Memories (Episode 17)
Since this was the end of the first academic year after the Darul Ulum moved to Sharafi Goth, my respected father (may Allah have mercy on him), on this occasion, organized a three-day annual gathering from 15th to 17th Shaʿban 1377 AH (7th to 9th March 1958). I found some notes about this gathering in my diary, and upon reading them, some other memories came to mind, which, Insha Allah, will not be devoid of benefit.
Hadhrat Mawlana Athar Ali, Hadhrat Mawlana Shams al-Haq Afghani, and Hadhrat Mawlana Sayyid Muhammad Yusuf Binnori (may Allah have mercy on them all) were especially invited to this gathering. Other prominent scholars from across the country were also present. Two former prime ministers of Pakistan, respected Chaudhary Muhammad Ali and Ismail Ibrahim Chundrigar, were also invited. On the first day, Hadhrat Mawlana Athar Ali delivered a speech, followed by a speech from the late Mr. Chundrigar. Thereafter the foundation stone of the mosque was laid. The first session on the second day was presided over by the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Chaudhary Muhammad Ali. In this session, one of our colleagues from Malaysia, Bin Yamin, and I were asked to deliver speeches in Arabic. I had written a rough and broken speech, which I showed to my Syrian teacher, Ustadh Ahmad al-Ahmad. He made the necessary corrections and transformed it into a meaningful speech. I then memorized it. Ustadh Ahmad al-Ahmad also had me practice its delivery. As a result of this practice, when I delivered the memorized speech, it appeared as though I was speaking extemporaneously. I was not even fifteen years old at the time, so the audience, particularly Mr. Chaudhary Muhammad Ali, applauded me with warm praise and encouragement.
In the next session, Hadhrat Mawlana Muhammad Yusuf Binnori (may Allah have mercy on him) delivered a speech, and there is one thing from that speech that I remember to this day. While discussing the vastness of the Arabic language, Hadhrat gave the example of horse racing. He mentioned that in a race, the first ten horses each have a different name in Arabic. The horse that comes first is called سابق (Sabiq), the second is called مصلّي (Muṣalli), the third مسلّي (Musalli) or مجلّي (Mujalli), the fourth تالي (Tali), the fifth مُرتاح (Murtaḥ), the sixth عاطف (ʿAṭif), the seventh حظّيّ (Haziyy), the eighth مؤمل (Mu’ammal), the ninth لطيم (Laṭim) and the tenth سُكَيْت (Sukayt). The audience was astonished by the fluency with which Hadhrat listed these names. Hadhrat innocently mentioned these names without any prior preparation, merely to demonstrate the vastness of the Arabic language, but the way the audience listened with amazement and admiration made me think – may Allah forgive me – that this was a good way to impress the audience. So I memorized not only these names from Thaʿlabi’s “Fiqh al-Lughah” but also several other similar terms. For example, I memorized the various Arabic terms for different stages of sleep and used them to impress audiences in different gatherings, and to instill awe among students while teaching literature. Later, when I realized that this was pure ostentation (riya), I sought Allah’s forgiveness and deliberately forgot all those words, so much so that whilst writing this incident today, I could not remember some of the above names, so I referred to “Fiqh al-Lughah” to write them down.
The morning session of the third day of the gathering was presided over by Hadhrat Mawlana Athar Ali (may Allah have mercy on him). Another student was supposed to deliver a speech, but he was absent. Out of the blue, Hadhrat Mawlana Muhammad Matin Khatib Sahib (may Allah have mercy on him) announced my name. I was quite taken aback, and faced the dilemma of whether to repeat the exact same speech I delivered the previous day, which would expose the fact that it had been memorized by rote, or to deliver a spontaneous speech, which I did not have the ability to do. To resolve this quandary, I began my speech with the following words:
“أمرت أن أعيد كلمتي التي ألقيتها بالأمس، وليست ذاكرتي قوية و لَٰكني أحاول أن أعرضها عليكم كما كانت”
Meaning: “I have been instructed to repeat the speech I delivered yesterday. My memory is not very strong, but I will try to present it as it was presented yesterday”.
My elders, especially Mawlana Zafar Ahmad Ansari, laughed at these words. Somehow, I managed to save face. The final session was presided over by Hadhrat Mawlana Shams al-Haq Afghani (may Allah have mercy on him), and in that session, my elder brother Hadhrat Mawlana Mufti Muhammad Rafiʿ (may Allah grant him a long life) delivered a speech on the subject of compilation of Fiqh, which was a real speech, and the elders appreciated it greatly. The gathering concluded with the Dastar Bandi[1] ceremony after Maghrib.
We spent our holidays at home. I was afflicted with typhoid for most of Ramadan, and when the new academic year began after Eid on 15th Shawwal 1377 AH, corresponding to 5th May 1958, we were assigned to study Mishkat, Jalalayn and Sharḥ ʿAqaid. Mishkat was taught by Hadhrat Mufti Rashid Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him), Jalalayn by Hadhrat Mawlana Akbar Ali (may Allah have mercy on him), and Sharḥ ʿAqaid, followed by Husun Hamidiyyah, by Hadhrat Mawlana Qari Riʿayatullah (may Allah have mercy on him).
While the favours of all my teachers are such that I can never repay them in my entire life, the greatest favours upon me were from Hadhrat Mawlana Sahban Mahmud (may Allah have mercy on him), especially during my early education, and from Hadhrat Mufti Rashid Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) during the higher levels. Allah Most High had bestowed upon Hadhrat Mufti Rashid Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) a distinct passion for research. If ever Hadhrat had any doubt about even the minutest of matters, he would not rest until he had thoroughly investigated it. What was unique was that he would also involve his students in such investigations, which transferred this zeal for research to them as well. During Hadhrat’s lessons, in addition to the assigned book and subject, students would also acquire a wealth of research-based knowledge. Among the lessons we studied under him that year, the most important was Mishkat, and because it was our first formal study of Hadith, we were very enthusiastic about it. Instead of delivering unnecessary long-winded lectures, Hadhrat would correct the student’s reading of the Hadith text, give a clear explanation of its meaning, and present a carefully sifted summary of the related discussions in a way that made it easy to retain. Additionally, he would explain pertinent points related to Nahw (Arabic grammar), Sarf (Arabic morphology), Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) and Usul al-Fiqh (principles of Islamic jurisprudence). If, during the lesson or as a result of a student’s question, something arose that needed investigation, he would immediately assign it to a student to look it up in a specific book. This practice not only familiarized the students with non-curricular books but also taught them how to effectively benefit from such works.
During the lesson, Hadhrat would often share scholarly or literary anecdotes, a few of which have come to mind now.
I first heard this incident from Hadhrat that Abu al-ʿAla Maʿarri, a famous poet from Syria known for his heretic thoughts, raised an objection in a poem about the amputation of a thief’s hand. His argument was that if someone cuts off another person’s hand, the blood money (diyat) payable is five hundred dinars of gold, but if someone steals one-fourth of a dinar, then (according to the madhhab of Imam Malik) their hand is cut off. So, in one case, a hand is worth five hundred dinars, and in another case, it is worth one-fourth of a dinar. He expressed this in his poem:
يدٌ بخمس مئيٍ من عَسجدٍ عُقِلت
فما بالها قُطعت في رُبع دينار
“The blood money of a hand is five hundred pieces of gold (dinars). Then why cut it off for (stealing) just one-fourth of a dinar?”
In response, Imam Shafiʿi (may Allah have mercy on him) replied in verse:
هُناك مظلومةٌ غالت بقيمتها
وههنا ظلمت، هانت على الباري
“There, the hand was oppressed, so it was highly valued. Here, it is the hand of an oppressor, so it is worthless in the eyes of Allah.”
Abu al-Fath Busti also replied in a verse:
عزّ الأمانة أغلاها، وأرخصها
ذلُّ الخيانة، فافهم حكمةَ الباري
“The honour of trust elevated its value, while the disgrace of treachery made it worthless. So understand the wisdom of Allah Most High.”
Once, Hadhrat said: “Consider the Sughra (Minor Premise) “الغَلْط غَلَطٌ” (Al ghaltu ghalatun: i.e. saying the word الغلط with a sukun on the ل is incorrect), and its Kubra (Major Premise) “والغَلَط صحيحٌ” (Wal ghalatu sahihun: i.e. saying the word الغلط with a fathah “ـَ” on the ل is correct). The conclusion drawn from them is: “الغَلْط صحيحٌ” (Al ghaltu sahihun: i.e. saying the word الغلط with a sukun “ْ” on the ل is correct), which, despite being a result of the first figure (Shakl al-Awwal), is wrong (i.e. because it is not correct to say the word الغلط with a sukun on the ل; the correct way to say it is with a fathah on the ل). Then he explained: “In this case, the middle term is not actually repeated, because in the Sughra, “غَلَطٌ” refers to the meaning of the word, while in the Kubra, by “الغَلْطُ”, the word itself is meant, not its meaning. Thus, there is no middle term to be dropped in order to reach the conclusion.”
Once, he asked us to explain the meaning of this couplet:
ہست استثنا ز مثبت منفي و از عكس عکس
شد “عليّ عشرةٌ إلّا توالي” پنج تا
Translation:
Exception from an affirmative is negative, and the reverse holds true
Thus, “I owe ten except a series of exceptions” results in five
I somehow managed to understand the first part of the couplet, which means that if an exception is made from an affirmative statement, the exception is negative, and if an exception is made from a negative statement, the exception is affirmative. However, the meaning of the second line was not clear. Hadhrat then explained that “إلّا توالي” means that if a person, while confessing, says:
“لفلان عليّ عشرة دراهم، إلّا تسعة، إلّا ثمانية، إلّا سبعة، إلّا ستّة، إلّا خمسة، ،إلّا أربعة، إلّا ثلاثة، إلّا اثنين، إلّا واحداً”
“I owe so-and-so ten Dirhams except nine, except eight, except seven, except six, except five, except four, except three, except two, except one”, it means he owes five dirhams, as each successive exception negates the preceding number, leaving five.
Once, Hadhrat was explaining the importance of the principle “الأهمّ فالأهّم” (“the most important first”) in relation to the teaching and propagation of Din and religious activities. He mentioned that one of the reasons for the massacre of Muslims during the Tartar invasion was that, instead of uniting to face this great tribulation that had befallen the Muslim world, the Muslims were caught up in internal disputes and were engaged in debates over minor subsidiary issues. Hadhrat said that a poet made a fitting observation on this matter:
جب چلی بغداد میں تاتار کی تیغ نیام
مفتیانِ شرع میں جاری تھی اک جنگِ کلام
ایک کہتا تھا کہ کوّا ثابت و سالم حلال
دوسرا کہتا کہ کالی چونچ سے تا دُم حرام
اُس زمانے کے مؤرخ نے جو دیکھا تو کہا
مفتیاں را مژدہ! کار ملت بیضا تمام
While the Tartar sword was unsheathed in Baghdad
The Muftis of Shariah were busy in a war of words
One said, “The crow is entirely Halal”
The other said, “From its black beak to tail, it is Haram”
When the historian of that time witnessed this, he said
“Congratulations to the Muftis! The matter of the Muslim Ummah is finished.”
I also first heard from Hadhrat that the difference between “وَسْط” (wast, with a sukun on the س) and “وَسَط” (wasat, with a fatha on the س) is that the former (i.e. “وَسْط”) can refer to any point between the two ends of something, whereas “وَسَط” specifically refers to the exact midpoint. This is why there is a well-known saying about the س of وَسَط: إذا تحرّك سكن، وإذا سكن تحرّك – meaning: when the س of وَسَط is sakin (still), the word becomes mutaharrik (moving), i.e. any point between the two ends can be called وَسْط. And when it is mutaharrik (moving), the word becomes sakin (still), i.e., only the exact center-point can be called وَسَط. If something deviates even slightly from that exact mid-point, it can no longer be called وَسَط.
We also heard these wise verses, composed by someone, from Hadhrat multiple times:
بزرگے رفت بخواب در فکرے
دید دنیا بہ صورتِ بکرے
کرد از وے سوال: “اے دلبر
بکر چونی بہ ایں ہمہ شوہر؟”
گفت: “یک حرف با تو گویم راست
کہ مرا آنکہ بود مرد نہ خواست
وانکہ نامرد بود خواست مرا
زیں بکارت ہمیں بجاست مرا
Meaning:
“A pious elder once saw the world in a dream, in the form of a virgin girl. He asked her: “You have so many husbands, so why are you still a virgin?” She replied: “The reason is that those who were truly men never desired me, and those who did desire me were not real men. That is why I remain a virgin to this day.”
I once recited these verses to my Syrian friend Dr. Abdus Sattar Abu Ghuddah, and also explained their meaning to him. He liked them very much, and since he also composes poetry himself, he translated them into Arabic in the following manner:
رأيت في النّوم دنيانا وقد بقيت
عذراءَ، مع أنّها زوجٌ لأجيال
فقلت: ما السّرّ؟ قالت: إنّ مَن طلبوا
صنفان ما غيّرا ما كان من حالي:
ذو عُنّةٍ، أعرضتُ عنه أنا
وذو الفحولة، عنّي راغبٌ سالي
It was also from Hadhrat that I first heard the two couplets which I later saw inscribed at the blessed Rawdah of the Noble Messenger, H and they remain inscribed there to this day. Hadhrat mentioned that these two couplets were first recited by a Bedouin at the blessed Rawdah and were later written on the pillars of the grill:
يا خيرَ من دُفنت في التّراب أعظمه
فطاب من طيبهنّ القاع والأكم،
نفسي الفداء لقبرٍ أنت ساكنه
فيه العفاف، وفيه الجود والكرم
In short, Hadhrat Mawlana Mufti Rashid Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) would narrate many such insightful points and humorous anecdotes during lessons, which would be engaging for us students and also increase our knowledge.
During that same period, Hadhrat Mufti Rashid Ahmad (may Allah have mercy on him) trained both my elder brother (may Allah grant him a long life) and me in extracting legal rulings from books of fiqh. Hadhrat would pose a legal issue to us and instruct us to locate its ruling in ʿAllama Shami’s Radd al-Muḥtar. On the first day, Hadhrat asked: “If a woman marries outside her kufu (legal match) without the permission of her wali (guardian), what is the ruling of such a marriage?” I replied: “Hadhrat! We have read this issue in the books, that the marriage is affected but remains suspended upon the walī’s permission.” Hadhrat responded: “That is precisely why I am asking you to find the ruling in Shami.” When I looked it up in Radd al-Muhtar, I discovered that although the well-known position of Imam Abu Hanifah (may Allah have mercy on him) is indeed that the marriage remains suspended upon the approval of the wali, but according to the narration of Hadhrat Hasan ibn Ziyad (may Allah have mercy on him), the marriage does not take place at all, and the mutaʾakhkhirin (later scholars) have issued fatwa according to this.
In this way, Hadhrat gave us access to non-curricular books of fiqh and also practically trained us in deriving rulings from them.
The affection and care of these respected teachers gradually lessened the feeling of being away from home. Still, I would eagerly await for Thursday all week long, as we would return home on Thursday evenings. We would leave Dar al-ʿUlum near ʿAsr and reach home around ʿIsha time, and after spending one day and one night with our parents and brothers, we would return. I had a love for books from the beginning, and the favours and affection of my teachers further increased it. At home, there was a sizable collection of my respected father’s (may Allah have mercy on him) personal books. Thus, on Thursday or Friday, during whatever time remained after meeting my family, I would delve into my respected father’s personal library, pick up each book, flip through its pages to see what topic it was on, and who had authored it. And after reading enough of it to get acquainted with its contents, I would return it to its place. If, during this process, a book piqued my interest, I would study it more thoroughly. In this manner, over time, I came to know exactly where each book was located. So whenever I needed to research a matter, I would easily retrieve the relevant book and carry out the study. In addition, I would eagerly browse through the weekly and monthly magazines that would come to my respected father (may Allah have mercy on him), and would select articles of interest from them, and benefit from them whenever I got the opportunity.
[1] Translator: Dastar Bandi is a ceremony in which certificates of completion are conferred upon graduating students of a madrasa. Teachers and elders also tie a turban around the graduating student’s head during this ceremony.
…………….(Continued)…………….