Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi (1908 – 24 May 1985) 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 and an

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Nadwatul Musannifeen Nadwatul Musannifeen ( en, Council of Writers) was an academic research institution and publishing house in Delhi. The institution was co-founded by scholars including Atiqur Rahman Usmani, Hamid al-Ansari Ghazi, Hifzur Rahman Seoharwi and Saee ...

. He served as the Dean of the Faculty of Theology in Aligarh Muslim University. Akbarabadi was an alumnus of

Jamia Qasmia Madrasa Shahi Madrassa Shahi (alternatively known as Jamia Qasmia) is an Islamic seminary in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. It was established in 1879 by the poor Muslims of Moradabad under the supervision of Islamic scholar, Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi, who also e ...

, Darul Uloom Deoband, St. Stephen's College, Delhi and the

Oriental College Punjab University Oriental College, commonly known as Oriental College, is an institution of oriental studies in Lahore. It is located next to Government College University, Lahore. It was founded by Adi Brahmo Samaj preacher Pundit Navin Cha ...

, Lahore. He taught at

Jamia Islamia Talimuddin Jamiah Islamiah Talimuddin Dabhel (or Dabhel Jamiah Islamiah or Jamiah Islamiah Dabhel) is a Deobandi Islamic seminary in Dabhel, Gujarat, India. Education pattern The Jamiah has the following departments: * Nazirah-e-Qur'an (reading the Qur' ...

, Madrassa-e-Aalia, Fatehpuri, Aligarh Muslim University,

University of Calicut The University of Calicut, also known as Calicut University, is a state-run public university headquartered at Tenhipalam in Malappuram district of the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1968, it is the first university to be set up in n ...

and the

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

. He authored books including ''Fehm-e-Quran'', ''Ghulaman-e-Islam'', ''Siddiq-e-Akbar'' and ''Musalmano Ka Urooj-o-Zawal''. His students include

Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq HI, GCSJ, ร.ม.ภ, (Urdu: ; 12 August 1924 – 17 August 1988) was a Pakistani four-star general and politician who became the sixth President of Pakistan following a coup and declaration of martial law in ...

and Mushir-ul-Haq.

Birth and education

Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi was born in the colonial Indian city of

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra i ...

in 1908. He studied his primary classes at home, then he studied in

, and later graduated from the Darul Uloom Deoband. There he studied under

Anwar Shah Kashmiri Anwar Shah Kashmiri (known with honorifics as ''Sayyid Muḥammad Anwar Shāh ibn Mu‘aẓẓam Shāh al-Kashmīrī''; 16 November 1875 – 28 May 1933) was a Kashmiri Muslim scholar and jurist who served as the first principal of Madrasa Ami ...

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, U ...

and Ibrahim Balyawi. He then undertook specialist courses at

Oriental College, Lahore Punjab University Oriental College, commonly known as Oriental College, is an institution of oriental studies in Lahore. It is located next to Government College University, Lahore. It was founded by Adi Brahmo Samaj preacher Pundit Navin Chand ...

. During the period, Akbarabadi was appointed as a teacher of oriental languages in Madrasa-e-Aaliya, Fatehpuri. He gained a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Th ...

degree in Arabic from St. Stephen's College, Delhi.

Career

After completing studies at

, Akbarabadi taught at Jamia Islamia Talimuddin, Dabhel. He then taught oriental languages in Madrassa-e-Aalia, Fatehpuri. After completing his M.A from St. Stephen's College, Delhi, he became a lecturer in the same college. In the meantime

(Former President of Pakistan) became his student. In 1938, Akbarabadi established

Nadwatul Musannifeen Nadwatul Musannifeen ( en, Council of Writers) was an academic research institution and publishing house in Delhi. The institution was co-founded by scholars including Atiqur Rahman Usmani, Hamid al-Ansari Ghazi, Hifzur Rahman Seoharwi and Saee ...

along with

Atiqur Rahman Usmani Atīqur Rahmān Usmānī (1901 – 12 May 1984) was an Indian Muslim scholar and an activist of Indian independence movement who co-founded Nadwatul Musannifeen and the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat. Usmānī was an alumnus of the Darul ...

Hamid al-Ansari Ghazi Hāmid al-Ansāri Ghāzi (1909 – 16 October 1992) was an Indian Muslim scholar, author and a journalist, who co-founded the Nadwatul Musannifeen and served as the editor of bi-weekly newspaper Madina. He was the son of Muhammad Mian Mansoor An ...

and Hifzur Rahman Seoharwi. In 1948, he became Principal of the Madrassa-e-Aliya, Calcutta. In 1958, Akbarabadi became the Dean of the Faculty of Theology in the Aligarh Muslim University. He transformed a weak faculty and introduced graduate teaching and a doctoral programme. He supervised his (and the faculty's) first doctoral thesis, on

, which was later published by Aligarh Muslim University in 1974. During 1961 and 1963, Akbarabadi was invited by

Wilfred Cantwell Smith Wilfred Cantwell Smith (July 21, 1916 – February 7, 2000) was a Canadian Islamicist, comparative religion scholar, and Presbyterian minister. He was the founder of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University in Quebec and later th ...

to be a visiting Professor in the Institute of Islamic Studies at the

in Canada. His students at the institute included Mushir-ul-Haq, the former vice-chancellor of the

University of Kashmir The University of Kashmir (U-K, UoK), informally known as Kashmir University (KU), is a collegiate public state university located on the western side of Dal Lake in the city of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, India which was established in 1948 ...

. He retired from the AMU in 1972. After that, he was a Visiting Professor at the

and then at Aligarh Muslim University. Darul Uloom Deoband then made him Director of its new research department, Shaikhul Hind Academy, a post he held from 25 December 1982 until his death on 24 May 1985.

Literary works

Akbarabadi wrote books including: *''Al-riq fi al-Islam'' *''Fehm-e-Quran'' *''Ghulaman-e-Islam'' * ''Hindustan ki shar'i haisiyat'' * ''Hind Pak̄istān kī taḥrīk-i āzādī aur ʻulamāʼe ḥaqq kā siyāsī muʼaqqaf'' * ''K̲h̲ut̤bāt-i Iqbāl par ek naẓar'' *''Musalmano Ka Urooj-o-Zawal'' *''Siddiq-e-Akbar'' *''Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi aur unke Naaqid'' *''Uthman Zinnurayn'' *''Wahi Ilahi''

Legacy

Studies of Akbarabadi include: *''Maulana Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi: Ahwaal-Aasaar'' by Dr Masood Alam Qasmi *''Maulana Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi: Hayat-o-Khidmat'' by Dr Qaiser Habeeb Hashmi *''Maulana Saeed Ahmad Akbarabadi aur unki Adbi Khidmat'' by Miss Jahan Ara (Thesis submitted in

Punjab University, Lahore The University of the Punjab (Urdu, pnb, ), also referred to as Punjab University, is a public, research, coeducational higher education institution located in Lahore, Pakistan. Punjab University is the oldest public university in Pakistan. ...

References

Bibliography