Memories (Episode 2)

An English translation of “Yadein”, the autobiography of Hadhrat Mawlana Mufti Muhammad Taqi Usmani (dāmat barakātuhum), Vice President, Darul Uloom Karachi. Translation by Kaiser Nizamani.

My honourable mother (respected Nafisa Khatun), may Allah Most High perpetually shower her with His mercy, was an exemplary mother and household lady. She belonged to a renowned Ansari family in Deoband, and the manner in which she fulfilled the rights of my respected father’s (may Allah have mercy on him) companionship, through thick and thin, is a separate topic in itself. I also wrote something regarding this at the time of her passing away, which is included in my book Nuqush-e-Raftagan. She was also very devout in her worship and was an ascetic lady. Her daily routine of Qur’an recitation, dhikr and nafl prayers was never missed as long as she remained conscious.

But for us she was an embodiment of love and affection, almost every moment of whose day and night were dedicated to providing us with comfort. For this, she invariably sacrificed her own comfort and ease. She used to love all her children equally, but due to my being the youngest, I perhaps received the most love and doting from her. It was due to this that I used to eat from her hand until I was quite grown, and would not eat unless she hand-fed me every morsel. Also, if my respected mother ever had to visit a nearby house, it was not possible for me not to accompany her.

In those days, towns like Deoband did not have any concept of automatic modes of transport such as cars. Those residents who had never travelled outside Deoband may not have even seen a car. The best we could get was a tonga (horse carriage) which could be used to traverse longer distances within the town, but even that was only for males. It was considered unseemly for Muslim ladies to travel in a tonga even while wearing a burqa (veil). If the distance was so far that it would be difficult to travel without a tonga, a curtain would be draped on all sides of the tonga and burqa-clad ladies would sit inside of that curtain. Otherwise, to travel from one neighbourhood to another a palanquin would be used, which was called doli in the language of Deoband. This doli was carried by two people on their shoulders, who were called kuhar. When a lady had to travel in a doli, the kuhar would place it inside her house and then wait outside. The lady would sit inside, at times carrying a stone with her so that when the kuhar lifted the doli, even the weight of her body would be veiled from them. Sometimes small children would want to enjoy the ride with their mothers, in which case the stone would not be needed. When my respected mother would visit any house from her family’s side, she would take me with her. Due to the curtain draped on all four sides of the doli, I would not be able to see the places we passed by. But I would nevertheless be thoroughly entertained by the jolts of this bumping and bouncing doli, about which we would say in the dialect of Deoband: “I’m enjoying very good bariyan” (i.e., that I was enjoying the ride very much).

In relation to my respected father’s (may Allah have mercy on him) children, we were nine brothers and sisters. The eldest was my sister, respected Naʿīma, whom we used to call Āpā Jān. Her marriage took place even before I was born. Two of her daughters and one son were also born before my birth. Even though she had a very pleasant demeanor and all my siblings had an open and informal relationship with her, since my childhood, I felt her awe over me more than that of even my respected mother. Perhaps one reason for this was that her house was at some distance from ours in a neighbourhood called Tīla (hillock). It was a small hillock but to us it appeared nothing short of a mountain. This sister of ours used to live on that hillock with her husband, (late) Hakīm Sayyid Sharīf Husain, who possessed such refinement and elegance of character as befitting the Nawab of Oudh. He was also rather particular about cleanliness in his house; he could not tolerate even a small crease on his bed.

Whenever I visited their house with an elder, I would play with my similar-aged nephew and nieces. One day while playing, I climbed onto my sister’s bed with dirt-smeared feet. She shot a frown at me and exclaimed in exasperation: “Bas qadam ranja na farmao” [1]. I heard the word qadam ranja for the first time on that occasion, but more than the meaning of that word and the gibe veiled in it, those frowning eyes lodged themselves in my heart as a constant source of awe, which took years before wearing off into some degree of informality. At that time, I did not even know that looking at someone with anger is called “frowning”[2]. I heard the word “frowning” for the very first time when Apa Jan mentioned this incident to my siblings. This eldest sister of mine passed away at only thirty-four years of age, when I was thirteen years old. May Allah Most High bestow the blessings and comforts of Jannat al-Firdaws upon her. It is difficult to find a parallel for the self-respect and dignity with which she lived her life, despite tough financial conditions. At this point, the pen is raring to recount a peculiar incident of her life.

As I have mentioned, she often went through strained financial conditions after marriage. One time, in such a situation, she said to our respected father: “Please pray to Allah Most High to grant me the opportunity to go for Hajj”. Our respected father inquired: “Do you really desire to go for Hajj?” When she replied in the affirmative, he responded: “No, you do not have any desire”. Bewildered by these words, she submitted: “I am telling the truth. I have great desire to go for Hajj”. At this, our respected father asked: “Have you saved any money for this?” When she replied in the negative, he remarked: “This means that your desire is mere lip service. If your desire was genuine, you would have saved up for it.” She presented the excuse: “I can only save if there is anything left from the income.” Our respected father asked: “ Can you not even save one ana[3]?” She replied: “I can save this much, but how can Hajj be performed with such a small amount?” Our respected father replied: “When a servant of Allah takes a step towards a good deed within his means, Allah Most High provides assistance, and even if he is unable to carry out the good deed, its reward will undoubtedly be received, insha- allah. However, mere wishes without any practical steps will lead to nothing.”

This incident was soon forgotten. After a considerable length of time, in 1956, when she passed away and her heirs assessed her belongings, a small cloth bag was discovered with the words “Money for Hajj” labeled on it. When it was opened, about sixty-five rupees were found inside. Our respected father’s eyes welled up with emotion as soon as he saw it, and it was at this point that he narrated this entire story to us. Subsequently, he used this money for our sister’s Hajj al-Badal (proxy Hajj), and in this manner arranged for her Hajj al-Badal.

Afterwards, once our respected father was in the plain of Arafah during Hajj. While he dozed off for a few moments, he had a vision in which he saw Apa Jan climbing Jabal Al-Rahmah, the mountain in Arafat. In this manner Allah Most High fulfilled the Hajj of this female slave of His. May Allah Most High shower her with infinite mercy.

The sister younger than her is respected ʿAtīqa Khātūn (may Allah preserve her for long). Māshā Allah she is very devout in her worship and leads a highly organized life. She also has the honour of having given her bayʿah (pledge of taṣawwuf/tazkiya) to Hadhrat Hakīm al-Ummah Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanwi (may Allah have mercy on him). As of today (23 February 2017 / 25 Jamādī al-Ūlā 1437 AH), to my knowledge, there is nobody alive in the world besides her who has the honour of giving bayʿah directly to Hadhrat Hakīm al-Ummah Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanwi (may Allah have mercy on him).

My respected father had a practice of spending Ramadan in Thana Bhawan in the company of Hadhrat Hakīm al-Ummah (may Allah have mercy on him). He would bring his family along during this stay, and would often reside in Hadhrat Thanwi’s own house in the room on the upper floor. The location of this room was such that a courtyard extended in front of Hadhrat’s room and this courtyard ended at a staircase which led up to this room. Since there was only one washroom, Hadhrat introduced the following signaling system. A lamp would be placed at a specific location in the courtyard. The presence of the lamp would signal to those residing in the room above that the toilet was available for use, including for ladies, with hijab facilities. If the lamp was found missing from its place, it indicated that the toilet was occupied.

This sister of mine recalls: “Our respected father resided with great respect in the upper floor, and he would remind us children to avoid making noise as not to cause any discomfort to Hadhrat Thanwi. I was a small girl at that time and was not even old enough to observe Hijab. During one such visit , our respected father instructed me to go to Hadhrat and request him for bayʿah. At first, I considered this a joke, thinking to myself: “How can bayʿah be taken from a small girl?” So when our respected father repeated the same thing, I asked: “Can children give bayʿah?” Our father replied: “Yes, of course. They can give bayʿah”. Thereafter I approached Hadhrat’s respected wife with my request for bayʿah. She informed Hadhrat: “This little girl wants to give bayʿah.” Hadhrat called me and asked: “You shall not take bayʿah as a mere toy play, right?” When I replied in the affirmative, Hadhrat gave one end of a cloth in my hand and took the other end in his own hand and performed bayʿah”. This is how she received the honour of giving bayʿah in her childhood.[4]

The marriage of this sister of mine had also taken place before my birth and she also had a daughter before I was born and a daughter who was born at around the same time as me. She lived with her husband and daughters just across from us, towards the western side. Technically, I was the uncle of two daughters and a son of respected Na’īma Khātūn and one daughter of respected ‘Atīqa Khātūn, but these nephews and nieces of mine were older than me, and all four of them were ahead of me in the maktab[5] of aunt Amat al-Hannan (whose mention will be made later insha- allah). But since the age difference was not much, they were more friends than nephews for me, and my friends circle was also limited to them. Amongst them there was only one nephew, who later became known as Mawlana Hakim Musharraf Husain (may Allah have mercy on him), so my friendship was mostly with him only. He would be the lead in all our games and I would be his sidekick.

Nevertheless, due to the significant age difference with these two elder sisters such that even their children were older than me, instead of having a relationship of sister-like informality with them, the relationship was more that of awe as one would feel from one’s guardian.

Following these two sisters, the third was our eldest brother, respected Muhammad Zaki Kaifi (may Allah have mercy on him), whom we used to call Bhai Jan. He had studied the Dars-e-Nizami curriculum at Dar al-ʿUlūm Deoband until intermediate books but was unable to complete his studies due to certain circumstances. He managed the Islamic bookstore Darul Isha’at which our esteemed father had established. Despite being unable to complete the Dars-e-Nizami syllabus, his knowledge on religious topics, notably Islamic history, biographies of prominent religious personalities, tasawwuf, and the biographies and memoirs of the senior scholars of Dār al-ʿUlūm Deoband and their sayings and writings, was so vast that even competent scholars could not match him. Furthermore, he had given bayʿah to Hadhrat Hakim al-Ummah Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanwi (may Allah have mercy on him) and had earned the affection of all the elders. Hadhrat Mufti Muhammad Hasan, Hadhrat Mawlana Muhammad Idrees Kandahlawi, Hadhrat Mawlana Dawūd Ghaznawi, Hadhrat Mawlana Rasūl Khan (may Allah have mercy on them all) used to all love him and whenever they passed by his bookstore at Anarkali, they would visit him and bestow him with the blessings of their company. Bhai Jān had a particular fondness for reciting the Noble Qur’an and would complete its recitation ten to fifteen times during the month of Ramadan. He was an excellent poet and his work titled “Kaifiyat”, to which I have written a preface, has gained widespread acceptance. His marriage took place in 1946, when I was three years old, with the daughter of Hadhrat Mawlana Muhammad Mubin Khatib (may Allah have mercy on him), who was a student of Hadhrat Shaykh al-Hind (may Allah have mercy on him) and the ancestral Khatib[6] of the Eid Gah[7] of Dar al-ʿUlūm Deoband. I also remember that before his marriage, our respected father (may Allah have mercy on him) had an extension of two rooms built towards the northern side of our house. By that time, he was the manager of our respected father’s (may Allah have mercy on him) bookstore Darul Isha’at. He was also at least fourteen years older than me, so besides the two elder sisters, his personality also inspired great awe and fear in me.

He also had a penchant for calligraphy and, as a hobby, would sometimes render a poem or words of wisdom into beautiful calligraphic writing on a large piece of paper or cardboard. One day, he was engaged in this hobby when he had to step away to attend to some work, leaving his unfinished work unattended. I walked in and began to mimic his actions. While doing so, I accidentally knocked over the inkpot so badly that the ink blotted all over his work. While I feared his personality, this fear was entirely one-sided; he had never raised his hand on me. Yet, as a result of my doing, something told me that my fear would become a reality today. However, I had no clue with regards to the severity of what was going to come my way, so that I could brace myself for the blow. With these thoughts rushing through my mind, I darted towards my other siblings, leaving the ink-stained papers behind, and began asking around: “How hard does Bhai Jan’s hand hit?” (meaning: “when Bhai Jan slaps, how hard is the blow?”) My siblings, who were hitherto unaware of my blunder, threw a puzzled look at me, wondering why I would need to investigate the intensity of Bhai Jan’s slap all of a sudden. When I narrated my tale, they burst into fits of laughter. And when Bhai Jan came to know of the entire episode, instead of answering my question with a practical demonstration, he found my behaviour rather amusing. From that day onwards, my question became a running family joke which was shared in gatherings as the latest entry to my catalogue of ingenuities.

Later on, Bhai Jan made me very informal and open with himself and our relationship evolved into friendship, so-much-so that at times I felt embarrassed after joking with him, fearing that I may have overstepped the boundaries of propriety. It was a result of this openness and informality that we would consider every moment spent with him a blessing. He also kept a close eye on our activities at Dar al-ʿUlum and would bestow us with valuable counsels from time to time. From the time I began to write, he would read each of my writings with earnestness and would give constructive feedback and advice. I wrote the book Hadhrat Muʿāwiya Aur Tārīkhī Ḥaqāiq (“Hadhrat Muawiya and Historical Facts”) at his request, about which I will discuss later inshā-Allah.[8]

(…to be continued)

[1] Translator: This is an idiom the figurative meaning of which is “Don’t take the trouble of visiting us” but the literal meaning has connotations towards the feet and also towards displeasing someone.
[2] Translator: The Urdu word Hadhrat is referring to is “ghurna”
[3] Translator: ānā: one-sixteenth of a rupee
[4] It should be clear here that the actual objective of bayʿah is only achieved after reaching puberty, but the blessings of entering the Silsila (spiritual order) can be acquired even in childhood.
[5] Translator: Maktab: Elementary Islamic school
[6] Translator: Khatīb: One who delivers the sermon for Friday or Eid prayers
[7] Translator: Eid Gah: Place where Eid prayers are conducted
[8] I wrote about him at some length in Al-Balagh upon his passing, which has been published in my book Nuqūsh-e-Raftagān.