Students and Disciples

Mawlana Thanawi’s students and disciples constitute a generation of leading scholars of South Asia. His disciples settled in all parts of South Asia and served humanity in many different ways. Among his famous disciples are Qari Muhammad Tayyib Qasimi (grandson of the founder of Dar al- ‘Ulum Deoband, Mawlana Muhammad Qasim Nanotwi, and head principal of Dar al- ‘Ulum Deoband for over fifty years, from the early 1930s to the early 1980s), Mawlana Muhammad Masihullah Khan (founder of Madrasa Miftah al- ‘Ulum in Jalalabad, India, and a leading spiritual figure of the past century), Mufti Muhammad Shafi ‘ (head mufti of Dar al- ‘Ulum Deoband before partition and, after migrating to Pakistan, founder of Dar al- ‘Ulum Karachi, one of the largest academies of religious sciences today in Pakistan, and, also the former Grand Mufti of Pakistan), Mufti Muhammad Hasan of Amritsar (founder of Jami ‘a Ashrafiyya, Lahore, Pakistan), Mawlana Khayr Muhammad Jalandhary (founder of Jami ‘a Khayr al-Madaris, Multan, Pakistan), Mawlana ‘Abd al-Bari Nadwi (renowned theologian and philosopher in India who taught modern philosophy at Osmania University in Hyderabad and translated the books of Western philosophers, such as Descartes, into Urdu and left behind many valuable literary tracts), Sayyid Sulayman Nadwi (great researcher and the outstanding student of Shibli Nu ‘mani who turned to Mawlana Thanawi for spiritual reformation), Mawlana Muhammad Ilyas (founder of the Tabligh Movement), Mawlana ‘Abd al-Majid Daryabadi, Mawlana Athar ‘Ali of Silhet, Mawlana Shams al-Haqq Faridpuri, Mawlana Muhammad ‘Abd al-Ghani Phulpuri, Mawlana Shah Muhammad Abrar al- Haqq of Hardoi, Khwaja ‘Aziz al-Hasan Majdhub (great poet and mystic, author of Ashraf al-sawanih, a four volume biography of Mawlana Thanawi), Mawlana Muhammad Idris Kandhlawi (author of Ma‘arif al-Qur’an, a commentary of the Qur’an, and Al-Ta‘liq al- sabih, a commentary of Tabrizi’s hadith collection Mishkat al-Masabih), Mawlana Zafar Ahmad ‘Uthmani (author of the twenty-two volume compendium in Hanafi Law, I‘la’ al-Sunan), Mufti Jamil Ahmad Thanawi, Mawlana Shabbir ‘Ali Thanawi, Dr. ‘Abd al- Hayy ‘Arifi, Mawlana Muhammad ‘Isa of Allahabad, Mawlana ‘Abd al-Hamid of North Waziristan, Mawlana ‘Abd al-Salam of Nawshehra, Mawlana Muhammad Sa ‘id of Madras, Mawlana Wasi’ullah of Fatehpur, Mawlana ‘Abd al-Rahman Kamilpuri, Mawlana Jalil Ahmad of Aligarh, Mawlana Murtada Hasan of Chandpur, Mawlana Asadullah of Rampur (head principal of Madrasa Mazahir ‘Ulum in Saharanpur for many years), Mawlana Faqir Muhammad of Peshawar, Mawlana Muhammad Yusuf Binnori (author of Ma‘arif al-Sunan, a commentary on the Sunan of Imam Tirmidhi), Mawlana Muhammad Na ‘im of Kabul, and Mufti ‘Abd al-Karim of Gamthla.