Muḥammad Ilyās ibn Muḥammad Ismā‘īl Kāndhlawī Dihlawī (1885 – 13 July 1944) was an
Indian
Indian or Indians may refer to:
Peoples South Asia
* Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor
** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country
* South Asia ...
Islamic scholar
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
who founded the
Tablighi Jamaat
Tablighi Jamaat (, also translated as "propagation party" or "preaching party")
is a transnational Deobandi Islamic Dawah, missionary movement
that focuses on exhorting Muslims to be more religiously observant
and encouraging fellow memb ...
Islamic revivalist movement, in 1925, in
Mewat province.
Early life and education
Muhammad Ilyas was born in 1303 AH (1885/1886) in the village of
Kandhla
Kandhla is a town, near Shamli City and municipal board in Shamli District in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
Geography
Kandhla is located at . It has an average elevation of 241 meters (790 feet). The Postal Code (Zip Code) is ...
,
Muzaffarnagar district
Muzaffarnagar district is a district of Uttar Pradesh state in northern India. It is part of Saharanpur division. The city of Muzaffarnagar is the district headquarters. This district is the part of National Capital Region.
History Medieva ...
,
North-West Provinces
The North-Western Provinces was an administrative region in British India. The North-Western Provinces were established in 1836, through merging the administrative divisions of the Ceded and Conquered Provinces. In 1858, the nawab-ruled kingdo ...
,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
(in present-day
Shamli district
Shamli is a district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. This district was carved out from Muzaffarnagar District on 28 September 2011 as Prabudh Nagar and renamed Shamli in July 2012. Shamli is the headquarters of the district. Shamli is loc ...
,
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
). His year of birth can be computed by the ''tarikhi'' (
chronogram
A chronogram is a sentence or inscription in which specific letters, interpreted as numerals (such as Roman numerals), stand for a particular date when rearranged. The word, meaning "time writing", derives from the Greek words ''chronos'' (χ ...
matic) name "Akhtar Ilyas" () using
abjad numerals
The Abjad numerals, also called Hisab al-Jummal ( ar, حِسَاب ٱلْجُمَّل, ), are a decimal alphabetic numeral system/ alphanumeric code, in which the 28 letters of the Arabic alphabet are assigned numerical values. They have been ...
.
In a local
maktab (school), he memorized one and a quarter
ajza' of the
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...
, and he completed
memorizing the Qur'an under his father's supervision in Nizamuddin area, Delhi. Thereafter, he studied the elementary books of
Arabic
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
Persian language
Persian (), also known by its endonym Farsi (, ', ), is a Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European languages. Persian is a pluricentric language predominantly spoken a ...
mostly under his father. Later on, he lived with and studied under
Rashid Ahmad Gangohi
Rashīd Aḥmad ibn Hidāyat Aḥmad Ayyūbī Anṣārī Gangohī (182611 August 1905) ( ur, ) was an Indian Deobandi Islamic scholar, a leading figure of the Deobandi jurist and scholar of hadith. His lineage reaches back to Abu Ayyub al-Ans ...
. In 1905, Rashid Ahmad Gangohi died, when Muhammad Ilyas was 20. In 1908, Muhammad Ilyas enrolled in
Darul Uloom Deoband. He also studied under
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 t ...
.
Foundation of Tablighi Jamaat
In the early 1920s, he prepared a team of young
madrasah graduates from
Deoband and
Saharanpur
Saharanpur is a city and a municipal corporation in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is also the administrative headquarters of Saharanpur district.
Saharanpur city's name was given after the Saint Shah Haroon Chishti.
Saharanpur is declared as on ...
and sent them to
Mewat to establish a network of mosques and Islamic schools movement. He once said that if he had to attribute a name to his movement, it would have been ''Tehreek-e-Imaan'' ('Imaan/Faith movement'). The people of
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...
started calling the devotees ''Tableeghi'' and this name eventually became popular among the common people.
The Tablighi Jamaat has since gone on to become one of the most widespread grassroots Islamic movements in the world with a presence in many countries, including Canada, South Africa and the UK.
Legacy
Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi
Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi (also known as Ali Miyan; 5 December 1913 – 31 December 1999) was a leading Islamic scholar, thinker, writer, preacher, reformer and a Muslim public intellectual of 20th century India and the author of numerous boo ...
wrote a biography named ''
Life and mission of Maulana Mohammad Ilyas''.
References
Further reading
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{{Wikiquote
1885 births
1944 deaths
Deobandis
Indian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Tablighi Jamaat people
Students of Mahmud Hasan Deobandi
People from Shamli district
Emirs of Tablighi Jamaat