Literary Contributions

Mawlana Thanawi was a prolific author. His literary contributions “range from 800 to 1000 in the shape of sermons, discussions, discourses, treatises, and books of high standard and quality” (Khwaja vii). Sayyid Sulayman Nadwi said, “Mawlana Thanawi was a translator and exegete (mufassir) of the Qur’an. He explained its injunctions and wisdoms. He removed doubts and answered questions pertaining to the Qur’an. Mawlana Thanawi was a scholar of hadith (muhaddith) and expounded its intricacies and subtleties. He was a jurist (faqih) who issued thousands of legal rulings (fatawa). He solved many legal problems in contemporary issues in Islamic jurisprudence and answered them with the utmost caution and credible research. He was a moving orator (khatib) whose speech was infused with all skills of oration. He was an excellent admonisher (wa‘iz) and hundreds of his speeches have been published and widely circulated.

Mawlana Thanawi was a mystic (Sufi) who revealed the secrets and subtleties of Islamic mysticism. His personality put an end to the battle that had been going on for some time between Shari‘a and tasawwuf by unifying these two essential parts of Islam” (Alwi 293). His books answered the objections raised against Islam by Orientalists and Modernists. “[His] analysis and refutation of the principles of modernism is not a merely theoretical exercise, but is meant to remove the obstacles to intellectual and spiritual understanding and growth for the pious and practicing Muslim” (Naeem 81).

His Arabic writings include Sabq al-ghayat fi nasaq al-ayat, Anwar al-Wujud, Al-Tajalli wa ’l-azim, Hawashi Tafsir Bayan al-Qur’an, Taswir al-muqatta‘at, Al-Talkhisat al-‘ashar, Mi’at durus, Al-Khutab al-ma’thura, Wujuh al-Mathani, Ziyadat, Jami‘ al-Athar, and Ta’yid al- Haqiqa.

Among his Persian books are Mathnawi zer-o bam, Ta‘liqat-e Farsi, ‘Aqa’id baniy-e kalij.

The rest of his books were written in the Urdu language, the most famous of which is Behishti Zewar [Heavenly Ornaments], which has become a handbook for leading an Islamic life in the Muslim household. Although Mawlana Thanawi was the most prolific author of his times, he did not use any of his books as a source of income.