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Circles of Learning in the Islamic Tradition
The founding of circles of learning for the preservation and advancement of knowledge is a theme that resonates throughout the history of Islam. In its earliest form it was the masjid that served as the nucleus of knowledge. It was here that the companions received their knowledge from the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ; it was also primarily in the masjid that they transmitted their knowledge to the following generation. Often the homes of scholars would be the locus for the transmission of knowledge.
Important centres for the dissemination of knowledge during this early period include: the Harams of Makkah and Madinah, the Grand Masjid of Kufah, the Umayyad Masjid of Damascus, and the Masjid of Amr ibn al-As in Egypt.
The madrasah would make its appearance in the late 4th century. The earliest madaris appeared in Nishapur, now in north-eastern Iran. These were structures erected specifically for the transmission of knowledge. Before the end of the following century the insight, perspicacity and munificence of one man would see the establishment of a madrasah in several major cities in the eastern wing of the Muslim lands. He was the illustrious wazir (vizier) of the Seljuqs, Nizam al-Mulk al-Tusi (d. 485/1092).
He founded a collection of Madāris all by the name of Madrasah Nizamiyyah in Baghdad, Balkh, Nishapur, Herat, Isfahan, Basrah, Merv, Amul and Mosul. To the existing idea of a madrasah as a structural edifice Nizam al-Mulk added an important dimension: each madrasah was supported by a waqf, an endowment to support both the students and teachers of his Madaris. The celebrated Imam al-Ghazali (d. 505/1111) may Allāh have mercy upon him was one of the earliest pupils of the Nizamiyyah of Nishapur where he studied under the tutelage of Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni. He would later go on to become the most distinguished teacher at the Nizamiyyah of Baghdad.
During the next few centuries the number of madaris increased dramatically. In Baghdad the crowning jewel amongst such institutions was the magnificent Madrasah Mustansiriyyah built by the Abbasid khalifah al-Mustansir in 625/1227 for the teaching of all four madhahib in addition to the other Islamic disciplines and sciences such as mathematics, biology and medicine.
In Damascus and Cairo the Ayyubids, and then the Mamluks, proved to be very eager patrons of learning. The rulers and their affluent subjects vied with one another in constructing uniquely attractive madāris, and many of these buildings stand in virtually unscathed beauty up to the present day. The names of the men who were the products and teachers at these madāris, and the sheer volume of their contributions to scholarship in Islam provide eloquent testimony to the generous patronage which the Ayyubids and Mamluks extended to the tradition of knowledge: Imam Izz al-Din Ibn Abd al-Salam, Imam al-Nawawi, Taqi al-Din al-Subki, Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Ibn Kathir, al-Suyuti and many others may Allāh have mercy upon them.
As for India, the science of hadith entered in the very beginnings of the Islamic opening of it to Islam. Shaykh Abu ‘l-Hasan ‘Ali al-Nadwi (d. 1420/1999) writes in the foreword to Shaykh al-Hadith Mawlana Muhammad Zakariyya’s (d. 1402/1982) Awjaz al-Masalik, the acclaimed multi-voluminous commentary of Mu’watta Imam Malik: "Providence took care of India, and Allah made a present to these lands of noble travelling hadith scholars from Hijaz, Hadramawt, Egypt, Iraq and Iran. That was in the tenth century hijrah. However, most of them preferred to reside in Gujarat because of the existence there of Islamic governance which protected the sciences and cared for the people of knowledge. Its kings were distinguished by their attainments in the science of hadith and their infatuation with it. Most of these travellers died and were buried in Ahmadabad, the capital of governance for Gujarat.
Then divine providence drove some of the ʿulama of India, who are too many to mention here, to the noble Haramayn, the source and sanctuary of this knowledge, the most famous of whom was Shaykh Husam ad-Din ʿAli al-Muttaqi the author of Kanz al-ʿUmmal (d. 975/1568), and his pupil Shaykh Muhammad ibn Tahir al-Fatini (Patni) writer of Majma’ al-Bihar (d. 986/1578). These two gave noted service to the science of hadith and composed tremendous works on it. Then it was the turn of Shaykh ʿAllāmah ʿAbd al-Haqq al-Dihlawi (d. 1052/1642) who took the science of hadith from the ʿulamaʾ of the Hijaz and transmitted it to India and made the home of the king, Delhi, its centre. He set to work seriously and in earnest spreading the science of hadith and serving it by teaching and writing commentaries; so the ʿulama turned towards the science of hadith and the Sahih spread widely, and the market was brisk with this science after trade had previously been slack because of lack of goods and the abstinence of the ʿulama towards it. His son and his grandchildren succeeded him in it, and they studied and wrote on it, and great ʿulamaʾ arose from every corner of India, and men sprang up among them acknowledged for their merit and their skill in the craft.
Then it was the turn of Shaykh al-Islam, Shaykh Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Rahim al-Dihlawi better known as Shāh Walī Allah Muḥaddith Dehlawī (d. 1176/1762). He travelled to the Hijaz and learnt hadith from Shaykh Abu Tahir Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Kurdi al-Madani. He then returned and confined his zeal to the project of spreading hadith, and so the State of hadith was established in India and its gentle breeze blew east and west, north and south, and fell upon its students, the seekers of the science of hadith, from the remotest corners of India. Knowledge of the science of hadith became a precondition for complete knowledge, and the outward sign of the people of right action and correct ʿaqidah so much so that an ʿalim would not be reckoned an ʿalim until he excelled in it. Study of the six Sahih works became established in every circle of study, and its students and their students in turn became widespread the length and breadth of India, just like the tree of Tuba whose branches are found in every place but whose roots and trunk are unknown. There is no isnad, no lecture, no authorship, no reform movement, and no revival movement but that its lineage of scholarship returns to this blessed genealogical tree and its lofty branches."
When the war of 1273/1857 ceased, it would be upon institutions such as the Dar al-‘Ulum in Deoband (founded 1283/1866) that the role of preserving not just ilm, but Islam as a whole, devolved. After some deliberation, Deoband, in the Northern Province, was chosen as a location for the first seminary, and the Dar al-‘Ulum was founded there. The first lesson took place under a pomegranate tree in the courtyard of the Chatta Masjid, and interestingly both the first teacher’s name and that of his first student happened to be Mahmud al-Hasan. This was followed six months later by the Mazahir ‘Ulum seminary in Saharanpur among several others.
The Revival of the Blessed Sunnah and Elimination of Bid'ah
The founding of an institution in Deoband, was not the inception of a yet another sect. Rather, it was an extension of this continuous effort to preserve the noble Islāmic legacy. The scholars of Deoband have played a pivotal role in preserving Islām, be it the Qur’ān, the Sunnah and their connected sciences or Islām’s prestigious history. It is sad to witness such a noble legacy and rich heritage go largely unnoticed by many students and scholars of Islām. They have contributed tremendously in various fields of, from Qurā’nic exegesis, to jurisprudence, to Arabic. However, their contribution towards the revival and preservation of the blessed Sunnah is most noteworthy.
The great Syrian scholar of Aleppo, Shaykh ‘Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghuddah (d.1417/1997) may Allāh have mercy upon him wrote the following regarding Dar al-‘Ulum in Deoband:
“The great madrasah of Deoband is like a radiant sun that has illuminated various parts of India. It revived the Prophetic way (Sunnah) academically, practically and in terms of suluk, and it removed the darkness of bid’ah, which had amassed in those lands for a lengthy time. It stripped the pools of knowledge and shari’ah from all that was alien to them in the same way that it stripped the suluk of the Sufis from new customs — such as sama’ and stringed instruments and their like from the gatherings of bid’ ah that were prevalent in India in those days. It replaced those innovations with clear and radiant sunnah — in terms of teaching and studying, suluk and propagation — until it (the madrasah) became a powerful, great and authentic source of light from which came droves of god-fearing (rabbaniyyin) ulama, who combined the excellence of knowledge and action (‘amal), while adhering to the sunnah and eliminating bid’ah.”
Unfortunately, there is a lack of knowledge of the Deoband tradition, its founding struggles, its profound and comprehensive vision. Many are unaware of the giants of this tradition, the founders, their heritage, efforts, knowledge, insight, intellectual acumen, spiritual light, and worldview. Some are left bewildered, wondering what is so significant about the Deoband tradition and its people. The tradition could never have spread and endured over multiple generations for over one and a half centuries had it not been one of substance. It could have never inspired for so long or enthralled the minds of so many men and women. The intellectual acumen and formidable visionary force of Hujjat al-Islam Mawlana Qasim Nanautawi (d. 1297/1880), the spiritual insight and the zero-tolerance attitude to reprehensible innovations of Shaykh Rashid Ahmad Gangohi (d. 1323/1905), the academic prowess and prolific writings of Hakim al-Umma Mawlana Ashraf ‘Ali Thanawi (d. 1362/1943), the sincere and unrelenting missionary zeal of Mawlana Ilyas Kandhlawi (d. 1363/1944), and the spiritual emanations of their mentor par excellence Haji Imdadullah (d. 1317/1896), or the unrelenting endeavour for freedom by Shaykh al-Islām Mawlānā Ḥusayn Aḥmad Madanī (d. 1377/1957) help lay the solid foundations of this reformist movement of classical Islam. They were simply inheritors, interpreters, and revivers of the great luminaries of the past, and guides and pioneers into the future. So vital has their work been that in its outlines and bases it remains to our day unshaken and intact. The world would have been a very different place today had it not been for the tradition.
The Temperament and Attitude of Moderation (i‘tidal)
Shaykh al-Islam Mufti Muḥammad Taqi Uthmāni summarises the methodology of Deoband tradition beautifully as follows: "In short, there is no aspect of the religion in which the scholars of Deoband have differed by even a hair from Islam’s popular and transmitted explanation and its accurate temperament and attitude. It is because of this that there is, essentially, no need for a separate book to explain and clarify their way. If their way needs to be known, then that is mentioned with detail in the reliable books on the exegesis (tafsir) of the Qur’an, the accepted commentaries of hadith, in [the books of] Hanafi jurisprudence, in writings on creed and kalam, and the books of Tasawwuf and manners that are reliable and authentic according to the majority of the scholars of the Ummah. However, in this recent era there have been two causes on account of which the necessity has been felt for the way and disposition and religious temperament and attitude (dini mizaj wa mazaq) of the scholars of Deoband to be clarified in the form of a separate book.
The first cause is that Islam is a religion of moderation (i‘tidal). The Noble Qur’an has, by describing the Muslim Ummah as the “moderate Ummah” (2:143), announced that one of the fundamental specialties of this Ummah is moderation and balance, and because the scholars of Deoband are the carriers of this religion then this moderation has naturally completely penetrated their way and disposition and temperament and attitude. Their way passes past extremism [on the one hand] and laxity [on the other] in a way that even the hem of their attire does not become entangled with these two extremes; it is the peculiar characteristic of moderates that those extreme and those lax, both of them, reprimand them. Those on the extreme accuse them of being lax and those lax accuse them of being extreme.
It is because of this that in opposition to the scholars of Deoband, contradictory propaganda has come from those of extreme views. For example, the moderation of the scholars of Deoband is such that in addition to having complete faith in the Qur’an and the Sunnah, they also venture forward with trust in the Pious Predecessors and in following them. For them, in the explanation and commentary of the Qur’an and the Sunnah, the explanations of the Pious Predecessors and their actions enjoy a central importance and they consider having firm faith and love for them an important part of their way and disposition. However, on the other side, they do not allow this faith and love to reach the level of worship and personality worship. Rather, the principles of differences in ranks always remain at the forefront.
The second cause is that the way of the scholars of Deoband in actuality is the name of that way in ideology and action that the founders and authentic elders (akabir) of Dar al-‘Ulum Deoband acquired from their shaykhs in a connected chain (sanad) and which is connected through the Companions and Followers to the Prophet ﷺ. This was an authentic manner in thought and belief, an exemplary system in actions and manners and a moderate temperament and attitude which cannot be acquired by just reading a book or gaining a sanad, rather it can be accurately acquired by remaining in the company of those respected individuals who have been absorbed in this temperament in the way that the Companions acquired from the Prophet ﷺ, the Followers from the Companions, and authentic students from the Followers.
This institute sees itself as an heir to such enclaves of knowledge. It is dedicated to preserve and promote ‘ilm through imparting a thorough comprehension of traditional disciplines. It is committed at the same time to advancing knowledge and developing our scholarly tradition beyond its present scope in order to meet the challenges of our age. The Dār al-ʿUlūm is named in honour, recognition and tribute to Ḥaḍrat Shaykh Mawlānā Muḥammad Ādam al-Qāsimī (d. 1445/2024) may Allāh ﷻ shower his infinite mercy upon him for his servitude in reviving Leicester’s vibrant and diverse Muslim community.