Allama Sayyed Sulaiman Nadvi (
UrduUrdu is a Central Indo-Aryan language of the Indo-Iranian branch, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages. It is one of the two official languages of Pakistan. It is also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of five Indian states...
:
سید سلیمان ندوی) (November 22, 1884 - November 22, 1953) was an eminent
IndianThe demographics of India is remarkably diverse. India's population of approximately 1.17 billion people consists of approximately one-sixth of the world's population...
and
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
i
historianAn historian is an individual who studies and writes about history, 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 events in time...
, biographer, littérateur and scholar of
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
. 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 ibn ‘Abdullāh , is the founder of the religion of Islam [ إِسْلامْ ] and is regarded by Muslims as a messenger and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets as taught by the...
) 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.The modern city of Patna is situated on the southern bank of the Ganges. The city also straddles the rivers Kosi, Sone and Gandak. Patna is approximately 25 km long and 9 km to 10 km wide...
, British India. His father, Hakeem Sayyed Abdul 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, the most populous state of India. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of Lucknow District and Lucknow Division...
. He studied for seven years at Nadva. Young Sulaiman's first article,
Waqt (Time) was published in the monthly Urdu Journal
Makhzan edited by Sir Sheikh Abdul Qadir. In 1905,
Maulana ShibliAllama Shibli Nomani was an Indian scholar on Islam. He was born at Bindwal in Azamgarh district of present-day Uttar Pradesh. He is known for the founding the Shibli National College in 1883 and the Darul Mussanifin in Azamgarh. Shibli was a versatile scholar in Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Turkish...
came to Lucknow as Secretary of Nadva. Sulaiman came under the influence of Shibli whose literary heir he was destined to be. There was another student at Nadva at this time who came from Calcutta. He was none but Abul Kalam Azad. Both Sulaiman and Azad were favourite pupils of Maulana Shibli Nomani. Soon Sulaiman was chosen to carry on Maulana Shibli's work. In 1906, he graduated from the Nadva. Shibli appointed Sayyed Sulaiman sub-editor of journal,
An-Nadwa. 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 Institution. It was established in 1875 by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and in 1920 it was granted a status of Central University by an Act of Indian Parliament. It is located in the city of Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India...
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). Sulaiman Nadvi became Shibli's literary assistant in the writing of Sirat. But Maulana Shibli Nomani could not complete the Sirat in his life. After death of his mentor on November 18 1914, Sulaiman Nadvi 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 , formerly known as Punawadi or Punya-Nagari or Poona, is the eighth largest city in India, and the second largest in the state of Maharashtra, after Mumbai...
and came over to
Azamgarh-Early History:Azamgarh -a town and the district headquarters of the district of Azamgarh in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India.Like most big settlements of Northern India, Azamgarh too, is situated on the banks of a river—in this case on the Tons River. Azamgarh was founded around 1665, by a...
. Sulaiman edited and published the two volumes of Sirat-un-Nabi penned by Shibli and himself wrote and published third, forth, fifth and sixth volume of this Magnum Opus. The work started through the munificence of late Nawab Sulatan Jehan Begum of
BhopalBhopāl is the capital of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarter of Bhopal District and Bhopal Division. Bhopal is known as the Lake city as its landscape is dotted with a number of natural lakes.Bhopal is also one of the greenest cities of India.Historically, 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 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.
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 a Persian polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and poet. He also wrote treatises on mechanics, geography, music and was a physicist....
.
His mentor, Maulana Shibli Nomani had made plans for Dar-ul-Mosannefeen (Academy of Authors) but could not implement this scheme. After his death, Sulaiman Nadvi founded Dar-ul-Mosannefeen at
Azamgarh-Early History:Azamgarh -a town and the district headquarters of the district of Azamgarh in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India.Like most big settlements of Northern India, Azamgarh too, is situated on the banks of a river—in this case on the Tons River. Azamgarh was founded around 1665, by a...
. 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 that led to the creation, on August 14, 1947 and August 15, 1947, respectively, of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India...
, Sayyaed Sulaiman Nadvi migrated to Pakistan in June 1950 and settled in
Karachiis the largest city, main seaport and the financial capital of Pakistan, and the capital of the province of Sindh. It is the 3rd largest city in the world by population and 20th largest city of the world, in terms of metropolitan population. It is Pakistan's premier centre of banking, industry, and...
. 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
External links
- http://shibliacademy.blogspot.com/
- 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