The Usmani family of Deoband are the descendants of the third

Rashidun , image = تخطيط كلمة الخلفاء الراشدون.png , caption = Calligraphic representation of Rashidun Caliphs , birth_place = Mecca, Hejaz, Arabia present-day Saudi Arabia , known_for = Companions of t ...

Caliph,

Uthman Uthman ibn Affan ( ar, عثمان بن عفان, ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān; – 17 June 656), also spelled by Colloquial Arabic, Turkish and Persian rendering Osman, was a second cousin, son-in-law and notable companion of the Islamic proph ...

, based primarily in the town of

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. Etymo ...

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 ...

. The notable people of this family include

Fazlur Rahman Usmani Fazlur Rahmān Usmāni (1831 – 15 June 1907) was an Indian Muslim scholar and poet who co-founded the Darul Uloom Deoband. He was father of the scholars, Aziz-ur-Rahman Usmani and Shabbir Ahmad Usmani. His grandson Atiqur Rahman Usmani was th ...

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 ...

Azizur Rahman Usmani Aziz-ul-Rahman Usmani (also written as Azizur Rahman Usmani) (died 1928) was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar who served as first Grand Mufti of Darul Uloom Deoband. He is best known for his ''Fatawa Darul Uloom Deoband''. His brother was Shabbir ...

and

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 ...

. Fazlur Rahman Usmani, Nehal Ahmad, Mehtab Ali and Zulfiqar Ali Deobandi from the family were co-founders of

Darul Uloom Deoband The Darul Uloom Deoband is an Islamic seminary (darul uloom) in India at which the Sunni Deobandi Islamic movement began. It is located in Deoband, a town in Saharanpur district, Uttar Pradesh. The seminary was established by Muhammad Qasim ...

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 ...

, a member of this family, co-founded

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 ...

and

All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM or MMM) is a federation of various Muslim organisations in India. Majlis-e-Mushawarat was formally launched at a two-day (August 8–9) meeting in 1964 at the Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ula ...

History

Ubaid Iqbal Asim in his work ''Mawlāna Zafar Ahmad: Life and works'', discussing the background of Usmanis in

, mentions that, "one of the famous saintly figures that lived in Deoband is Khwajah Abul Wafā Usmāni, who was a cousin brother of Jalāluddīn Kabīr al-Awliya Pānipati". He had settled in Deoband in the eighth hijri century. Asim asserts that, most of the Usmanis in Deoband are the successors of Abul Wafā Usmāni. Ten generations later, Lutfullah was born in the family of Abul Wafā Usmāni. He held the position of treasurer in the court of

Shah Jahan Shihab-ud-Din Muhammad Khurram (5 January 1592 – 22 January 1666), better known by his regnal name Shah Jahan I (; ), was the fifth emperor of the Mughal Empire, reigning from January 1628 until July 1658. Under his emperorship, the Mugha ...

Lineage

The lineage of Abul Wafā Usmāni is, Abul Wafā ibn Ubaydullāh ibn Hussayn ibn Abd al-Razzāq ibn Abd al-Hakīm ibn Hasan ibn Abdullāh ibn Yaqoub ibn Īsa ibn Ismā'īl ibn Muḥammad ibn Abu Bakr ibn Ali ibn Usman ibn Abdullah Hirmāni ibn Abd al-Allāh Gārzūni ibn Abd al-Azīz III ibn Khālid ibn Walīd ibn Abd al-Azīz II ibn Shihābuddin ibn Abdullāh II ibn Abd al-Azīz ibn Abd al-Allāh ibn Amr ibn

People

Fazlur Rahman Usmani

lived between 1831 and 15 June 1907. He was one of the co-founders of

. His ''

nasab Arabic language names have historically been based on a long naming system. Many people from the Arabic-speaking and also Muslim countries have not had given/ middle/family names but rather a chain of names. This system remains in use throughout ...

'' (

patronymic A patronymic, or patronym, is a component of a personal name based on the given name of one's father, grandfather (avonymic), or an earlier male ancestor. Patronymics are still in use, including mandatory use, in many countries worldwide, alt ...

) is: Fazlur Rahmān ibn Murād Bakhsh ibn Ghulām Muhammad ibn Ghulām Nabī ibn Lutfullāh ibn Muḥammad Ashiq ibn Farīd Usmāni ibn Abu Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad Hāfiz ibn Muḥammad ibn Abd al-Mālik ibn Abd al-Azīz ibn Abd al-Hakīm ibn Sa'īd ibn Muḥammad ibn Fazlullāh ibn Abul Wafā Usmāni. His sons include

and

, the co-founder of

and

was his grandson.

Shams Naved Usmani Shams Naved Usmani (1931 – 26 August 1993) was an Indian Muslim scholar. He belonged to the Usmani family of Deoband and was an alumnus of the University of Lucknow. He held the titles of Acharya and Maulana together. He was known for his in ...

is another grandson of Usmāni. Kafilur Rahman Nishat Usmani, who was the grandson of Azizur Rahman Usmani, translated ''

Fatawa 'Alamgiri Fatawa 'Alamgiri, also known as Al-Fatawa al-'Alamgiriyya ( ar, الفتاوى العالمگيرية) or Al-Fatawa al-Hindiyya ( ar, الفتاوى الهندية), is a 17th-century sharia based compilation on statecraft, general ethics, milita ...

'' into

Urdu language Urdu (;"Urdu"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ur, , link=no, ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, In ...

. After the creation of

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in 1947, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani hoisted its flag in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

in the presence of

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (, ; born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 1876 – 11 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the ...

and other

All India Muslim League The All-India Muslim League (AIML) was a political party established in Dhaka in 1906 when a group of prominent Muslim politicians met the Viceroy of British India, Lord Minto, with the goal of securing Muslim interests on the Indian subcontin ...

leaders.

Shaykh Fateh Ali

Fateh Ali was the grandfather of

. He had three sons,

Mehtab Ali Mehtab may refer to: * Mehtab (actress), Indian actress * Mehtab Kadınefendi, wife Sultan Abdülmecid I * Mehtab Bagh Mehtab Bagh () is a charbagh complex in Agra, North India. It lies north of the Taj Mahal complex and the Agra Fort on the o ...

, Masood Ali and

Zulfiqar Ali Deobandi Zulfiqar ( ar, ذُو ٱلْفَقَار, Ḏū-l-Faqār, ), also spelled ''Zu al-Faqar'', ''Zulfikar'', ''Dhu al-Faqar'', ''Dhulfaqar'' or ''Dhulfiqar'', is the sword of Ali ibn Abi Talib. Middle Eastern weapons are commonly inscribed w ...

. Mehtab Ali and Zulfiqar Ali Deobandi were also among the co-founders of Darul Uloom Deoband. Zulfiqar Ali's son

became the first student who studied in Darul Uloom Deoband.

Karamat Hussain

Karamat Hussain is known to have established a madrassa at his home in Deoband. The teacher in this madrassa was Mehtab Ali, the uncle of

. This madrassa remained functioning until the foundation of Darul Uloom Deoband.

Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi Muhammad Qasim Nanautavi (1832 – 15 April 1880) () was an Indian Sunni Hanafi Maturidi Islamic Scholar, theologian and a Sufi who was one of the main founders of the Deobandi Movement, starting from the Darul Uloom Deoband. Name and ...

studied there under the supervision of Mehtab Ali. Nehal Ahmad, the son of Karamat Hussain, was one of co-founders of Darul Uloom Deoband. He was the brother-in-law of Muhammad Qasim Nanautawi. Nehal had a son, Lateef Ahmad, who was married to the sister of

Ashraf Ali Thanwi Ashraf Ali Thanwi (often referred as Hakim al-Ummat and Mujaddid e Millet; 19 September 1863 – 20 July 1943) was a late-nineteenth and twentieth-century Sunni Islam, Sunni scholar, jurist, thinker, Mujaddid, reformist and the revival of classic ...

Zafar Ahmad Usmani ) , office1 = Ameer of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam , term_start1 = 1949 , term_end1 = Unknown , predecessor1 = Shabbir Ahmad Usmani , successor1 = Abdullah Darkhawasti , title = , religion = Islam , ...

was the son of Lateef Ahmad, and a nephew of Thanwi. Zafar Ahmad Usmani hoisted the flag of Pakistan in

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

in 1947 in the presence of Muhammad Ali Jinnah and other All India Muslim League leaders.

Miyānji Shukrullah

Shukrullah was among the fore-fathers of

Muhammad Shafi Usmani Muḥammad Shafī‘ ibn Muḥammad Yāsīn ‘Us̱mānī Deobandī ( ur, ; ar, محمد شفيع بن محمد ياسين العثماني الديوبندي, ''Muḥammad Shafī‘ ibn Muḥammad Yāsīn al-‘Uthmānī ad-Diyūbandī''; ...

. The family also claims the Usmani descent, however they do not possess the complete lineage.

Muhammad Rafi Usmani Muhammad Rafi Usmani ( ur, محمد رفیع عثمانی; 21 July 1936 – 18 November 2022) was a Pakistani Muslim scholar, jurist and author who served as the President of Darul Uloom Karachi. He was an alumnus of Darul Uloom Deoband, Univer ...

and

Muhammad Taqi Usmani Muhammad Taqi Usmani (born 5 October 1943) is a Pakistani Islamic scholar and former judge who is the current president of the Wifaq ul Madaris Al-Arabia and the vice president and Hadith professor of the Darul Uloom Karachi. An intellectual ...

are both sons of Muhammad Shafi Usmani, who was one of active members of

Pakistan Movement The Pakistan Movement ( ur, , translit=Teḥrīk-e-Pākistān) was a political movement in the first half of the 20th century that aimed for the creation of Pakistan from the Muslim-majority areas of British India. It was connected to the pe ...

. Muhammad Rafi Usmani has mentioned the incomplete lineage in the biography of his father entitled ''Hayāt Mufti Azam'' as, "Muhammad Shafi ibn Muhammad Yasīn ibn Khalīfa Tehseen Ali ibn Imām Ali ibn Karīmullāh ibn Khayrullāh ibn Shukrullah". According to Rafi Usmani, Karīmullāh had moved to Deoband in 1183 AH. Shafi Usmani's father, Muhammad Yasīn Usmāni was among the earliest students of Darul Uloom Deoband. Yasīn's students include Asghar Hussain Deobandi, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani and

Sanaullah Amritsari Abul Wafa Sanaullah Amritsari (12 June 1868 – 15 March 1948) was a British Indian, later Pakistani, Muslim scholar and a leading figure within the Ahl-e-Hadith movement who was active in the Punjab city of Amritsar. He was an alumnus of Maz ...

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Usmani family Usmani family People from Deoband Deobandis