Allama Sayyed Sulaiman Nadvi (
UrduUrdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...
:
سید سلیمان ندوی) (November 22, 1884 - November 22, 1953) was an eminent
IndianThe demographics of India are inclusive of the second most populous country in the world, with over 1.21 billion people , more than a sixth of the world's population. Already containing 17.5% of the world's population, India is projected to be the world's most populous country by 2025, surpassing...
and
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i
historianA historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
, biographer, littérateur and scholar of
IslamIslam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. He is the author of monumental works,
Sirat-un-NabiSirat-un-Nabi is arguably one of the greatest and most authentic Sirah Rasul Allah of the Prophet Muhammad, written in Urdu by Shibli Nomani and his student, Syed Sulaiman Nadvi in 6 volumes....
(Life of
Holy ProphetMuhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
) and
Khutbat-e-Madras.
Early life and education
Sulaiman Nadvi was born on November 22, 1884 in Desna village of
PatnaPaṭnā , is the capital of the Indian state of Bihar and the second largest city in Eastern India . Patna is one of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world...
, British India. His father, Hakeem Sayyed Abul Hasan was a pious Sufi.
His first teachers were Khalifa Anwar Ali of Desna and Maulvi Maqsood Ali of Ookhdi. Later he received his education from his elder brother, Hakeem Sayyed Abu Habeeb and his father, who was a physician at Islampur near Patna. In 1899 he went to Phulwari Sharif (Bihar) where at the famous Khanqah-e-Mojeebia he became a disciple of Maulana Mohiuddin and of Shah Sulaiman Phulwari. From there he went to Darbhanga where he studied for a few months at Madrasa-e-Imdadia.
In 1901, he was admitted into
Dar-ul-Uloom Nadva at
LucknowLucknow is the capital city of Uttar Pradesh in India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division....
. He studied for seven years at Nadva. He was also appointed sub-editor of the journal,
An-Nadwa. Young Sulaiman's first article,
Waqt (Time) was published in the monthly Urdu Journal
Makhzan edited by Sir Sheikh Abdul Qadir. In 1906, he graduated from the Nadva. In 1908, Sulaiman Nadvi was appointed an instructor of Modern Arabic and Dogmatic Theology at Dar-ul-Uloom Nadva.
Aligarh Muslim UniversityAligarh Muslim University ,is a residential academic university, established in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan as Mohammedan Angelo-Oriental College and later granted the status of Central University by an Act of the Indian Parliament in 1920...
conferred on him the honorary degree of Doctorate of Literature (DLitt) in 1940.
Contribution to Islamic literature
In 1910, Shibli Nomani had begun the monumental task of writing
Sirat-un-NabiSirat-un-Nabi is arguably one of the greatest and most authentic Sirah Rasul Allah of the Prophet Muhammad, written in Urdu by Shibli Nomani and his student, Syed Sulaiman Nadvi in 6 volumes....
(biography of Muhammad in Urdu), but could not complete it. Sulaiman Nadvi after death of his mentor Maulana Shibli on November 18, 1914, left the job of Professor in
Deccan CollegeDeccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute is a post-graduate institute of Archeology and Linguistics in Pune, India.Established October 6, 1821, Deccan College is one of the oldest institutions of modern learning in India...
,
PunePune , is the eighth largest metropolis in India, the second largest in the state of Maharashtra after Mumbai, and the largest city in the Western Ghats. Once the centre of power of the Maratha Empire, it is situated 560 metres above sea level on the Deccan plateau at the confluence of the Mula ...
and came over to
AzamgarhAzamgarh is a town in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is headquarters of Azamgarh district and Azamgarh Division.-History:Azamgarh, one of the easternmost districts of the State, once formed a part of the ancient Kosala kingdom, except the north-eastern part of it which was included in the...
. Sulaiman not only edited and published the two volumes of Sirat-un-Nabi penned by Shibli but also himself wrote and published third, fourth, fifth and sixth volume of this Magnum Opus. The work started through the munificence of late Nawab Sultan Jehan Begum of
Bhopal and later through the aid of Nizam of Hyderabad. It is the grandest biography of Muhammed ever attempted in any language of the world.
In October–November 1925, Sulaiman Nadvi delivered a series of eight lectures on the life of Muhammad (sallalah-u-alayh-e-wa-sallam صلی اللہ علیہ والہ وسلم) at Madras. These lectures which are a masterpiece of erudition later published as
Khutbat-e-Madras.
In 1940, he published
Rahmat-e-Aalam, a book written for children on the life of Muhammad (sallalah-u-alayh-e-wa-sallam صلی اللہ علیہ والہ وسلم).
In 1933, he brought out his monumental work,
Khayyam. The nucleus of this book was an article on noted Persian scholar and poet
Omar KhayyamOmar Khayyám was aPersian polymath: philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, mineralogy, music, climatology and theology....
..
Syed Sulaiman Nadwi and some other thinkers who wanted Hindu-Muslim unity in British India even suggested that the term ‘Urdu’ be abandoned in favour of ‘Hindustani’ because the former conjured up the image of a military conquest and war whereas the latter had no such symbolic baggage.
Sulaiman Nadvi founded Dar-ul-Mosannefeen (Academy of Authors) also known as the Shibli Academy at
AzamgarhAzamgarh is a town in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is headquarters of Azamgarh district and Azamgarh Division.-History:Azamgarh, one of the easternmost districts of the State, once formed a part of the ancient Kosala kingdom, except the north-eastern part of it which was included in the...
. The first book published was Ard-ul-Quran (2 volumes).
Migration to Pakistan
After
partition of IndiaThe Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
, Sayyaed Sulaiman Nadvi migrated to Pakistan in June 1950 and settled in
KarachiKarachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
. He was appointed Chairman of Taleemat-e-Islami Board to advise the Islamic aspects of Pakistan's constitution. He died on November 22, 1953 in Karachi at the age of 69.
Work
- Sirat-un-Nabi
Sirat-un-Nabi is arguably one of the greatest and most authentic Sirah Rasul Allah of the Prophet Muhammad, written in Urdu by Shibli Nomani and his student, Syed Sulaiman Nadvi in 6 volumes....
- Ardh al-Quran
- Seerat-e-Aisha
- Durûs-ul-Adab
- Khutbat-e-Madras
- Rahmat-e-Aalam
- Naqûsh-e-Sulaimân
- Hayât Imâm Mâlik
- Ahl-us-Sunnah-wal-Jamâ'ah
- Yâd-e-Raftagân
- Barîd Farang
- Seir-e-Afghânistân
- Maqâlât-e-Sulaimân
- Khayyam
- Rahmat-e-Aalam
- Hayat-e-Shibli
External links
- http://khanqahashrafiya.blogspot.com/search/label/Allama%20Hazrat%20Saiyid%20Sulaiman%20Nadvi%20r.a
- http://ccminc.faithweb.com/iqra/people/sulnadvi.html
- http://www.salaam.co.uk/knowledge/biography/viewentry.php?id=1630
- http://jmi.nic.in/HistoryofJamia.htm
- http://shibliacademy.blogspot.com/
- Khayam by Sulaiman Nadvi Online