Rahmat Allâh Kairânawî or Rahmatullah Kairanvi (رحمت الله الكيراناوي)
(91-1818) was a
MuslimA Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
scholar and
authorAn author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. He is best known for his grand work,
Izhar ul-HaqqIzhar ul-Haqq or Izhar al-Haq is Rahmatullah Kairanawi's magnum opus. Originally written in Arabic in 1864, this six-volume book was later translated into English, Turkish and Urdu.Christine Schirrmacher describes the book saying:...
.
Background
Kairanawi was born in
KairanaKairana is a historical city and a municipal board and tehsil in Muzaffarnagar district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.-Geography:Kairana is located at . It has an average elevation of 242 metres .It is also near of river Yamuna...
, India during the last years of the
Mughal EmpireThe Mughal Empire , or Mogul Empire in traditional English usage, was an imperial power from the Indian Subcontinent. The Mughal emperors were descendants of the Timurids...
. A full family tree that goes back to the third Caliph, Uthman Ibn Affan, is mentioned in family sources. Part of the family wealth, large property in Kairana, was granted by
Akbar the GreatAkbar , also known as Shahanshah Akbar-e-Azam or Akbar the Great , was the third Mughal Emperor. He was of Timurid descent; the son of Emperor Humayun, and the grandson of the Mughal Emperor Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babur, the ruler who founded the Mughal dynasty in India...
following a successful treatment by some of Kairanawani's grandfathers. Many family members held high positions and/or were intellectuals. Kairanawani began receiving traditional Islamic education at the age of 6, memorizing the Qur'an at 12. He also learned Arabic and Persian. Later he moved to Delhi where he studied different disciplines including mathematics and medicine. Working as a
MuftiA mufti is a Sunni Islamic scholar who is an interpreter or expounder of Islamic law . In religious administrative terms, a mufti is roughly equivalent to a deacon to a Sunni population...
and
ShariaSharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
teacher, he founded a religious school in Kariana. He had to quit and dedicate his time to writing and refuting missionaries, whose activities were increasing at the time.
Debate with Pfander
In 1837 the
Church Mission SocietyThe Church Mission Society, also known as the Church Missionary Society, is a group of evangelistic societies working with the Anglican Communion and Protestant Christians around the world...
appointed
Karl Gottlieb PfanderKarl Gottlieb Pfander was born in Württemberg in southern Germany. His background lay in the Pietist wing of the Lutheran state church, with its strong tradition of disciplined Christian living popular with evangelical craftsmen, tradesmen, and shopkeepers.-Biography:One of nine children, the son...
, described by Eugene Stock as "perhaps the greatest of all missionaries to Mohammedans", to Agra in northern India, where in 1854 he engaged in a famous public debate with leading Islamic scholars. The main Muslim debater was Kairanawi, being assisted by English-speaking Dr.
Muhammad Wazîr KhânMuhammad Wazir Khan was the second ruler of the princely state of Tonk .He was the son of Muhammad Amir Khan whom he succeeded. During the Indian Rebellion of 1857 he allied himself with the British and repulsed rebels.-References:...
. The debate itself went badly for Pfander. Kairanawani used arguments from European theologically critical works, and arguments from the Catholic missionaries in India, who strongly disliked the work of their Protestant colleagues. Pfander was unable to respond to this criticism since his books only responded to the traditional Muslim charges against Christianity and he decided to withdraw from the debate.
Indian Rebellion of 1857
Following
armed uprisingsThe Indian Rebellion of 1857 began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to...
against the British which he personally took part in, Kairanawani had to leave all his property (auctioned later), run for his life, and board a ship in Bombay. Arriving at the port of
Mocha, YemenMocha or Mokha is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Until it was eclipsed in the 19th century by Aden and Hodeida, Mocha was the principal port for Yemen's capital Sana'a.-Overview:...
, it is claimed he walked to
MeccaMecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
. The full journey took 2 years.
Author
Kairanawi wrote many books in Arabic, Persian and Urdu. Some of his books have not been published.
Izhar ul-Haq (Truth Revealed)
Written originally in Arabic, this book in six volumes was translated later into Urdu, and from Urdu into a summarized English version
http://www.islam4all.com/newpage81.htm published by
Ta-Ha. The book aims to respond to Christian criticism of Islam. It is the first Muslim book to use Western scholarly works in order to ascertain the errors and contradictions of the bible. The doctrine of Trinity is purportedly contested using biblical, Christian and other sources.
Christine Schirrmacher, a German scholar of Islamic Studies, states in an article on the Pfander-Kairanawi debate:
The Madrasa Sawlatia
While residing in Mecca, Kairanawi founded a religious school there, the Madrasa Saulatia.
http://www.kairana.net/kairanvi-arbi.htm