of Urdu verbs with their Arabic and Persian equivalents) * ''Taz̲kirah-yi Sā'il'' (''Biography of Saail Dehalvi'') * ''Urdū Masdar Nāmā'' * ''Zar-i gul'' (Poetic collection)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * {{Authority control 1910 births 1987 deaths Madrasa Aminia alumni Urdu critics Indian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam Indian calligraphers Deobandis Hanafi fiqh scholars Urdu-language poets from India Indian muftis Indian independence activists 20th-century Indian Muslims People from Shahjahanpur