Minnatullah Rahmani (7 April 1913 – 20 March 1991) was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar who served as the first General Secretary of All India Muslim Personal Law Board. He was an alumnus of Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama and

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 ...

, and a member of

Bihar Legislative Assembly The Bihar Legislative Assembly, also known as the Bihar Vidhan Sabha, is the lower house of the Bihar Legislature where the first elections were held in 1952. The total strength of membership in the Assembly was 331, including one nominated m ...

. He also served as the General Secretary of the Jamiat Ulama Bihar. His father

Muhammad Ali Mungeri Muḥammad Ali Mungeri (28 July 1846 – 13 September 1927) was an Indian Muslim scholar who was the founder Nadwatul Ulama and first chancellor of its Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Darul Uloom, a major Islamic seminary in Lucknow. He extensively ...

was the founder of

Nadwatul Ulama Nadwatul Ulama is a council of Muslim theologians in India which was formed in 1893 in Kanpur. The first manager of the council was Muhammad Ali Mungeri and the incumbent is Rabey Hasani Nadwi. The council established the Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ul ...

and his son

Wali Rahmani Wali Rahmani (5 June 1943 – 3 April 2021) was an Indian Sunni Islamic scholar and academician who founded Rahmani30. He was a member of the Bihar Legislative Council from 1974 to 1996. He served as the general secretary of the All India Muslim ...

established the Rahmani30 institute.

Biography

Minnatullah Rahmani was born in Munger on 7 April 1913. His father

was a founding figure of the

Lucknow Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...

. Rahmani received his primary education in Munger and went to

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

, where he studied Arabic grammar, syntax and logic with Mufti Abd al-Lateef. He enrolled at the Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama and studied there for four years. In 1349 AH, he moved to

, where he studied ''

Sahih Bukhari Sahih al-Bukhari ( ar, صحيح البخاري, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī), group=note is a ''hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī (810–870) around 846. Al ...

'' with Hussain Ahmad Madani and graduated from there in 1352 AH. His other teachers included

Asghar Hussain Deobandi Asghar Hussain Deobandi (also known as Mian Sayyid Asghar Hussain) (16 October 1877 — 8 January 1945) was an Indian Sunni Muslim scholar who co-founded Madrasatul Islah. Born on 16 October 1877 in a Deoband-based family, claiming descent to ...

and

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''; ...

. In 1935, Rahmani was appointed the General Secretary of the Jamiat Ulama Bihar.

Abul Muhasin Muhammad Sajjad Abul Muhasin Muhammad Sajjad (1880 – 23 November 1940) was an Indian Islamic scholar who was one of the most influential ulemas of the 20th century. Sajjad was a founder of Anjuman-Ulama-i-Bihar, Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, and Imarat-i-Sharia. A lea ...

founded the Muslim Independent Party in 1935 and Rahmani was appointed as its member. Through it, he was elected as a member of

in 1937. He was appointed as the Sajjada Nashin of Khanqah-e-Rahmani, Munger in 1361 AH and a member of the executive council of Darul Uloom Deoband in 1955, a post he served until his death. Alongside Muhammad Tayyib Qasmi, he played a key role in establishing the All India Muslim Personal Law Board and was appointed its first General Secretary on 28 December 1972, in the inception meeting. In 1964, he participated in the

World Muslim Congress The World Muslim Congress (''Motamar al-Alam al-Islami'') (Arabic: مؤتمر العالم الإسلامي) is an Islamic organization based in Karachi. Its co-founder and Secretary-General for over four decades was Inamullah Khan. It was the ...

as a delegate of India. In 1945, Rahmani re-established the Jamia Rahmania, a well known madrassa in Munger,

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 ...

. He died on 20 March 1991.

Legacy

Rahmani's son

established the Rahmani30 and formerly served as the general secretary of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board. Shah Imran Hasan wrote his biography ''Hayat-e Rahmani: Maulana Minnatullah Rahmani ki Zindagi ka Ilmi aur Tarikhi Mutala’a'' ( en, The Life of Rahmani: A Study of Maulana Minatullah Rahmani’s Scholarly and Historical Legacy) which has a foreword from

Akhtarul Wasey Akhtarul Wasey (born 1 September 1951) is the president of Maulana Azad University, Jodhpur, India, and a former professor of Islamic Studies. He taught at Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University) in New Delhi, where he remains professor emer ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rahmani, Minnatullah 1913 births 1991 deaths People from Munger district Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama alumni Darul Uloom Deoband alumni Deobandis