an interview with mualana muhammad kalim siddiqi

About the progress of the Islamic Dawah in North India

An Interview with Mualana Muhammad

Kalim Siddiqi

Extracted By

M.M. Umar Nasihi Nadwi

Compiled By

Mufti Raushan Shah Qasmi

Published By

Maktaba Shah Wali Allah

B 1/25 – Rahman Complex, Batla House Chawk Joga Bai, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi 110025

2 An Interview with …

Name of the Book : An Interview with Mualana

Muhammad Kalim Siddiqi

Extraction by : M. M. Umar Nasihi Nadvi

Compilation : M. M. Raushan Shah Qasmi

English Translation : Md. Ibrahim Khan

Total Pages : 91

Upload by : [email protected]

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Edition : ………Year

Published By : Maktaba Shah Wali Allah

B 1/25 – Rahman Complex,

Batla House Chawk Joga

Bai, Jamia Nagar, New Delhi

110025

mailto:[email protected]

An Interview with… 3

Preface to the first Urdu edition

Praising Allah, and invoking His blessings on His Highly-placed Messenger, Muhammad.

It Has been the practice of Allah that He places the love of His. virtuous and beloved servants in the hearts of the people. Thus the virtuous and beloved servants become the king of the hearts and brain of people without wearing a royal crown. This fact has been mentioned in the Book of Allah in the following eternal words:

“Indeed, those who have believed and done righteous deeds - the Most Merciful will appoint for them affection. (Maryam 19:96)”

The same point has been explained by the Holy Prophet in his following words:

“When Allah ta’ala loves a servant of His, He tells the angel Jibril (peace be upon him), ‘I like the servant so and so, love him you too. So, Jibril begins to love him. Then he announces across the heavens that ‘the servant so and so has won the liking and love of Allah. So let him be loved by you all’. So the heavenly people begin to love him. Thereafter his love and approval is placed on the earth, and the earthly people too begin to love him (Bukhari Sharif, Hadith No. 2970).


That the people, apart from their different sectarian affiliations and diverse ideological considerations, love Maulana Muhammad Kalim Siddiq, the preacher of Islam, is nothing but a phenomenal reflection of the same Divine love. Allah ta’ala has planted so strongly his love in the hearts of the people as they seem always restless to see and meet him. Moved by the strong feelings of love towards him, people are keenly desirous to know the details and the developments of his life. Quite opposed to this ardent wish of the people, the PEOPLE OF ALLLAH are always keen to hide themselves under the cover of humility and maintain complete secrecy about the details of their lives and their spiritual developments. Maulana Md. Kalim Siddiqi, as has rightly observed brother Harun Mauza Wala of Mumbai, ranks very high as compared to other men of the age. He never liked to make public the personal details of his life.

In the year 2004, the al- Hasanat, a Rampur-based leading Islamic monthly, had published a brief interview of Maulana. With a view to append to the book Nasim-e-Hidayat ke Jhonke, I made a request to him to give an interview, but the Maulana declined my request. At my repeated earnest request he consented to give an interview only when I told him that the publication of such an interview might be of use for the interest of Dawah. It


was a fortunate coincidence that in the Blessed month of Ramadhan of year 1430 A.H. brother Maulana Md. Umar Nasihi Nadwi had recorded and then committed to writing the answers to his some questions he had put to him in relation to the private sphere of his life. I’m grateful to brother Maulana Wasi Sulaiman Nadwi (editor of the Armaghan). It is his good efforts that this interview got published. My thanks are also due to brother Maulana Nasihi to provide me this valuable material. We are glad that Maulana’s this detailed interview is being published in the book form. This interview, it is hoped, will prove a useful and important milestone for the workers in the sphere of dawah and refresh their determination. Keeping in view the benefit of it for the common people as well, the interview is being published separately in book form. May Allah bless our this effort with His good acceptance.

Roshan Shah Qasmi Sonorwi

Friday, 23 Jamadi I 1431

7 May, 2010


An Interview with Maulana Muhammad Kalim Siddiqi

Congratulations to the readers of the Armughan magazine. For long time many of its readers had keenly been asking that an interview of Maulana Md. Kalim Siddiqi should published in the pages of the Armaghan. The Maulana, however, turned down our request each time to give an interview in order to be published. Brother Maulana Umar Nasihi, a young alim and an active worker in the sphere of dawah, deserves thanks for his recording a private interview in the blessed month of Ramadhan of the year 1430 A.H. and for committing it to writing on the insistence of Mufti Muhammad Raushan Shah under the permission of the Hazrat. (Editor)

Q. For a long time the fellow workers have keenly been asking that information about your self, your childhood, establishment of relationship with the Ulama, Aulia and your association with the task of dawha should be extracted from you and then be committed to writing. Would you like to oblige us by granting the same information to us so that we can benefit from it?

Ans. What kind of benefit do you expect from the biographical details of a person as inactive as I am? As regards the information asked, the most of it I have often been telling the people.


Being a member of the same household, you must have come across those detail as well.

Q. In contrast to the memory, it will seem more pleasant to hear those things directly from you. First of all, we would like to have some information regarding your birth, childhood and your household background.

Ans. Yes, I feel very much pleased to recount and recall the limitless fovour and grace which Allah ta’ala had begun to pour over this sinful, humble person at my birth rather, prior to my birth like the rain. Whenever I happened to write my first letter to my great patron elders and Ulama, I never missed to start the correspondence with the celebrated couplet of the historic Urdu poet Chakbast since it portrays myself well:

Likha hai daware mehshar ne meri fard-e-isyan par

Ye wo banda hai jis par naaz karta hai karam mera.

(“On my chargesheet the Master of the Day of Judgment wrote that of this servant boasts My forgiveness and magnanimity”).

From among the countless favors and graces which Allah ta’ala bestowed upon me without demand and ability the most enviable and proudable one being that the time of his birth coincided with the birth of the Last


Prophet in terms of date, day and time. Phulat (a bigger village in the Muzaffar Nagar district UP, India), is my native village, which, according to the description of the Late Maulana Manazir Ahsan Gilani, is the centre of India, keeping in consideration its unequalled services for the religious revival of country. The habitation of Phulat holds a distinction that its foundation stone was placed by Haz. Qazi Yusuf Nasihi (the religious mentor and teacher of the Monarch Sikandar Lodhi and the Monarch Bahlol Lodhi), in 861 A.H., who did so after offering two raka’ats by starting to teach his pupils under an acacia tree. Since the year mentioned till the present day the succession of learning and teaching has been in continuation. Now, under the aegis of my murhsid Haz. Maulana Sayyid Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, it has transformed into Jamiatul Imam Wali Allah. This seat of learning has the honour to be the spiritual mother not of Hazrat Shah Wali Allah alone, its intellectual beneficiaries include, based on the age-long historic succession of the learning and teaching traditions of it, the great epoch-making men of the Muslim India like Hazrat Shikh Ahmad Sarhindi the Renovator of the Second Millennium, his Sheikh and mentor Hazrat Khwajah Baqi Billah, Shaikh Ali Muttaqi Burhanpuri (the grandson of Qazi Yusuf Nasihi, Shaikh Abdul Haq the great scholar in Hadith, Shah Abdur Rahim, the great father of Haz. Shah Wali Allah, the latter’s grandfather Shaikh Wajih-al-Din the martyre, who, at the behest of his murshid Shah Abul Fath, the successor and heir to the seat of Haz. Nizam Narnolvi, had


migrated to Phulat from Ruhtak (Haryana). The village of Phulat, likewise, has the honour of being the commencement point of Haz. Sayyid Ahmad Shahid’s historic jihad movement. In a Siddiqi household of the same habitation (which is the descendent of Qazi Yusuf Nasihi and which has the honour to be Shah Wali Allah’s maternal household) my birth took place.

As regards my father, he was Haji Md. Amin, who, in his very childhood, had entered into the bai’at of Haz. Shaikh Bahau Din Chanderwi, a great spiritual mentor belonging to the order of Haz. Sayyid Ahmad Shahid, in the company of my grandfather. Then he entered into the baiat of Haz. Shaikhul Hind Maulana Mahmoodul Hasan. Ideologically, he was more akin to Hazrat Maulana Asraf Ali Thanwi. Between him and the late Maulana Asadullah, Shaikhul Hadith Haz. Maulana Md. Zakaria Kandhalawi, Haz Maulana Qari Md. Tayyib existed a close relationship. He was one of the great landlords of the area. He lived a very simple life, yet he was a man of high thinking. In farming too he always maintained high standard. In the western utter Pradesh it was my father who first of all placed the order of purchase of two tractors from England for the purpose of farming and with which two engineers came from England and stayed at Phulat for two months to guide the handling of the tractors.

Moved by his love, affection and generosity, the non-Muslims generally called


him as miyan ji and used other similar appellations for him. Strictly punctual to his religious duties and the principles of living a committed life, he hardly missed the pre-dawn (Tahajjuad) prayer and the regular prayers practices during the last sixty years of his life. He always maintained a sympathetic attitude towards all; he was known for his fogginess, kind disposition and the simplicity of his living standard. His clean and life-long unstained character and his clean image in his financial dealings with others had won him an unequalled goodwill. My grandfather, Haji Zuhural Allah, was from among the beneficiaries of Haz. Gangohi, and had a sufistic disposition.

As regards my mother, her name was Zubaida Khatun. She descended from the Bariha Saadat and belonged to Ratheri of the Muzaffar Nagar district. She was the third wife of my father. First time my father married the widow of his maternal uncle, who was older than him in age. After her death he married second time a woman from his village, Phulat. Sooner, she too suffered death. Third time he married my mother, who, in respect of age, was younger than he. She possessed high moral standard and was affectionate towards the poor. Throughout her life she acted upon the following hadith of the Apostle of Allah.

“Establish and maintain relationship with one who sundered it from you, forgive one who


wronged you, give one who deprived you and do good to one who did wrong to you”

Her life was an epitome of this hadith and the high morals mentioned in it clearly mirrored in her morality. She often would kindly made my good mention before my brothers and sisters and it pleased me very much. She often said that in his childhood Kalim, that is, this humble person, never put me at trouble. This was also a favour of Allah unto me. I have two elder brothers, three sisters and one brother and two sisters are younger to me.

My Education.

As far as my education is concerned, I completed the earlier phase of my education in the historic madrasa on which was founded the village of Phulat, which, later, was named by Haz. Maulana Rasheed Ahad Gangohi (may Allah deal him with mercy) as Fizul Islam, after Maulana Faiz Ahmad Phulati, a beneficiary and disciple of Maulana Gangohi. This historic seminary has now assumed the status of a multi-pronged institution of religious education and has been renamed as Jamia-al-Imam Shah Wali Allah. Gandi Ji visited this historic institution in 1929 and wrote very good words in his inspection report. In the tender age of less than four years my elder brother brought me to the same institution for admission in the standard first. Since it was against the law to get a child of an age less than five years admitted to the first standard, my brother had


to get my age written as of five years, one year more than my actual age. I completed the learning of the Arabic alphabets and the thirtieth part of the Qur'an (which commonly, is taught to the children first with a view to facilitate the reading of the Qur’an) in the period of one month. Then the interest got intensified to learn the rest of the Qur'an, and within a period of four days I learnt the entire text of the Quran and on the fifth day the teacher asked me to read and recite the text of the Qur’an from here and there. On my passing the examination of the Qur’anic text the simple sweet was distributed. While passing through the class fifth of the school education I started the memorization of the Qur’an. After committing seven parts to my memory, I got admission to the sixth standard in a school at Khatoli. I successfully completed and passed the twelfth class from Inter college. I was still a student of the class six that an Arabian Jamaat visited Phulat. Under the permission of its Amir, who happened to be an African Gujarti, I spent three days in the Tablihi Jamat. Thereafter my interest and natural inclination to the Tablighi movement prompted me to join it.

My Association with the Tabligh Movement

At Phulat lived a great man of knowledge and piety whose name was Maulana Allaud Din. He was the spiritual murshid of my mother and an advisor to my father on religious matters. It is he who named me and all my brothers and sisters. Before launching the historic movement of Tabligh, its founder, Haz Maunala Md. Ilyas,


journeyed to Phulat to seek his advice on the initiation of the movement, Maulana Allaud-Din was held in high esteem by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi, who was generally called as bare maulavi sb. (the great Maulana) by the people of the area. Out of his extraordinary respectful position the Tabligh fellows did not urge the people of Phulat to form the jama’at and go out of the village to do the work of Tabligh. By people of Phulat this was wrongly taken as they needed not join the Bhighi movement and go out of the village for the work of Tablish. To me this was a displeasing fact. To revive the work of Tabligh at Phulat I constituted a group of my fellow children and initiated the work. Sometimes we received support and assistance from some aged persons as well. My interest in the work of Tabligh affected my attendance in the school. This initially caused bad impression on the minds of my teachers. But my good performance in the examination helped me win their confidence and trust. After passing the Intermediate examination, I earned my B. Sc degree from Meerut College. Thereafter I appeared in the Pre-medical Test, which, during those days, was held uniformally on the national level to grant admission to the MBBS course for the successful aspirants. Gratitude to Allah, in this national test I secured the fifty-eight position. Many medical colleges wrote to me letters of congratulations and made the offer to get admission in their college. Such was my doings, but Allah wished otherwise. He took His mercy on me, thanks to my sincerity towards the virtuous men and close relationship with them. Out of His sheer


grace, He brought me to the feet of the late Haz. Maulana Sayyid Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi. Thanks to the blessings of my relations with Hazrat Maulana, I got admission to the special class of the Islamic learning and abandoned the intention to pursue the MBBS. Since I had not communicated the news of my success in the Premedical Test to my elder family members and the brothers, when they came to know my decision, they initially disliked it, but soon they were happy to note that I chose the religious line for education. My murshid charged Maulana Md. Arif Sambhali and Maulana Shahbaz Islahi to closely watch my progress and give special care to me. In compliance to the order of my murshid both the said Maulanas gave me exclusive time in the masjid of the Nadwatul Ulama. During my stay at the Nadwa I could attain nothing except wasting time there. Then some problems developed and Haz Maulana (my murshid) sent me to work in the apostacy-hit area of Haryana. This way I could not complete my course at the Nadwa and returned back to Phulat. People began to call me Maulana. Initially I tried my best to persuade them against this, but later I turned senseless and gave in.

Q. Once you were telling the event of Haz Maluana’s addressing you as Maulavi. Please give some detail of the event.

Ans. While living at Phulat the people of the locality and the employed farming staff would address me as bhai sahab. Prior to my


admission in the Nadwa, once I happened to visit my murshid at the Takyah Shah Alamullah Hasani (Rai Bareilly U.P. India). From the Masjid I went to the bunglow where he was staying. Seeing me, the Haz Maulana addressed me, ‘come maulawi Kalim Siddiqi; upon my return to Phulat whoever saw me addressed me as Maulana sb. maulwi sb. Initially I resisted, but all in vain, and I had to accept. The appellation spoken by my murshid was made common by Allah Ta’ala.

Q. The event of your marriage merits mention. Some details?

Ans. In the year 1980 I got the honour to perform the Hajj of the Holy House on Saudi Royal invitation in company of my murshid, to whom the invitation was actually extended. I stayed in the Kingdom along with the murshid for a period of thirteen days. During those days the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was under the rule of King Khalid, who kindly accorded a very respectful treatment to us. After my return to India I wrote the letter of thanks to the King and expressed my regret on my early return from the blessed land. This moved the King and he, merely out of his kindness, made arrangements for my admission in the Madina University.

By some sources I also learnt that there was a proposal on the part of the Royal Family for my marriage in it. In the meanwhile, I had to go to Jhunjhana (a small historic town in the Muzaffar Nagar ditrict) in the capacity of the amir of a


jama’at from Mewat which was in trouble due to the illness of its amir and the chilla was still incomplete. There a woman relative told me the problems and woes of a religious family and an offer of marriage was made to me. With the view to help a good family, I expressed my consent and, eventually, the marriage took place with simplicity. Praise to Allah, He granted me everything of this line; my wife is a woman of high moral virtues, an excellent Hafiz, expert qari and an exemplary teacher of hifz. (committing the entire text of the Holy Qur'an to memory). Allah ta’ala made her the source of virtue in my household as she turned a means for bringing about and environment of Hifz and religious and awaking and learning in the whole household. Above all, she lends me her maximum support in my religious dawah works. How bigger this favour of Allah is on me! Praise to Allah.

Q. You have been heard telling the audience about your relations with the Late Haz, Shaikhul Hadith Maulana Md. Zakariya and your visiting him at Saharanpur. Some details?

Ans: Answering this question requires a look at the perspective and at my hobbies during those days. My hobbies during those days included listening to the poetical recitations in mushaaras (organized programmes for poetical recitations). Blessed by Allah with a melodious voice, I would recite the poetry of over fifty poets in their own voice and tone. Besides my interest in poetry, I started writing dramas and


short stories and more than one leading monthly and weekly magazines published my dramas, some of them were relayed by the All India Radio. Painting and music, too, included my interests. The book ‘Are We Muslims?’ by Shams Naved Usmani moved me very much and I started writing the historical events in dramatic style which then got published in the Noor, Batul, Zikra (all based at Rampur). The Noor also published my interview as a writer.

In spite of all my interests in triffle things like the mentioned ones, I had a deep respect towards the religious men and aulia Allah, and was in correspondence with some great men. In my first letter to Haz Shaikhul Hadith I introduced myself and mentioned that I was just seventeen years old. The Shaikh, who was then prepared to leave for Madina Munawwarah, entrusted the responsibility to send the acknowledgement to one of his attendants. He, keeping in view my age, sent an amulation for love and desired marriage with the acknowledgement letter. My younger sister Zainab opened the letter and read it. Since its contents were to her much wonder, she exercised her full persuasive ability to make me tell her the name whom I wished to marry. Upon this case of pure misunderstanding I felt very much ashamed and could not write any letter to the Shaikh for a longtime.

Then, when I was pursuing my graduation studies at Meerut College, the Shaikhul Hadith returned from Madina Munawwarah to


Saharanpur. My elder brother-in-law, Sayyid Md. Sardar, a person of meek and compassionate disposition, asked me to give him company to his trip to Saharanpur which was intended to pay a visit to the Shaikh. I complied. Clad in a new fashionable suit, I, in the company of the Bhai Sb. and got to Saharanpur on the eve of the Asr prayer. The Asr paryer was offered in the old masjid of the Mazahir-e-Uloom. Immediately after the prayer the daily session (majlis) was arranged, every one occupied his place and we could find a place to sit only in the outer space where the visitors were leaving off their shoes. A certain book was being read out. Towards the end of the majlis a person announced that, ‘The departing visitors might shake hand now and the fresh comers would shake hand the next morning’. Overpowered by his sense of sinfulness, my brother-in-law felt reluctant to shake hand with a man of high piety as was the Shaikhal Hadith. He contented himself only with seeing him from a distance. He, however, permitted me to shake hand with the Shaikhul Hadith. I told the Bhai sb. that, ‘I would shake hand with him both with the departing visitors and the coming visitors. Visitors stood lined up to shake hand with the Shaikh. On my turn, the Shaikh grasped my hand, pressed it gently, and with a smiling mood, addressed me in a rather awesome voice ‘Come here my dear’, I’m prepared to shake hand with you as long as you wish.’ You are at leisure. While saying these words he kept smiling and pressing my hand. The line remained still for five minuets or even longer. The (late) Maulana Nasir sb., who was


still unknown to me, interceded with the Shaikh to release my hand from his grip. But his intercession was to my displeasure. I wished the handshake to be longer still.

Q. Did the Shaikh hear your words, ‘I will shake hand with the shaikh with the departing as well as with the fresh visitors?

Ans. At that time it seemed to me that he had heard my words. But now it seems utterly impossible to hear the words of a speaker from such a distance. I think he learnt my words by way of kashf.

Q. What did happen then?

Ans. After a while the shaikh left my hand. The taste of that handshaking is still fresh. We returned back to home by a late night train. Thereafter I wrote two letters to the shaikh and received answer from him. In the meanwhile, a qari sb., who actually belonged to Phulat and lived in Meerut, accompanied by a number of his muqtadis and the distinguished people of Meerut, reached Saharanpur to visit the shaikh. Since the shaikh had an overwhelming attachment with Phulat, he immediately called the visitors in. In the course of the conversation the Shaikh told them that at phaulat lived a friend of him. On being questioned the shaikh told the visitors my name, that is, Kalim. Since he had been living in Meerut for long, my name came to him as his utter surprise. On his return to Meerut he enqueired my brother, Md. Alim


Siddiqi, who, during those days, practiced law at Meeurt, who was Kalim at Phulat, the shaikh was mentioning him in very good words. My brother told him that Kalim at Phulat was not other than his younger brother, who, during those days, was pursuing his studies at Meerut College. ‘He is not a boy, he is an aged and pious man, the shaikh was introducing him as a friend of him’, the qari sb. said. To the best of my assessment, the said affectionate handshake of the shaikh with me proved a turning point in my life. Similarly, at our village Phulat, there was a pious person, Hafiz Abdul Latif Qasimpuri, who would teach at the madrasa. He entered into the bai’at of the Shaikhul Hadith at his adolescence and in those days there had been no rush with the Shaikh of the new entrant murreeds. He wrote a letter to Shaikh to Madina Munawwarah. In his reply from Madinah the Shaikh wrote to him, ‘at Phulat there lives a friend of mine whose name is Kalim. you are asked to pay visits to him. The hafiz sb. wrote to the Shaikh, ‘There is only one kalim, who is an adolescent boy and is pursuing his studies at college’. The Shaikh wrote to the Hafiz sb. again a letter with the same content. Those days the smell of the smoking the hooqa or biris was to my extreme aversion, and the shaikh had communicated my this aversion in his letter to the Hafiz sb. This was perhaps in view of that the late Hafiz sb. was fond of smoking.

Later, with the passage of time, this relationship got further strengthened. In addition to my deep relation with the late


Sheikh-al-Hadith, I kept visiting (the late) Maulana Maseehullah Khan sb. at Jalalabad, Maulana Md. Asadullah sb. then chief administrator of the Mazahir-e-Uloom, and entered into correspondence with them. At my visits to the august service of the shaikh the shaikh would introduce me to the visiting people in very awesome words. Struck by a type of psychological sense of inferiority, I felt a psychological burden at that affectionate doing of the shaikh. To relieve myself from this unnecessary burden, I communicated my feelings to him in the following words: ‘I’m very much interested in seeing you and register my presence here time and again, but due to your repeatedly introducing me to the people puts me to ashame and people raise fingers to me. Should you leave me shake hand with you in the line, I may dare pay frequent visits to you”. The shiakh was kind enough to accept my request, although he once could not help say that, This introduction and my according of a special treatment to you would have been useful for you.’

Q. How did you enter into the bai’at of Haz. Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi?

Ans. I read some books of the Maulana like the Tareekh-e-Dawat wa Azimat, Seerat Sayyid Ahmad Shaid, Taqwiyatul Iman by Maulana Ismail Shahid, to name only a few. Actually, my younger brother-in-law Sayyid Saied Akhtar, had purchased a private library from a gentleman. Among other books the library contained were the above mentioned ones as


well. Although the Maulana was very well-known in our area but not as a man of high spiritual qualities. As far as Haz. Sayyid Ahmad Shahid was concerned, he was very well-know across the region for his great historic movement for the revival of Islam. At Phulat the events of his movement were still fresh and were told to the children by elderly women. One day I was reading the book Nuqush-e-Ieqbal by the Maulana. The item Iqbal dare daulat par moved me in the extreme. Actually under this heading have been mentioned in the poetic language, the heart-felt sentiments of the Islamic poet Md. Iqbal, which he had revealed while standing before the Holy grave of the Prophet of Allah. While going through the lines of the article it seemed to me as if I too were with those fortunate people who were present at the Holy grave to communicate their deep sentiments to the Holy Prophet. During those days I had been cherishing a very strong desire to see the Holy Prophet in vision. For this purpose I used a number of spiritual prescriptions. Allah ta’ala took mercy on me. Despite my relations with most of the spiritual men of the area, this humble person was brought to the feet of Haz Maulana.

Q. In our region there existed a great number of the renowned men of Islamic learning and spirituality. Despite this fact, is it not a matter of much astonishment that you approached the Haz. Maulana,


knowing fully that he was not known here as a spiritual man?

Ans. Actually I received a command from the Holy Prophet in vision to lick the honey of Maulana Ali Miyan. I knew the Hazrat by the name of Maulana Sayyid Abdul Hasan Ali Nadwi. To know and ascertain who was Maulana Ali Miyan I had to crave for weeks. It was brother Naiem, who told me that Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi, whose books I had been studying for long, was no other person than Maulana Ali Miyan and both names referred to the same and one person. I sent a letter to the Maulana. In response, he sent an affectionate reply wherein, among other things, he wrote the following Urdu couplet.

That is, ‘in order to find satisfaction the heart has withheld as a boon the movement which was visible in your eyebrow while priding.

With the letter he also sent a sum of money for my expected travel expenses. I undertook the journey to Takya at Rai Baraily and attended him. Incidentally, it was the day when Mrs. Indira Gandhi too had attended the Maulana at Takya and there were standing many cars outside his bunglow. I introduaced myself to the Maulana and he immediately embraced me. Then, he attached this country-dweller to his blessed feet for ever. To my great surprise,


notwithstanding the fact that I had great respect of all the noted men of Islamic learning and spirituality in my heart like Haz. Mufti Mahmood Sb., Haz. Maulana Abrarul Haq sb., Haz. Qari Siddiq Sb. Bandawi, Haz. Maulana Abdul Halim Januprui, Haz Maulana In’am-al-Hasan Kandhalawi, Haz. Maulana Iftikharul-Hasan Kandhalawi, Haz. Maulana Mukarram Hussain Sansarpuri, etc, to name only a few and with these named men of spirituality I always remained in the relationship of correspondence, yet how magnanimous is my Lord Allah ta’ala, Who, in order to give me a portion of His Revealed Guidance, brought me to the feet of Haz. Maulana. How blessed was the moment when my Allah bestowed His mercy and magnanimity upon an unabled man like me.

Q. In which year did you enter into the bai’at of the Haz. Maulana, and when did you receive the permission to accept the people into your bai’at? You had also submitted your request to the shaikhul Hadith. What did happened to your request?

Ans. Permission granted to somebody by a man of spirituality of course is of three types: one type of permission is that which is granted to an ably competent mureed so that he may engage himself in the moral and spiritual reform of the people. This type of permission is the actual one and is granted only to the highly abled persons. The second type is that which a shaikh grants to a person already associated to


the religious reform in order to engage him in religious reform in a certain area. The third type of permission being the one which is generally granted to the persons like me. Granting this latter type of permission is actually intended to offer the mureed a shield against his very probable fall into the sins and the acts of disobedience. That is to say, such a mureed, under the unseen pressure of permission, is expected to stay away from the sins and thereby might keep himself away from evil and moral vices. It seems here useful to tell you the story of a Bangali, who was granted the permission of hadith by Haz. Maulana. Rashied Ahmad Gangohi The certificate granted to him was in the Arabic language. Since in the Arabic alphabets the letter ‘g’ does not exist, the Bangali was written as Banjali (that is ‘G’ was replaced by ‘J’. In the Bangali language the banjali is an abusive term and a slang word. A fellow student wittingly told him that the Hazrat had employed an abusive term for him. Heard this, the student flew into rage and expressed his extreme anger before the Hazrat. Maulana Md. Yahya sb, the all-time attendant of the Hazrat, expressed his astonishment why Haz. had been kind and simple to grant the permission of Hadith to such a person. Heard this, Haz. Gangohi said, ‘Thinking himself a man of religion that person will be staying inside a masjid. He otherwise would have turned a thief and bandit. This way he would have brought disgrace to the people of religion”. I think my Hazrat granted me the permission with the same thing in view.


Q. Did you reuqest the Sahikhul Hadith to accept you into his baiat?

Ans. Actually speaking, after having the vision to which reference has already been made above, I got extremely restless. I would attend the majlis of Haz. Mualana Masihullah Khan sb. at Jalalabad. I requested him to accept me into his bai’at. He, however, advised me to enter into the bai’at of Haz. Maulana Ali Miyan. At Jalabad it struck my mind that Haz. Shaikhul Hadith was prepared to leave India for Madina Munawwarah and it would be better for me to pay a visit to him at Saharanpur. Unfortunately, we got Sharanpur at a point of time when the meetings were closed. The servants declined to let me free to meet the Shaikh. I insisted, in my vain pride, on having a meeting with the shaikh. I asked the servants to communicate to the shaikh that Kalim from Phulat had arrived. The shaikh called me in and peeled the banana by his hand and offered it to me. In this very meeting I requested him to accept me into his bai’at. On my request he said, ‘my dear, as far as the bai’at is concerned, I advise you to enter into the bai’at of Maualana Ali Miyan. As regards the permission, I do permit you.” This time the late Maulana Muhammad Sani Hasani happened to be there. Addressing him, the Shaikh said, ‘Brother Sani, let any wishing person enter into the bai’at of Kalim’. Already struck by a strong sense of inferiority, I began to think that may be there a special code of conduct and etiquette for making a request to a Sheikh for the purpose of bai’at and the Haz Sheikh has dismissed my lack of manners in a


spirit of jest I burnt into loud weeping implored him to ignore my rudeness the and lack of manners since I had no idea of the manner needed for the purpose. Upon this the Shaikh said: “My dear, it is only for the sake of your good, let you enter into baiat of Maulana Ali Miyan, and on my part is the permission.”

Q. Did you tell the Sheikh your dream?

Ans. No, this is all the more surprising how both the great spiritual men spoke the same thing, that is, to enter into the baiat of Maulana Ali Miyan.

Q. What did happen thereafter?

Ans. This goes back as far as 1977. My maternal uncle, Sayyid Muhammad Arif, took me to the service of Haz. Maulana Md. As’adullah at Sharanpur and with him and a very auspicious meeting took place. Surprisingly enough, that meeting’s blessings I have been feeling in all spheres of my life.

Q. What type of conditions developed then which eventually led you to enter into the bai’at of Maulana Ali Miyan?

Ans. I reached Takya (the reclusive habitation of the Maulana’s household for centuries outside the Rai Bareily city towards west). The Hazrat was kind enough to give an affectionate


attention to me. He got me introduced to (the late) Maulana Md. Sani Hasani Nadwi, saying, ‘he is Kalim Miyan, whom we had been talking about. Maulana Sani told the Hazrat that he had already met him at the house of the Shaikhul Hadith just a few days earlier. Then Maulana Muhammad Sani inquired me if it was I whom the Shaikh had called in the Kachcha Ghar. I replied in affirmation. Thereafter I requested Maulana Ali Miyan to accept me into his bai’at and the Maulana did so in the masjid of Takyah. In the after Asr majlis the Maulana spoke in a very optimistic way and said, ‘In the treasure of Allah there is no dearth. His treasury lacks nothing. The door of the Prophethood too has been seeking closed for some wise considerations. As regards all other things and the various other grades of closer association with Allah, no door to anything has been closed. What is required on the part of the servant is the only endeavour and constant supplication from Him. Then the Maulana recited the verse:

The last clause of the verse was translated by Maulana as:

“And in the grant of your Lord there is no rationing.”

Then I got admission in the Alim course at Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama. Although I was an uncultured countryman, I was very deeply


interested in the study of books. Blessed with a retentive memory, I had learnt very much from those books, especially about the Wali Allahi household and the great men of the Deobandi school of thought. During his majlis, whatever the Hazrat said I often interupted him. The audience would look at me and think who was that rude and unmannered boy. But how kind was my Hazrat; he never tried to silence or reprimand me. He always encouraged me instead. I spoke some sentences thinking before him myself a man of much learning. The remembrance of those sentences now makes me hide myself from the eyes of others. My long stay with the Hazrat latter revealed to me what was he and this revelation silenced me to the extent that during my stay with him for weeks I could utter no word before him except the two salams which I would offer him at my arrival and departure.

Q. When did you get permission of bai’at from the Hazrat?

Ans. Repeated mention of permission puts me to shame. I entered in the bai’at of the Hazrat in March 27, and 12 August of the same year was the day when the Hazrat summoned me to the masjid before the namz-e-Fajr. then he addressed me in the following words, ‘Reposing my trust in Allah, I would like to tell you a thing. If you are ever requested by any person to accept him into your bai’at in my order, accept him into your bai’at. I grant you the permission for the purpose.”


I had entered into the bai’at of the Hazrat with great expectations in mind. I thought the bai’at would orient my life towards virtue and piety, enabling me to offer the namazes of the type of the companions, much like the way Haz. Sayyid Ahmad Shahid’s companionship had infused the spirit of sincerity and Allah-fearing in the people associated, and purge me off the sins and the base acts. These high expectations in mind, when I heard the words of permission to take the people into bai’at, it come to me as a great shock. I began to think that the permission the Hazrat has granted was in fact an expression of disappointment which had certainly been given in view of my case to be incurable. For such a patient there remains to question of cure and prevention. This saddened me in the extreme and I burst into abrupt weeping and attached with his feet. I tried to persuade him against granting me the permission. I went so far in my appeal that if I returned disappointed of my reform from your company, no place was there in the world to reform me and give a virtuous turn to my life. The Hazrat solaced me in good words. Indeed those hours were too painful for me. At Takya I stayed for three days and different types of thoughts struck my mind. The Hazrat realized my pain and restlessness. He asked me, ‘Do you visit Haz. Maulana Muhammad Ahmad'?’ My reply was in the affirmative.' Visits should be paid to him as he is one of our great men’, the Hazrat said. With an intention to communicate my case to Haz. Maulana Muhammad Ahmad, I undertook the journey to Allahbad. I also intended to get a letter of


intercession from him and produce it to my Hazrat . On getting Allahbad I learnt that the Maulana was not there but at Partapgarh; I got to Partapgarh. There I was told that two days before he had moved to Raniganj. On getting there, I was told that one day before he had moved to Phoolpur, his home town. The after sunset hour, the season of rainfall, no conveyance; it seemed that the steps I was lifting were prompted rather than being spontaneous. Walking on foot along the narrow straits, I could reach Phoolpur at the time of the Isha prayer. Owing to his illness and the growing weakness, the Hazrat, during those days, was not able to offer his prayers at masjid. I approached his house. It seemed to me as if he already knew the details of my journey to Phoolpur and the difficulties and hardships I had to bear in the course of the journey. He showed his extreme happiness and mentioned it later in his letter to me with great affection and love. He accorded to me so kind and generous treatment which I never deserved. The mention of Takya Rai Bariely of Maulana Ali Miyan was too much to his liking, and my journey to Phoolpur in a hot season made him even more kind to me. After the namaz and the dinner he asked me to go to bed and promised to give me time in the next morning.

Q. Did the Maulana Pholpuri granted you the permission during the same visit?


Ans. So far as his granting me the permission of bai'at is concerned, in his house of the thatched roof, sitting on a very simple wooden cot, I communicated to him the detail of my bai'at in respect of Maulana Ali Miyan. I said, ‘That, With firm expectations of my reform I had entered into the bai'at of Maulana Ali Miyan. But, to my disappointment, he conferred the permission of bai'at on me and I by no way am able to lift this heavy burden’. Heard this, the Maulana Partapgarhi said, ‘The decisions of the great men of spirituality are backed by Divine support. People do not know’, he went on saying, ‘who is Ali Miyan’. After a while he again said. ‘Everyone is given to hide his beloved. Ali Miyan has been hidden in the cover of his knowledge’. Moments later he also said, ‘Should Ali Miyan unveil himself, no murshid will ever find mureeds’. When I communicated to him my dismay, he consoled me and said. ‘How many witnesses are regarded sufficient to prove and establish a fact? Two in general cases and four in rare cases’, I replied. Then he asked me whether his witness was to be reliably entertained. ‘Who is the person then whose witness is credible if not yours? I replied. ‘I also permit you. If any servat of Allah comes to you for bai'at, you are permitted to accept him into your bai'at under our order,’ the Maulana said. Hazrat's words came to me as disappointing and during my return journey to Phulat different types of thoughts struck my mind. Brother Umar! in one's thinking one can hardly go beyound one's level of thinking. A man of low status does possess only a smaller capacity of thinking. the most upsetting


thought which continued to hit me time and again was that my murshid, Maulana Ali Miyan, was not well known in our area. My introduction here as a mujaz (permitted by one's murshid to take the bai'at) of Maulana Ali Miyan would be bound to damage his value in the eyes of the people and would build an incorrect estimation of the Hazrat here. Then I thought that nobody had the knowledge of permission other than Haji Abdur Razzaq (Hazrat's all-time attendant) and Sharafat khan sb; I would entreat them not to intimate any other person of the event of permission. That way my Hazrat might be saved against bad name. These feelings in mind, I returned back to Phulat, my home village. After the prayer of Isha my elder sister, who has brought me up, came to me and said, ‘I wish to come into your bai’at. Left aghast at her request for bai'at, I tried to persuade her to write her case to Hazrat and enter into his bai’at by correspondence and thereafter renew it, if she ever happened to visit the Hazrat. Refusing my proposal outright, she insisted on entering only into my bai'at. It was to my great surprise, I mocked at her and told her very emphatically that “It is the great spiritual men whose hand should be gripped for the purpose. On hearing your insistence people would mock at you saying that Kalim's sister stands devoid even of the knowledge who deserved to be taken as murshid.’ Upset upon her unending and importunate insistence, I was left with no other option that to write the development to the Hazrat. I received Hazrat's reply in which he first wrote the well known couplet:


(For His grant ability forms no condition:

It is indeed His grant which makes one able)

Then he wrote ‘Following my murshid, I accept the wishing people into my bai'at only in the hope that may be among them any person whose hand-gripping may attract Divine mercy on me as well. You should also follow the same course’. These words lent me a lot of satisfaction, although apprehensions hit me during those days. During the same period a gentleman was about to depart to Madina Munawwarah. I wrote a detailed letter to Haz. Shaikhul Hadith and entreated him to pray for me. In reply, he wrote: ‘This humble person has already granted you the permission of bai'at. Perhaps you are feeling worry due to your specific condition. For this you had better understand well that it is the certificate of medicinal ability and not of the health. By this permission you should treat yourself as well as others’. Hazrat’s this sentence was to my great satisfaction. To my surprise, this permission, refrained me from many sins and then I understood well the rationale of the grant of permission to me. To my assessment, this permission must have been of the third category.

Q. Besides these permissions, there are two more great men from Madinah and Syria who have also granted you


the permission. Would you be kind enough to tell me their names?

Ans. Brother! you had sought my consent to extract an interview to know the progress of the dawah work. How long will you be talking about the ijazat and permission?

Q. Is it not good to commit to the memory the correct information rather than the incorrect ones?

Ans. Good! will you save this type of information too?

Q. This information will remain with me and may be of use in future. Please tell me who were those two great spiritual men?

Ans. One of them is Shaikh Ahmad Mujtaba Alwi Maliki, Qadri, a relative of Shaikh Alwi Maliki. Actually he was the student of Shaikh Abu Tahir Madani, the succesor of Shaikh Muhsin Muqbil Alwi, a spiritual man in the Qadri order and genealogically a descendant in the Shah Wali Allah's sixth generation. He granted permission to me by kindly offering me a household turban, about the blessings of which many stories were well-known Due to its famous stories of blessing and auspiciousness, Shaikh Alwi Maliki had borrowed it from me for a few days, but I had gifted it permanently to him as he seemed more befitting to me.

As to the second spiritual man, he is Shaikh Salih Hamudi, who granted me the permission


inside the mufat sitting in front of the Rukn-e-Yamani. The said spiritual man's permission is in the order of Shaikh Abul Hasan Shazli, the author of the Hizbul Bahr. But I think these two permissions, too, beloged to the third category.

Q. You have benefitted from Maulana Ali Miyan. Do you have anything to mention in this respect?

Ans. To secure benefit from somebody else two things are essentially required. They are love and temperamental compatibility. Fortunately, Allah honored me with both the things. So far as the love is concerned, I loved him very much. I would depart from Hazrat's service leaving a letter with him, and after getting to my habitation I never failed to send him next letter. At least a third part of the twenty-three years-long period must have passed in coming and going to the service of the Hazrat. Thanks to Allah, now I am in possession of four hundred and thirty two letters of the Hazrat. Still, despite so much writing and receiving from him, his sweet memory always kept me restless. As regards the temperamental consistency, he, quite opposed to the common norms of the spiritual reform, would ask me to visit other great spiritual men as well and I always followed his command in this regard. Whenever I visited any great man in deference to my Hazrat’s wish, my respect to him always increased. Still, while departing from him my heart always said the following Persian couplet:


(I have wandered across the countries and lands, and have seem many beautiful, yet you are quite different from all.)

What I gained from Hazrat's blessed company is the realization of the sense of my inability and incapacity. This sense, more often, suppressed me, especially whenever the Hazrat wrote to me as, ‘After knowing your conditions, and the pace of your spiritual progress I feel shame on my own conditions. You have indeed been blessed with high conditions’. But the reading of such sentences regarding myself in Hazrat's letters always put me to extreme shame, that how low he regards himself despite being a man of matchless high spiritual qualities. Hazrat’s such self-humiliating sentences always enhanced my sense of indebtedness, and from his artless behavior I learnt very much of gratitude.

Q. Did the Shaikhul Hadith ever asked you to serve the madarsa of Phulat?

Ans. Yes, actually the Shaikhul Hadith had a deep relation with Phulat. Maulana Ihtaramul Hasan, the son of the Shaikhul Hadith's brother-in-law Maulana Ihtisham al Hasan Kandhalawi, had long been living at Phulat and the shaikh was very happy. When some reasons forced him to leave Phulat, this development


displeased him in the extreme, and expressing his displeasure, the shaikh said that he was very much hopeful of the future of Phulat. My visits to Saharanpur in the service of the shaikh began later. Immediately after the centennial celebrations of the Darul Uloom Deoband, an inauspicious difference of opinion and confusion hit the men at the helm of the great historic seat of Islamic learning. During those days I happened to frequently visit Deoband in order to attend my murshid. The conceptual belief of the Ulama's innocence and infallibility in mind, their difference of opinion and then each other’s opposition caused me extreme pain and unfortunate astonishment. I saw my Hazrat writhing about this unblessed state of affairs. Once I expressed my feelings before the Shaikhul Hadith. His reply was ‘Irrigate the root’, ‘I could not understand’ I submitted. He said ‘The root is Phulat and all other institutions and madrasas are but the branches thereof’. Indeed it was the advices in respect to the revival of the madrasa of Phulat in deference of I started to work for the madarsa. But the marked increase in the Darul Uloom's confusion disheartened me, thinking if the madrasas like Darul Uloom, which have been founded and run by sincere Ulama, might be hit by mischief and evil, any work in this regard initiated by a person of impious character must bear nothing except evil. I sent the letter of excuse to the Shaikhul Hadith at Madina Munawwarah. The shaikh immediately sent the reply back in which he wrote. ‘The actual doer is only Allah taala. Man entitles himself to the reward merely by making effort. In this last stage of


the age, when I am fully prepared to leave the world, my love towards our elder great pious people is increasing. As regards the great men of Phulat, they indeed were the leader of this group of Ulama. It is my heart-felt wish to see Phulat, the village of the virtuous people’, regaining its historic status of the centre of knowledge. In respect of Phulat I have been cherishing great expectations from the Magnanimous Lord. About Phulat I am so much hopeful that its religious service will fetch good for the doer even though he is out of the fold of Islam”

In spite of this encouraging letter from the Shaikh, my sense of undue inferiority precluded me from taking any decisive initiative in this respect. But the Shaikh’s demise in April this year saddened me in the extreme, and in his sweet memoirs I took his letters and reread them. The reading brought tears to my eyes. Inspired by those letters, I started to make efforts in connection with the revival of the historic madrasa of Phulat. At learning about my efforts for the cause of the madrasa at Phulat, my murshid too was very happy; he encouraged me very much and renamed the madrasa as Jamiatul-Imam Wali Allah, though a section of it was retained by its old name, Faizul Islam, as this name was given by Haz Maulana Rashid Ahmad Gangohi.

Q. How did the work of dawah take its start? Earlier, for a good period, you have been working in the apostasy-hit region; what were the


reasons which moved you then to do the work of dawah in non-Muslim circles?

Ans. Now you have turned to the right subject. My murshid somehow managed to gather the information that the partition of the country into India and Pakistan and the exchange of the population had badly affected the people in Haryana and Sonipat, leading a great number of them to relinquish Islam and turn apostate. My Hazrat lent every possible support to those who worked in this area for the interest of the Islamic dawah and asked me to collect correct information in this respect. Sonipat was not too far from us; in company of some fellows I undertook a journey to the apostacy-hit areas of Haryana and Sonipat. The dismal spectacle of the change of masjid and the places of worship into mandirs, gruduaras and the badas gave us great shock. The gathered information and the survey report was submitted to the Hazrat. He commanded us to work there and pursue our task. It took us two years to complete the survey and make initial endeavors. In 1990, during the Rath Yatra of Mr. L.K. Adwani, our two great fellows, Master Zaiu-ud-Din Bijnori and Hafiz Nasimud-Din Denajpuri, suffered martyrdom at the hand of a bandit leader of the area inside a masjid and their corpuses were thrown in a river. Thereafter, three out of the four killers embraced Islam in vision at the dawat of the martyred Master Ziaud-Din. The martyrdom of the said two of our fellows opened the way for the work in the apostasy-hit area. My Hazrat


always encouraged us very much to work in this area. He said, ‘These days Paradise and the pleasure of Allah is being granted by Allah in the Sonipat region’, he repeated it twice. He always blessed us with his sincere prayers. Thanks to his prayers, Allah ta’ala opened the way for effective work in Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Muthra, Agra, Delhi, Himachal, etc. Establishing madrasas under the guise of schools was the most prudent way of work in these areas. Gratitude to Allah, a great number of the apostate villages turned back to Islam, thanks to sustained efforts and the blessed supplications of the Hazrat. Earlier, his ordering me to initiate the work in those area was much to my surprise. I thought why the Hazrat has ordered an uncultured person like me to initiate reform endeavors. But, fortunately, I had heard a sentence of the Haz. Raipuri that ‘devotion requires complete submission’. This sentence proved to be very encouraging and guiding. The blessings of my total submission to my Hazrat soon tuned visible even by the open eyes.

Q. How did you embark upon the work of dawah and how did Allah ta'ala bring you to this blessed workfield?

Ans. In fact there are two reasons that enticed me into engaging myself in the work of dawah: one is apparent, while the another one is real. So far as the latter, ie, the real and actual reason is concerned, it is the du'a (supplication, prayer) of my murshid, Haz. Maulana Ali Miyan's great mother Khairun Nisa Bahter which she kept asking Allah ta'ala the whole of


her life for her great illustrious son. She was a mustajabud du'a woman, that is, the woman whose supplications and prayers were honored by Allah ta'ala with special acceptance and whose arrows of du'a never went wrong. She asked Allah ta'ala many prayers in favour of her son. The most favorite of her supplications, however, was that the should non-Muslims accept the religion of Islam at his hand in multitude. This du'a won an honored acceptance and approval from Allah ta'ala for my murshid, and only through one medium this du'a fell to my lot as well. Through a number of his letters as also orally, my murshid communicated this thing to me. This acceptance manifested itself once at Bawana, an outskirt of Delhi, when four thousand apostate men and women turned collectively to the religion of Islam and renewed their faith and the act of changing their names continued almost the whole of night. This being the first occasion for me to see the sentimental spectacle of the renewal of faith in such a multitudinous number. In the state of dream I happened to see the late mother of my murshid, sitting at a throne elegantly, very much like a queen wearing a crown. This humbled person requested her to place her blessed hand at his head and pray for him. In response, she placed her hand at my back and addressed me as: What? Do you think all such successful dawa activities are the results of my supplications crowned by Allah with special acceptance? I communicated this dream to my murshid through a letter. In reply, he wrote to


me, "The supplication my late mother asked Allah ta'ala for me was:

"Were that non-Muslims enter into the fold of Islam in multitudes at your hand,” “It seems that my mother's supplication has attracted Divine acceptance in your favor with one medium".

In the light of my experiences this stands true without doubt. There are many great men who were approached by many people to learn how to call the people to Allah and associated themselves with this work of high value. Many stayed with them for years, still no body entered the fold of Islam at their hand; even some of them were approached by many non-Muslims with an intention to accept the religion of Islam, but they declined to admit those non-Muslims into Islam. In sharp contrast, no sooner they entered into the order of my Hazrat than the people began to accept the religion of Islam on their own without any type of compulsion from outside. To cut the long story short, the actual reason which could doubtlessly be assigned for my interest in the work of dawah is the prayers and supplications of my murshid's late illustrious mother in favour of her great son, Maulana Ali Miyan. My murshid too blessed me with many prayers. One year throughout the whole month of Ramadhan, my late murshid prayed Allah ta'ala for me mentioning my name in clear. Once he told me that ‘it is my unfailing practice to pray Allah for you’.

As regard the apparent reason, it is my younger daughter Amsa. As a general rule of nature, the line of work and the profession a person


chooses for himself soon turns more familiar to him and its signs begin to appear to him. In my case, too, this is true. From my childhood till the day more than one non-Muslims entered into the fold of Islam at my hand. But it was my girl child, Asma, whom I assign as the apparent reason that turned my attention to the work of dawah. My murshid too related this event more than one times in his talks. Brief account of this exhilarating experience is as follows.

Towards the end of October, 1990, Mr. Lal Krishan Advani launched his Rath Yatra with the aim to stir up the Hindu sentiments for the construction of a grand Ram Temple at the site of the historic Babary Masjid. As it is now history, the Rath Yatra brought a series of heart-rending and pathetic communal riots at its back. During those days we had a woman sweeper whose name was Bala. Cleanliness-loving by her disposition, the children got familiar with her. One day while I was reading a book in my room, I saw my daughter Asma, hardly eight year old at that time, talking to Bala in a mysterious way inside a room where she had stood to wait the cessation of the rain, having placed her dustbin. Thinking of unfriendliness of the communal environment of the country, I feared the child might talk her ill which Bala might use to further envenom an already hostile environment. I gave an attentive ear to the contents of the child's conversation with Bala. The conversation between the two was the following: ‘How good and sweet are you Bala! Would you like to enhance your goodness even further"? How


could I do so"? Bala enquired Asma. 'Whom do you worship'’? enquired her Asma. ‘I worship the image of Bhagwan' replied Bala. Can this image give you anything you need, fetch any good for you, or ward off any harm from you?" Asma placed a thoughtful question before Bala, 'I fear if you died in your existing state of disbelief and polytheism, you shall be condemned to Hell forever,' Bala! how would you be able to bear the painful lasting chastisement of Hell?’ Asma further said to Bala. It was beyond my imagination that a girl child at such a tender age could call a non-Muslim to the religion of Islam in lines with the Qur'anic way of dawah; I couldn't help come out of the room. Seen me, Bala departed. To my utter astonishment, I saw tears in the eyes of Asma; I asked her tenderly what she had been talking to Bala; her reply was: ‘How good and loving is Bala. If she is destined to be condemned to the fire of Hell, how heart-rending would be her suffering. Saying this so she embraced me and burst into loud weeping. For a good time I was the student of the Qur'an. I felt as if someone addressed me from inside.

“Perhaps, [O Muhammad], you would kill yourself with grief that they will not be believers.”

This feeling immediately brought the whole of the seerah of the Holy Prophet, === before my heart and brain. We claim to be the followers of the way of sunnah by merely following him in things of little value as compared to his original


actual pain. The pain which never departed him even for a single moment was the concern how to communicate the Final Divine message to all mankind. Without Inheriting this pain our pretention to follow the way of sunnah has no ground to stay on. At this moment I would like to recall an utterance of Haz. Haji Imdaduallah, the Mgrant to Makkah. On the authority of Haz. Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanawi and in the presence of a number of Ulama Haz. Haji Imadaduallah asked the audience, ‘Would you like to achieve the highest degree of the religious leadership’? Yes, of course, every one of us is deeply desirous to achieve that position’, replied the audience collectively. "There is a very easy prescription to be effectively used for this purpose, 'weep thoughtfully for a moment at the fate of the person who unfortunately has left this world in a state of disbelief due to our criminal negligence towards him", the Haji explained briefly his prescription. 'By so doing; he further said, 'you may surely achieve the position of Qutb". This gave me the idea that the qutbhood is the heritage of the Prophethood. The entitled to receive the inheritance of the Prophet could be none other than the one who shares the pain of the Prophet as well. This thought struck my mind and affected the heart and brain very much. Next day I was destined to leave for Sonipat, Haryana, where a youth, who loved me very much, approached there without delay. This youth was the son of a Hindu devotee. I communicated the message of Islam to him, saying: Dear youth! You love me very much, but this love will remain of no avail unless you


whole-heartedly pronounce the kalimah (the creedal statement of the religion of Islam)’. This way I persuaded him into accepting Islam for a few minutes. Upon my persuasion the youth evinced his preparedness to pronounce the creedal statement of Islam, and finally he turned to the fold of Islam. A yet another non-Muslim, called Sharma Ji, also approached there, upon my persuasion he too embraced Islam. In the evening of the same day a program was fixed to take place in a nearby village. In the course of the program a non-Muslim approached there to get himself charmed. Upon a few minutes’ persuasion he too came to the fold of Islam. Within the period of only a few minutes, we, thus, were able to save three men from the everlasting Hell. Such minor incidents and the successful experiences of the line of dawah further. Intensified my resolve I then, embarked on the study of the Qur'an and sunnah and engaged myself in the work of dawah. Very soon the people began to come round me and the work of dawah got further reinforcements.

This is not the only occasion to get inspiration and moral encouragement from my daughter, Asma. Even after this she has indeed been very good at motivating me to do the work of dawah with even stronger resolve and Allah ta'ala made her a cause to arouse me to do the work of dawah with a renewed and recharged resolve. Let me tell you more an example of the type. Hardly two or three years after the aforementioned event I happened to come to the house in order to pick up my


letterhead to write some letters of credence for some madrasahs. Asma entered the room and addressed me:

"Dear father, for a period of six months I have been waiting for you in order to talk to you on a very important matter. But to me it seems that you are evading me; perhaps you have little time for us". Her loving words touched my heart. "My dear child, you may discuss with me your matter anytime, I ‘m ready even at the moment,’ I replied her passionately. Her reaction was, 'since I'm feeling very much distressed and uneasy, I would rather prefer to talk to you at my ease. Now you are busy with your guests". 'I'm quite ready at the very moment to talk to you at length. You may discuss with me your points to the content of your heart; I'm fully prepared to give you my full day or even more", I assured her. Then followed the following dialogue between a father and his innocent daughter of tender age.

"Will all the disbelievers and polytheists be condemned to the Hell for ever'? she put a curious question before me.'

"Yes, of course’, I replied with affirmation.

'Never; she retorted in anxiety, 'they will not suffer the fire of Hell for ever. After a period of some years, two or three years or hundred or two hundred years, Allah ta'ala shall forgive them and take them out of Hell', she explained her opinion.

"Never, they are destined to suffer the Hell fire for ever and Allah ta'ala has pronounced His


judgment in His Final Books, I explained the actual position to her.

"Apart from whatever Allah ta'ala has said in His book in this respect, He will not condemn them to the fire of Hell for ever.

He is the most Merciful and Compassionate, seventy time more loving to his servants than one's mother', she expressed her estimation of this gravest matter.

"Never, Allah ta'ala never speaks a lie. In His final scripture, the Qur'an, He has clearly announced in the following words:

“Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills. And he who associates others with Allah has certainly gone far astray.”

Who joined other gods with Allah has indeed strayed, far away (from the right way) [al-Qur'an 4:116]

“Indeed, Allah does not forgive association with Him, but He forgives what is less than that for whom He wills. And he who associates others with Allah has certainly fabricated a tremendous sin.”


"Allah will never forgive that partners be set up with Him and will forgives anything other than that to which He will please. And one who set up partners with Allah committed a sin grave indeed. [4:48]

The evident and unambiguously clear Qur'anic reply was to her utter disappointment as now she was able to somewhat understand the surface meaning of the simple Qura’nic words. Still, she couldn't help say what wrong did they commit in this matter? It is Allah ta'ala Himself Who did not guide them to the right path Thinking entirely imprudent to talk to her in the matter of predestination, I thought it better to divert the point of discussion. 'O my dear child', I addressed her, 'you should be grateful to Allah ta'ala on that He has kindly guided you to the way of Truth". Saddened beyond measure, she abruptly burst into tears and helplessly said: It comes to my heart and I often earnestly ask of Allah, O my Allah! Out of Your kindness condemn nobody else to the fire of Hell. In case You are necessarily to do so, take me alone for all. This is the only pain which gives me sleepless nights' Her deep sense of unease at the fate of the disbeliever and polytheists touched deep my heart and her words, 'Take me alone to Hell for all,' now remind me again and again, even though she had spoken those words purely out of her immature understanding.

This painful unease is the greatest thing which the Holy Prophet had. Failing this unease, no Muslim could be true to his faith and to his claim to be a follower of the Holy


Prophet ===, the Mercy for all the Worlds. There have been more experiences of the type in which I got inspiration to the work of dawah from my innocent daughter. Thus, she is one from among the apparent reasons leading me to the work of dawah.

Q. Can you tell me the number of those who embraced Islam at your hand?

Ans. The number I can surely tell you are of those who are still out of the fold of Islam. This number runs into millions and billions of our brothers by the bond of blood and humanity. Thousands of this heavy number die every day with their disbelief, without pronouncing the creedal statement of Islam and to suffer the everlasting chastisement of the Hell fire. As opposed to this terribly huge number, the smaller number of those coming to the fold of Islam merits not any mention. It amounts almost to naught.

Q. People often express their deep astonishment at the strange phenomenon that you are pursuing the work of dawha and preaching of Islam in an atmosphere of extreme communal hatred and enmity. Will you like to say anything about their astonishment?

Ans. That the communal atmosphere now-a-days is pro- dawah is a thing which I stressly say almost in all of my talks. is the promise of Allah which He has vociferously made in His


Book. The Prophet === too, has already informed us of the fact that Islam would eventually enter each and every house made of clay or brick. Indeed this is the time when guidance is coming down from Allah and people stand lined up to enter the fold of Islam in multitudes. The fact that I possess little knowledge of the line and way of dawah is my avowed statement which I, again, make in this house of Allah in the blessed moments of the blessed month. Once I was known for my retentive memory, but later extreme fits of cough and the ensuing series of sneezes affected badly my memory. At Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, Lucknow, where once I used to be a student, Maulana Shahbaz Islahi and Maulana Md. Arif, my teachers in the Arabic grammar, once said why I, was wasting their time in learning the things at which I, to their assessment, was already good enough. This was my condition in the past. But at present things stand quite different. For instance, the identifying of the end of the Quranic words now seems too much difficult for me. Likewise, I once was very good at English, but now it has become too hard to grasp the spelling even of the common words of English Inactive in my practical life and extremely shy of meeting people by disposition, for a period of fifteen years of my past life my favorite supplication, which I had learnt from a saintly man, had been the following one' O my Lord! let nobody else know me except You and let me know nobody else except You alone.’


To cut the long story short, devoid of every type of ability and competence, I got fame with the activity of dawah. The monthly Armaghan has for years been publishing the experiences the words of the new comers to Islam and their-faith refreshing stories have been published in the book form in more than one volumes under the title Naseem-e-Hidayat Ke Jhonke (gales of the faith-refreshing air). In these books I have made it clear that the people in respect of whose conversion to Islam we have shot to fame owe nothing to our efforts. The only thing we did in this regards is no more than that we did not drive out the souls that had been wandering for years in quest of Islam, the only True religion of Allah. We got them pronounced the creedal statement of Islam and provided them the necessary information with regard the legal procedure of the change of religion. In short, according to our experience, the number of the people entering into the religion of Islam on their own impulse, or, to use more accurate expression, at their own inmost compulsion, is much larger. As the things stand now, it would be utterly inaccurate assessment of things to complain of the hostility of the communal environment.

Q. Do you face any problem from non-Muslim extremist outfits or official institutions? This question is often asked by the people.

Ans. Accepting the religion of one's choice constitutes the most fundamental right which has been bestowed upon all citizens of all the countries of the world by their respective


constitutions. constitutionally speaking, every person, apart from their countries and other social or political associations, is free to embrace, follow, practice and preach to others the belief, creed and religion of his choice as long as one's activities and the means one applies are peaceful. Change of religion, therefore, is by no means an infringement upon the law of the land, and we face no difficulty on this count. So far as the opposition on the part of the non-Muslim brothers is concerned, in this respect I would like to quote the words of my late Murshid: ‘we are fortunate enough that we are doing the work of dawah in a country where people happen to be too appreciative of the good gestures and the acts of goodness rendered to them: their sense of gratitude towards their benefactors and well-wishers, in most cases, is so great and exaggerative that they not just love them but turn them the objects of their adoration and worship. As far as we know, there is no precedence throughout the whole history of the country that any peaceful activist of dawah has ever faced any opposition. For a period of five years we have been running the dawah-training camps in different parts of the country. Throughout this long period we experienced not even a single event of opposition from any quarter. We did not notice even a single event that the addressed of the message of Islam ever got displeased with us. Our workers of dawah happen to repeatedly visit the different places of public gathering like mandirs, offices of the Hindu religious organizations, police stations, etc., but our workers never experienced


misbehavior; we received letters of thanks from them instead. No doubt we sometimes face official and non-official inquiries on the assumption that we work to persuade the people into embracing Islam. At first, people got displeased with us. But no sooner they know the fact the lovefull approach of us towards dawah and proselytisation than all misgivings disappear and people turn to Islam on their own accord. The monthly Armaghan has published a good number of such moving stories. In His eternal Book Allah ta'ala has mentioned the prescription of security and safety in the following words:

“[ Allah praises] those who convey the messages of Allah and fear Him and do not fear anyone but Allah . And sufficient is Allah as Accountant.”

Q. People generally claim that the existing environment is not in favour of the dawah to Islam. Still, the fact is that as mightier being the propaganda against Islam and its teachings, so larger is becoming the number of the converts to Islam in the world, especially in the western countries. What might be the reason to be assigned for this strange phenomenon according to your assessment of things?


Ans. The same question I happened to face from a correspondent of the Washington Post. In my reply to him I said, and so is true, that in the past, people, generally specking, looked upon Islam and its teachings through the practical behavior of the Muslims. But now the invention of the advanced means of communication has brought the clear and unalloyed picture of the Qura'nic Islam to the bed rooms of the people. Islam's original form attracts the people to it without facing any unnatural barriers.

Q. The general people, especially the ulama, are still not very much interested in the work of dawah and preaching of Islam to the people at large. What kind of strategy has to be adopted to awaken them towards this cause?

Ans. This is indeed a misleading thought from the Devil. The Devil always keeps the man think of the things as unfertile as being the above one. Here reminds me an advice given by the late Haz. Maulana Masihullah Jalalabadi. He would often say.

"No sorrow of the past, no tension for the future; it is the present which has to be used for work. The Satan tirelessly persuades man into believing the futility of the useful and beneficial acts by arguing that since the persons so and so are doing nothing in respect of those acts, why, then, we bother ourselves in pursuit of those acts? In the same way, sometimes the Satan makes every possible


misleading effort to make the man think of his past lapses and cherishing hopes for the future. By so doing, the Satan destroys his present, the only thing which the man has is his possession by surety. Just a few yeas back, as you know, we visited the great ulama with a view to invite their attention to dawah and also to communicate to them the results of our doings. They expressed their reservations and regarded us to be in close relationship with the Muslim groups and organizations denounced and dismissed by them already as erring, even deviated from the right path. Despite this dismal state of affairs, we continually remained calling the people to Islam; other Muslims came forward and joined hands with us. As a result, the fruits of our efforts began to appear and our names shot to fame. Then the same Ulama recognized us and expressed their unreserved appreciation and extreme admiration towards our doings for the interest of the preaching religion to Islam and its teaching to the humankind. Our experience establishes it beyond doubt that man has no better option than to start doing within the limits what he has in his possession at present from time and means. A couple of years earlier from now I had got published a couplet at the calendar of the Jamiat Imam Wali-Allah of Phulat. By publishing the calendar the primary aim was to communicate the following couplet to the Muslim community at large.

Manzilen kisike ghar hazri nahin detien

Raston pe chalne se raste nikalte hain


That is: Destinations never come to the house of anybody else, and the new ways are cleared only by treading the ways."

And, in order to determine the line of action for myself, I had learnt the following couplet:

Nahin jin men tumhara aks shamil

Wo naqshe hain mita dene ke qabil

That is, 'the schemes and the programmes of life that are devoid of your reflections. All such schemes and programmes deserve destruction". I must express my heartiest gratefulness to Allah ta'ala for His great favours on me that He led and helped me in understanding the principal objective of His Messenger's sunnah.

Q. People often ask about the attitude of your dawah movement towards other dawah movements and sharing their activities. Would you like to clear your position on other groups and organizations working in the walk of dawah and Islamic preaching?

Ans. In order to determine the attitude and the lines of action towards our associates in the field and workers of dawah I have already published an article in the Jamiat Imam Wali Allah's introductory booklet. The article bore the title: Always be with and never against the workers for the good of Islam." It is a special grace of Allah on us that we always try our best to be friendly and cooperative with other fellow organizations and groups.


Q. What is the nature of your relationship with the known Tablighi movement?

Ans. As far as I think, our humble preaching activity which is running in the non-Muslims is an interpretation of the dreams of the elders of the Tabligh movement. To me, this is just an extension and continuation of the movement launched by the late Haz. Maulana Muhammad Ilyas. Never theless, the Tabligh centre has its own system which governs all of its activities. Unless our activities are recognized by the Markaz on the basis of its collective counseling, I think it more prudent to entice the people to work at one's own individual level. I'm perfectly sure that the voice aired and introduced by the Bangla Wali masjid of NizamuDin (that is, the Tabligh markaz) is meant only to introduce the religion of Islam to each and every man. I m sure the things, insha Allah, will so happen. This humble person, too, is a worker of the same Tabligh movement and what I am doing now has been granted to me as a blessing of my love and attachment with the Tabligh movement.

Q. What do you say about the religious seminaries and the educational movements working in India and the world?

Ans. Madrasas and the religious seminaries constitute the chief sources for the good of Islam. The Prophet === was sent to humankind as teacher. Tabligh preaching is a department of ta'lim and education. The suffah


madarsa furnishes the best standard for us through the agency of which the religion of Islam was introduced to the whole world. Praise to Allah, rendering any good service towards madrasas and the people associated indeed is a gesture of good fortune. Side by side this, we try our best to create the dawah temperament in the madrasa environs. The misunderstandings that have unfortunately crept into Muslim societies against Madrasas and which have led them to show disrespect towards them amounts to committing collective suicide. In this respect the articles of mine titled dini madaris aur hamari Zimmedari, and Mulk ki taraqqi mein madaris ka role (religious madaras and our responsibilities: the role of madaris in the development of the country), are available on the Internet and merit a careful reading.

On my visits to the madrasas, the people associated with them often ask me to write down my inspection report on the Register of Inspection. At all such occasions this humble person writes his post as the khakpai khuddam-e-Din (dust of the servants of Islam). So not under the sense of meekness or humility, rather in the hope that in future a person might happen to go through the inspection Register and my this description by his tongue in an auspicious moment might turn me the servant of Islam, and thus I will get success in the Hereafter.

Q. What do you say about the problems generally faced by the new converts to the fold of Islam?


Ans. First of all, it is worth knowing that the Khairul Qurun (the best ages of the history of Islam) never heard the term ‘new Muslim’ and ‘new converts’. As far as I think, taking every thing from the Khairul Qurun only might ensure felicity and blessing for us. When our fellow workers established a centre to organize their preaching activities, they named it Dar-e-Arqam and then Dar-e-Ayyub. By naming our centre after the Islamic History's blessed names of the earliest phase of Islam we felt much blessed. Should we term our these brothers as muhajir (migrants to Islam), it will, insha Allah, fetch greater good. For a long time it has been being said through the monthly Armaghan, proving it on the basis of the Book of Allah, the sunnah of His Messenger and the history of Islam, that it is the institution of dawah in which does lie the solution of every type of problem, individual or collective, political or social and economic the Muslim, rather the Human beings, may ever face. This claim has been made in the light of the Seerat-e-Nabawi. Again, the dawha is the only successful and easier solution to all problems and entanglements the Mulsim Ummah and the human world in common is faced with. As regards the problems faced by our muhajir brothers, according to the experience shared by almost all the preachers of Islam the gravest one from among those being the rehabilitation and resettlement of the new converts to Islam as most of those have to undertake the migration. To solve the problems they face on the economic, social and moral fronts the responsible persons face great difficulty. For


the same purpose they send them in Tablighi Jama'ats, admit them in the madrasas and establish training centres for them. Although efforts are being made, yet only to a little extent we have been able to do justice in this respect.

According to the experiences shared by the preachers scattered about the world the main problem the new comers to the fold of Islam are faces with is the one which they face on the economic and social front. If a new comer to Islam, having equipped himself with the proper moral training and Islamic education, successfully establishes himself socially and economically, being in possession of a system and means to host his family and relatives just for a number of days, his relatives, father, mother, brothers and sisters gradually develop a deeper familiarity with Islam and its teachings and are hoped to embrace Islam very soon. But if, he, contrariwise, is exposed to the situation when he has to beg people for meeting his immediate needs, he himself turns an impediment for others, let alone his becoming an active preacher to Islam. Living in our families and peaceful home environment it is very difficult for us to properly understand the misery and suffering of a newly convert muhajir brother.

Man is a social animal. Tosustain his life he needs every type of relationship. Let’s think for a moment, if we are wanting in a single type of relationship, we feel a certain type of hollowness in our life. To illustrate, if a person, for example, has an elder sister but not a


younger one, or one is without a maternal or paternal ant, one naturally feels a type of vacuum in one’s life. In the light of the importance of the social, blood and uterine relationships we are able to realize the pain of loneliness of a new Muslim muhajir who comes out of his social surroundings to a quite alien society. How much sympathy he needs to overcome his sense of helplessness cannot be easily assessed by us while we are living a peaceful life amidst our nears and dears. The most we can do to support him, in most cases, is not more than giving him a certain amount of money as alm. What mostly happens is that when such a person receives first time such an amount of money, he starts weeping, overburdened with the sense that people regard and treat him as needy. But the necessities of life compel him second time to ask some body and make a request for an amount of money. This way his helplessness gradually suppresses his conscience and he gradually gets into begging door to door, and the problems of life grip him so tightly that results in his deprival of his religious, moral and educational improvement. Sometimes he goes into Tablighi in order to improve his religious condition and augment his religious learning, but being under an unfit amir or uncultured companions he suffers very much.

In the face of the educational, moral, social and economic problems generally faced by our muhajir brothers when we go through the pages of the Seeratun- Nabawi, it offers us a very practical, easier and complete solution


to such apparently unworkable problems in its concept of the Islamic Mu'akhat (the Islamic concept of Fraternity) which unfortunately now is being regarded obsolete.

If an international organisation, supported by the millionnairs, rather by the resourceful governments, is faced by an immediate challenge of hosting and rehabilitating a number of the muhajirs running just into hundreds, the solution of the problems of those muhajirs will put the organization to an extreme unease and for this organization, despite its vast means and great resources, it will be too difficult to meet this challenging problem. But, by sharp contrast, walking along the lines of the way shown by the Sunna and Seera, this problem, in spite of its larger magnitude, could be met very easily only by reviving the neglected sunnah of creating Fraternity between the old and the new Muslims. Even a number of the problem of as much large as of ten million migrants may be solved without facing a difficulty just by establishing their fraternity with the ten million old Muslims. A Muslim may adopt a muhajir as his brother or son through the Islamic approach of brotherhood and may easily solve the muhajir brother’s problem of his moral upbringing, his marriage and the arrangement of his livelihood. For a father of four sons, for instance, it is very easy to take a muhajir as his fifth son and meet his religious, social and economic problems accordingly. This way the problem of ten million muhajirs may very easily by met without facing any great difficulty or


bearing any heavier burden merely by creating the relationship of religious fraternity between the muhajirs and the existing Muslims. In the span of one or two years those ten million muhajirs may assume their religious identity more perfectly than that of the ‘old’ Muslims’ and turn a successful means of guidance for their families still out of the fold of Islam. Then these ten million muhajirs may soon prepare themselves to welcome other tens of millions of non Muslims to the fold of Islam by offering them the stronger tie of the Islmaic fraternity.

Then, a yet another important point is that however careful you are towards a muhajir to meet his requirements you, in most cases, will only be able to attend him once or twice a week, whereas he, in most cases, needs a constant support during all hours of the day and night. If you on the other hand, induct him into your family as a member of it, you will be able to give him your company without fail. The Seerat of the Holy Prophet === offers a proper guidance in this connection as well. This is an important point in the Islamic scheme of things. To explain it, nobody is allowed to alter his lineage in any set of circumstances. Altering one’s lineage is an act too displeasing to Allah as it deprives one even of the ardor of Paradize. But, one the other hand, a muhajir inducted into a Muslim family according to the sunnah of Islamic brotherhood is fully permitted to connect his lineage to his patron Muslims family and project himself as a member of that family. Imam Bukhari’s title al-Ja’afiat Yamani offers a conspicuous example of the rule of the


shariah. Imam Bukhari's grandfather, Mughairah, had embraced Islam at the hand of the said Jafi-al-Yamani and thereafter lived under his wala (relationship of patronage between an age-old Muslims and a newly converted to Islam, referred to in the present book as muhajir).

There are numerous instances of the experience that by offering the relationship of fraternity to a newly- converted Muslim, individual or family, with an intention to follow the sunnah of mu'akhat gets the religious revival and refreshes gradually his affiliation to Islam as a blessing of this blessed relationship, even if the newly-convert is not so much practicing and observant Muslim. Our fellow workers in the field of dawah frequently experience such instances. Following is an interesting one.


“Some time ago, a teenager boy belonging to a village near a town known for its academic activities,

embraced Islam. He had to left his home and seek refuge in the town. The people of his family mounted their pressure on the child and expressed their extreme anger against his supporters. The non-Muslim majority of the area planned to attack the Muslims. Extremely terrified, the Muslims informed me of the enormity of the situation. My only reply was that nothing was to happen as might trouble the Muslims. My this reply was based on my firm conviction in the promise of Allah which He has made in His lasting Book, the Holy Qur’an in the words like:

****

“O Messenger, announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you have not conveyed His message. And Allah will protect you from the people. Indeed, Allah does not guide the disbelieving people.”


“[ Allah praises] those who convey the messages of Allah and fear Him and do not fear anyone but Allah . And sufficient is Allah as Accountant.”

Some political leaders intervened and took the matter in their hand. When the leaders saw the child’s determination and firm resolve not to return back to the life of disbelief, they abandoned him in disappointment and anger. An a-vowed secular Muslim leader, averse to the religious life, evinced much interest in the matter. I sent for him and enquired him how many children he had. ‘Four’ he replied. “The newly convert Muslim boy is your fifth son. He has abandoned his family just for the sake of Islam. Who will embrace him?” My sincere appeal aroused his feelings, and he instantly replied, ‘Rather than being my fifth son, this boy is my first son indeed. These four are next to him’. Praise to Allah! They got him admitted in a religious madrasa. Heaving completed his hifz (the memorization of the entire Qur’anic text), the boy now is about to complete his Alim course. Thanks to the blessings of hosting a new Muslim boy, all the members of the family have performed Hajj, all the four of his sons have grown deeply religious, their faces adorned with beard; all the family members, men and women, including its formerly avowed secular head, now are punctual offerers of namaz, even some of them offer the prayer of Tahajjud (per-dawn, most emphasized prayer). This is not the only instance; there exist numerous ones of the type. This re-sserts the fact how easy it is to solve the religious and


social problems faced by the new converts to Islam by reviving the Islamic institution of mu’akhat, experienced by the earliest phase of Islam. This stresses the need to awaken the conscience of the Muslim Ummah towards reviving the mu’akhat. Present age, in which Allah taa’la has opened the ways to the True Guidance, the number of those embracing Islam of their own accord is increasing in a way quite unusual. Thanks to the anit-Islam propaganda, a deep curiosity about Islam is developing in most people of the world to know it and have a deeper understanding of its teachings and message, thereby has Allah ta’ala opened the ways to Islam. The Ummah, therefore, stands in earnest need to revive the Islamic concept of Mu’akhat. This is the easiest and safest solution Islam and the Prophet’s seerah offer to solve the problems generally regarded as insoluble.

Q. What is the background of writing your famous booklet ‘Apki Amanat Apki Sewa Mein’ and what reason you may assign for its unequalled acceptance and popularity?

Ans. Really speaking, the efficiency of this smaller booklet is the result of the prayers of my Murshid’s late mother. Some sincere workers and fellows, too, complained that they often feel reluctant to begin with the talk to address and convince the non-Muslims in a systematic way. They urged me to write some thing in a form of smaller booklet. It was perhaps written in compliance to the sincere


request of my benefactors. The booklet admittedly contains nothing special or unusual, yet it possesses great efficacy and moving power. Little in number are those who went through it and remained unmoved. The booklet has been rendered into most of the languages of the land.

Q. What are you doing to disseminate the message of Islam to other countries of the world?

Ans. To tell you the truth, we are too incapable to render any substantial service towards disseminating the message of Islam. What we are doing is the service of the self by rendering our humble services towards the good of the message of Islam revealed by Allah, Personally, I undertake three trips a year to the holy lands of Islam with the view to build the general opinion to the work of dawah. The work is gaining momentum in a number of countries. For the same purpose our Arabic magazine ‘al-Khair’ is being published and issued. Efforts are being made in the English language as well. Praise to Allah! People are supporting us and sharing this task. The voice of the Urdu Armaghan is especially reaching far and wide throughout the world.

Q. What is your opinion about different methods and ways of the preaching Islam to non-Muslims?

Ans. My murshid, in his many writings and addresses, has repeatedly put it that it is the dawah which has expressly been commanded by Allah and His blessed Apostle. As regards


the methods and ways of the execution and realization of this express command, no particular way has been accorded the status of the expressed one. The method comes up to the mind and heart of the preacher while he is practically engaged in the work of dawah and preaching. If a thousand people, for example, have embraced Islam by the persuasion of a preacher, he must have employed the same number of methods and ways to convince them. The people in the field are working by using different approaches, according to their own ways which suit them and their experiences have established their efficiency. Therefore, all such ways may be adopted for the purpose.

Q. What do you think of employing the textual references from the sacred scriptures of other religions?

Ans. The permissibility and soundness of this method of preaching has been affirmed by the Qur’an itself. To quote the relevant verse here:

“Say, "O People of the Scripture, come to a word that is equitable between us and you - that we will not worship except Allah and not associate anything with Him and not take one another as lords instead of Allah ." But if they


turn away, then say, "Bear witness that we are Muslims [submitting to Him]."”

Haz. Maulana Asharf Ali Thanawi said. “If the people of Book accept as true what exists in their scriptures, it may suffice for their deliverance”. But, according to my assessment, talking to non-Muslims in their own religious terms needs a lot of knowledge and proficient skill. If the preacher is not deeply equipped with the required knowledge and proficiency, the talk is always feared to take turn from the singleness of the religion to the unity of the religions, and the preacher begins to conceive the hope of the preached coming to the fold of Islam soon, while he is still far away from the True Guidance. It is, nevertheless, may sometimes be useful and prudent to enter into talk with other people using their familiar religious terms, but never a Muslim preacher is permitted to take part in their idolistic rites.

Much care has to be taken in this regard. Idolatry is displeasing to Allah in the extreme; there is no room whatsoever to displease Allah ta’ala to please the preached.

Q. Today it is becoming a common and popular trend as a method of the introduction of Islam on a wider scale to hold quiz competitions on the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Seerah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad and on different other themes by inviting the interested people and students What do you think about this method of preaching?

Ans. This method too is blessed and good. The fact that there exists a number of


misunderstandings and misapprehensions in the minds of non-Muslims about Islam and the Prophet of Islam could hardly be denied. Indeed it is the misunderstandings which constitute the chief reason behind the blind opposition of Islam. Therefore, any way meant to dispel the doubts and remove the misunderstandings about Islam, its teachings and its Apostle is indeed a welcome step and serves a very good purpose. This work ought to be carried out more actively on a wider scale by employing the modern advanced means of communication and those working in the area should be offered every possible support and service. But, Truly speaking, the scope of one’s business and trade is always according to one’s financial position and status. As far as our preaching activities are concerned, we are very much like of a people who possess only a small amount of capital. The people of the type wish to earn more gain by investing a minimum amount of their capital and by less physical toiling and sweating. Holding quiz competitions for the introduction of Islam, according to my assessment, is like the business and trade of the people in possession of the larger capital which needs much labour and fetches comparatively less profit. Through this lengthy way of dawah only fewer people come to the fold of Islam. I sometime think that such things, in spite of the great value they hold, are only efforts primarily intended to introduce Islam to non-Muslims; and this constitutes only a part of the mission of dawah. The duty we are committed to carry out is the dawah and


preaching. The work of introduction of Islam, on the other hand, is different from dawah.

Q. What do you think about employing the modern means of communication like television, Internet, etc, for the purpose of Islamic dawah?’ Dr. Zakir Naik (of Mumbai, India) has for years been doing the work of dawah through his exclusive TV channel, the Peace TV. What is your opinion about his work?

Ans. The modern means of communication, according to my humble opinion, are the means of dawah. The abundance and easy availability of the means of communication, to my personal own assessment, is an arrangement from Allah ta’ala Himself in order to convey the message of Islam to each and every house of the world. These means should be used for the purpose and the people who possess such means are required to value them and make their maximum possible use for the high end of dawah. I greatly appreciate the work being carried out by our respected Dr. Zakir Naik and others working on his pattern for the propagation of Islam. Equally important and correct, how ever is the advice of our Ulama and other people of known sincerity to Islam and Muslims urging him to strictly restrict his activities to the preaching of Islam and introducing the teachings of the religion along the lines of the broadly accepted tenets and the normative principles of Islam, strictly eschewing the sectarianism or inviting people to a specific school of thought or line of thinking. This is a very good and constructive advice and sincerity supports and esponses it.


Despite the possible shortcomings, it will be unwise and imprudent to oppose Dr. Naik or negate the positive aspects of his efforts. I often had opportunities to meet those non-Muslim brothers who watched the peace TV and thereby were moved to the study of Islam. Some out of such people entered into the fold of Islam through other mediums. In short, the modern means of communication should be employed for the interest of the Islamic dawah and for other constructive purposes. The common and traditional misunderstandings about Islam, such as the spread of Islam on the strength of sword, polygamy, etc., have lost their appeal for the new generation. This being the positive result of the efforts which are being made by Dr. Zakir Naik and his colleagues which deserve due appreciation and acknowledgement. In case there is any thing in his work which contravenes the principles of the Islamic shariah, efforts should be made to rectify it with a sense of sympathy.

Q. Which way of preaching is more preferable to you?

Ans. Dawat bil-Qur’an (calling the people to Islam by using the Qur’an), which is being taught by our fellows at the dawah camps everywhere, is the easiest approach and the most cautious way of dawah to Islam. Being weak both in terms of means and ability, we are not in a position to adopt other ways of dawah. This indeed is the natural and short cut way of introducing Islam to non-Muslim brothers. Without indulging in lengthy introductory talk, the Kalimah, the careedal


statement of Islam, is offered to the preached. In most cases the Kalima is accepted by the preached. Less labour and much profit, why, then, we resort to any other way? While preaching Islam this way the preacher often experiences openly the miracle of the Qur’an that the preached often takes to weeping at listening to the Arabic phraseology of the Qur’an. At such occasions the preacher comes to realize that the works and miracles of the earlier Prophets diminished with the end of their lives and lasted only as long as they lived, and With the end of their lives, their miracles and marvels came to an end leaving behind hardly any trace. But, on the other hand, since the mission of our Prophet is still runing, his miracles, too, are existent with their uneqalled grandeur. The careful study of the ways and styles the Holy Prophet employed for the propagation of Islam establishes it beyond doubt that the dawat bil-Qur’an is the nearest way to sunnah. In his oral preaching the Holy Prophet often said.

“O people ! affirm the Oneness of the Godhead, you will get success”.

In writing, he addressed the people

“Submit to Allah (embrace the religion of Islam) and you will get peace and security”. This is the easiest way of preaching. Hence more appealing.

Q. Some people object that mere getting the Kalimah pronounced by the non-Muslims is of no avail. Do you agree?


Ans. Admitting as a matter of reality, I openly say that I know little about the dawah and preaching the message of Islam to non-Muslim brothers. I had no opportunity to learn any thing of dawah even from the dawah-training camps which are being conducted now-a-days so frequently. Sometimes people, driven by their undue good sense and optimism based on my misplaced fame, invite me to address the non-Mulsims and the newly entrants to the fold of Islam. But I dare address them only in the absence of the trained and abled mem. Now when I stand devoid of the required learning and knowledge of dawah I hardly have any option other than placing the Kalimah of Tauhid and Risalat (the creedal statement of Islam) before the addressees. An interesting witticism deserves mention here. Overpowering a Sikh once, a Muslim set over his chest and, intimidating him into accepting Islam, asked him to pronounce the creedal statement of Islam, that is, the Kalimah. Fearing upon his life, the overpowered Sikh asked the Mulsim Khan Sahib to teach him the Kalimah. Since the Khan Sahib was an entirely ignorant Muslim, he failed to tell the defeated Sikh the words of the Kalimah. Truly speaking, we are lacking in a deeper knowledge of Islam and for us it is very difficult to indulge in a lengthy argumentative talk with our non-Muslim brothers. Incidentally, when our lack of knowledge got matched with the Holy Prophet’s natural way of the preaching of Islam, we were glad beyond measure at this welcome coincidence. And when we witnessed an enviably substantial change in the lives of those coming to the fold of Islam through this


shortest way, we got satisfied at the success of our approach..

It has to be admitted that the non-Muslim brothers coming to Islam through this direct way, that is, by uttering the Kalimah, must not be left uncared and unattended. For the perfection of their faith in Islam they need proper training and care. But, on the other hand, no value should be accorded to any amount of knowledge of Islam imparted to them without taking them to the ultimate destination of the pronouncement of the creedal statement of Islam. Without pronouncing the Kalimah and admission of its contents nothing could be achieved. There have been many people who labored very much in convincing their addressed people through the use of their full talent and argumentative ability, but, to our utter disappointment, they could not take them to the pronouncement of Kalimah. Thus their entire labour at last proved futile.

Talking in context of our country, India, most of our country-fellows happen to be Hindus, but their faith in the Hindu religion is ingrained in traditions only. Fewer are those who stand consciously clung to the tenets of it. This fact has been revealed by a very learned Hindu scholar who commands unequalled respect in the Hindus community. From among the thousands of the Hindus there is hardly one person who is fortunate enough to cast a look at the holy book, the Vedas and from hundreds of thousands there are very few who had the opportunity to read and study it. According to


this estimate, there is only a meagre number of those Hindus who possesses the ability to understand the meaning and contents of the Vedas. Being the fact as put, the preacher needs more courage than mere ability. The Hindus, generally speaking, are the people of love, the sincere love is the supremost provision which the Islamic preachers need here.

Again, only a blend of courage and love is required to introduce Islam to a people of love as are the Hindus of this country. The courage to offer the Kalima to non-Muslim brothers does lie only in itself. There are many learned people who for a long while have been convincing their preached, but the talk remains limited to the introduction of Islam to them and removing the misunderstandings, and the Kalimah was not offered to them. When they were asked why the Kalimah was not offered, their reply was that they failed to muster the courage to ask the preached for the pronouncement of the Kalimah.

Addressing the Ulama who had participated in a dawah training camp I said that the life is the most uncertain thing. No breathing or heart beat could be predicted to be the last one. The life-after-death is either an eternal success or a lasting failure. If we have a firm conviction in the existence of Paradise and Hell and other realities of the still unseen world, we must know that it is the faith in the facts of the Kalimah which is the only basis of success and deliverance in the Here after, we have no time to indulge in much lengthy argumentative


talks. What will be the natural response of a person to a man who is just to drown in a well or river or commit himself to the burning flames of the bonefire? No man of a humane disposition could ever afford to warn him against the unimaginably destructive consequences by addressing him so leisurely as follows:

“Dear brother! This river is too deep; upon falling into it you will come to know that you know not how to swim. When you will go deep into the water, the water will bring you up once or twice; then you will go deep again and your nose and mouth will get filled with water. This will stifle your breath, taking your eyes out. Then the lack of oxygen will freeze your blood, casting your tongue out of the mouth. Eventually you will get drawned and the death will occur. Maybe that your dead body too is lost for ever with no trace at all for the people of your family. Your death and the disappearance of your corpus will turn the life of your family into hell. Keeping in mind all the problems involved, my advice to you is that you had better abandon the idea to drown.”

Dose it stand to reason to address the person that has just leapt into the deep water in such an eloquent manner as put above? Or the addressor himself will jump into the deep river in order to save the life of the former, trying his best to take him out of the water against his will? Inreed there have been many brave swimmers who themselves suffered death for their sole purpose to save the lives of the droning persons. On such a critical juncture it


will be completely unwise to persuade the droning person against the dangers of the evil consequences of his rash act by addressing him with so lengthy an eloquant speech.

Before a person all set to jump into the bonefire will his well wisher address him in the following way?

“Mr. respected! You are all set to jump into the bonefire. Perhaps you have no knowledge that the fire is blazing so furiously. No sooner you jump into it than the fire will catch up your clothing. The fire, then, will burn your hair and skin. Then you will feel the heat of fire and it will proceed to burn your flesh. If fortunately the people of your family could put off the burning fire and you was saved alive, you will be taken to hospital and with a body burnt from here and there it will be very difficult for you to lay in bed. The burns of your body will cause you great pain producing prus and stench of the rotting flesh. Your nursing too will become a very difficult task for others, and eventually you will die and even your burial and disposing of your corpus will become a harder task for those behind you.”

Would you like to deliver this longer speech before a rash person, or prefer emperil your life in order save him from jumping into the bonefire?

Man has even less time to save himself from the everlasting Hell fire than that a drowning person or the one all set to jumping into the bonefire has. A preacher, therefore, has no other way than to commence his preaching


directly with the offer of the creedal statement of Islam by addressing him: ‘Pronounce Laillaha illallah, Muhammad Rasullullah.

‘No god except Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.’

How truthfully has the Prophet of Truth expressed:

“You are carelessly falling into the fire like the moths, and I am taking you out of the fire holding your backs” More than one hundred verses of the Holy Qur’an speak of the extreme restlessness of thw Holy Prophet for the guidance of the disbelievers. To quote here only one for example:

“Perhaps, [O Muhammad], you would kill yourself with grief that they will not be believers.”

For my fellows it is my repeated advice that one or two questions from the preached should be answered. On the third question, however, this meeting should be wisely concluded and engage yourselves in the prayer and dua for the guidance of the preached. The questions, most often, strike the minds bent upon the rejection of faith. For an unprejudiced preached merely a direct offer of Kalima is needed. There are many lives which underwent an enviable change immediately after the pronouncement of the Kalima of Islam. A youth, whom I have mentioned elsewhere, embraced Islam accepting the direct offer of the Kalima. He then moved to his house in order to convince


his family members and this had rendered his stay at home extremely difficult. He once took me while I was travelling and, standing before the train, took promise from me to make four prayers to Allah for him. In these four supplications reflects his deep faith and his excellent high taste to lead an Islamically oriented life. ‘The first thing is that ‘Allah ta’ala should grant me the faith in Islam as deep as that of Haz. Abu Bakr al Siddiqs; the second is that Allah ta’ala should grant me the love of His Messenger as strong as was granted to Abu Bakr al Siddiq; the third one is that Allah should make me a man of deep Islamic learning; and the last one, which was actually based on his good opinion about me, was that Allah ta’ala should facilitate for me to engage myself in the preaching of Islam and discharge this duty as good as you are doing.

In short, though we greatly appreciate and value the service which different people and groups are rendering for the cause of dawah in different ways and lines and benefits from their advices and experiences and expect support from them all, yet for us we prefer the way of the direct offer of the Kalimah to the preached, and the people associated with the sphere of dawah should base their preaching on the direct offer of Kalimah with courage and love, and on the direct shortcut of the Kalimah.

Profess that there is no god except Allah, and you will get success.

Q: This shortcut too requires a brief talk and the precher needs to start his


talk based on some verses of the Qur'an. What then, is more preferable to begin with?

Ans: The preaching should be commenced with the introduction of the fundamental facts of the universe that Allah Ta’ala is our Creator, indeed the Creator of everything else, and no one other than the Creator Himself knows better the human psychologies. A preacher is required to begin his talk with the introduction of the themes which Qur’an so frequently and preferentially mentions. It needs not mention that the Oneness of Godhead, belief in the Prophet hood of Muhammad and belief in the advent of the Hereafter constitute the core of the Qur’anic themes. The belief in the Oneness of the Godhead and in the Prophet- hood is required to secure salvation in the after-death life. The life-after –death will automatically lead the talk to the mention of Paradise and Hell. It is indeed the belief in the existence of Paradise and Hell which, in all probability, may prompt the preached to take a decisive step about himself. More so, a firm belief in the Resurrection and the advent of the after-death life ingrains faith deeply and lends stability to it. Therefore, the mention of Paradise and Hell before the preached is very useful. You know that the book Marne ke Baad Kiya Hogaa? (What is to happen after death?) was written keeping in consideration only the Muslim readership; it has not yet been rendered into Hindi language only its script has been changed and a knower of the pure Hindi can hardly


understand it. Still, many non-Muslim brothers have entered the fold of Islam by studying it.

Q. After embracing Islam to what thing a convert should be moved?

Ans. The most important thing for a convert is that he/she must strictly abstain from any type of involvement in the acts of disbelief and idolatry. Purity and offering the namaz with a sense of punctuality and keeping himself steadfastly clung to the Faith of Islam till the last moment of life are the things of unequalled import, and be indoctrinated with him. The actual need and benefit of belief in Islam shall be seen in the life after death. Then he should be prompted to work on the people of his family, with a wise and prudent policy. Because the truth is that our turning a preacher of Islam is the only solution to all the problems and difficulties we are faced with.

Q. Islam and the Muslims are generally regarded a menace for the world peace, thanks to the anti-Islam and anti-Muslim campaign. How dangerous might be to engage oneself in the act of Islamic preaching? Under such an adverse environment will it not be unwise to openly call the non-Muslims to Islam?

Ans. The adverse condition and the environment of enmity between us and the non-Muslim world exists primarily because of the fact that we did not engage ourselves in the work of dawah and failed to prove and establish


our solicitude and well-wishing to them. Had we done so, we would have felt no danger or enmity from any quarter. Whole the environment of enmity and blind opposition is entirely due to the fact that so they do not know) Preaching is the right of our non-Muslim brothers which they owe to us, and not recognizing the right of others constitutes a wrong. It is the wrong-doer who attracts the wrath of Allah. Leaving the duty of dawah, we will be inviting the extreme anger of Allah. To be more precise, it is the un-dawah which invites the wrath of Allah, and the dawah, on the other hand, ensures security and safety from Allah. The Qur’an says.

***

“O Messenger, announce that which has been revealed to you from your Lord, and if you do not, then you have not conveyed His message. And Allah will protect you from the people. Indeed, Allah does not guide the disbelieving people.”

Gratitude to Allah! We are doing the work of dawah which, as you know, is our legal right. Causing any type of hindrance to the work of dawah will constitute a crime according to the law of the land. The person discharging his legal obligation needs not fear, it is indeed sitting idle and remain inactive in respect of the


duty of dawah which is to be feared. In case the preacher is faced with difficulties and hardships in discharging his duty of dawah, he should note the fact that all the sacrifices the Prophet Muhammad and his companions bore were only for the cause of dawah and Faith. The preacher therefore should regard the hardships a blessing for him and bear them happily. Side by side this, equally true is the fact that Allah ta’ala is fully aware of our weaknesses. He never puts one under a charge beyond one’s strength and capacity. The Qur’an puts it clearly as follows:

“Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity.”

Q. Gratitude to Allah, people from different backgrounds are doing the work of dawah and the preaching of Islam. What might be the possible usefull way to coordinate and organize their efforts?

Ans. To my opinion, the best course is to let all groups and individuals do the work of dawah in accordance with their ways and approaches. What is required is the admission and


recognition of the efforts of each other and benefitting from each other’s experiences within all possible limits. Too much endeavors for bringing unity among different working groups and individuals might be counter-productive and harmful. We are already lacking in the required amount of sincerity; each group will be wishing to see others under its yoke. This is quite impossible indeed. We all should do our best for the cause of dawaha, offering our maximum cooperation and support to other workers in the field of dawah. To me it seems sufficient.

Q. You often say that the main obstacle in the way of the preaching of Islam is the existence of an environment of mistrust between the preacher and the preached, particularly the negative mindset of the Muslim community at large. How to coup with this great problem?

Ans. The nature of the relationship between the preacher and the preached is actually that of between the physician and the patient. Should a physician take his patient as his rival, adversary and conspirator, there is no question of any treatment. As a matter of fact, this long-standing malady could be cured only by coming of the Muslim Ummah to the sphere of dawah. Upon offering Islam to the non-Muslims who bear extreme malice to Islam and Muslims we will come to know that their enmity and opposition was based purely on the lack of first


hand knowledge about Islam and Muslims, on disinformation and misinformation.

A friend of mine has selected the interviews of six new converts to Islam from the monthly Urdu Armaghan and got them published in the Hindi language under the title ‘Hamein Hidayat Kese Mili? (How were we able to embrace Islam?). After the publication of this booklet I received a message on my mobile phone which read, ‘I’m the state official of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad; I wish to have a talk with you. Can you give me some time at your convenience’? Upon talking it was revealed the speaker was a certain Goswami Ji. He said that, ‘The Muslim as such was my abomination; I hated the Muslim even if he was in the ambulance. But the study of ‘Hamein Hidayat Kese Mili’ has brought a thorough change into my thinking. Now I have learnt the entire text of the Qur’an. I have to talk to you on the possible future problems how would I be able to face them.”

This instance, and there are many indeed, establish it beyond doubt that between us and the preached ignorance about each other is the main obstacle. It is the dawah which can alter the negative thinking into well- wishing and positive thinking and only herein lies the remedy of this long-standing malady.

Q. You have written an article Har Marz ki Dawa hai Salle ala Muhammad, which has also appeared in the book form. According to this article it is the dawah and the preaching of Islam


amongst all the non-Muslims at large in which lies the final solution to all the problems and difficulties which the world has long been facing. Others however, disagree with this view and denounce your above opinion as extremistic and the dawah phobia. According to them this extremistic view has no place in the structure of Islam, the religion of moderation. What would you like to say about this?

Ans. Balance and moderation is indeed the hallmark of Islam and of all of its teachings. Extremism is not acceptable to Islam. It nevertheless has to be noted that Islam itself has set the standard of balance and moderation for us. If set free, every one, apart from what one at what level is doing, will project his ways and manners of doing as moderate and balanced even if he is the most extremist person of the world. The Seerah of the Holy Prophet Muhammad, the practical explanation of the Islamic tenets and teachings, has set forth the lines of action for us. While going through the blessed Seerah we note that the Holy Prophet Muhammad was given to take lead in all acts of goodness and virtue. Take his namaz for example. He often stood in his namaz for so long that his feet swelled up. But the Qur’an did not denounce the Prophet’s so lengthy namazes as an act of extremism. Likewise, his fasting and extraordinary generosity were never condemned as an act of extremism. He was so generous that he never turned back a needy person. He kept nothing in


his ownership. He supported others even by raising loans from others who often would put him to unease later. Despite his extraordinary business with all acts of virtue, he was never denounced as lunatic by his ardent enemies. The word junun (Lunacy) has occurred in the Qur’an nine times, two times for other Prophets and seven times for our Prophet Muhammad, each time to express his extreme passion and restlessness he cherished for the preaching and the introduction of Islam to non-Muslims. This establishes well that in respect of dawah and calling all human beings to Islam the moderate way is that the preacher should fly into extreme passion for dawah to save the fellow human beings from Hell. People say that we are suffering from the dawah phobia while we are doing nothing to be noted; we just are repeating the word of dawah without substance. Were it that Allah ta’ala grant us a part of the Holy Prophet’s blessed ‘Lunacy’ and his boundless restlessness. This is my special and favorite supplication which I always make at special places and occasions.

Q. In our dawah trips we often face difficulties from the Tabligh fellows. They often say that their Ulama and the elders do not permit to preach Islam to non-Muslims. What do you say about this strange phenomenon?

Ans. I have already said that engaging the people of little value in the act as high as of the preaching of Islam and the fortunate non-Muslim peoples’ embracing Islam at our hands


is nothing but a result of the prayers and midnight supplications of the late founder of the Tabligh movement, Maulana Muhammad Ilyas (may Allah deal him with mercy). My murshid, Late Hazrat Maulana Ali Miyan Nadwi, was from among the few earlier companions of Mualana Muhammad Ilyas. He reports that the Maulana had left the Bangla Wali Masjid to introduce Islam to the non-Muslims that he encountered the Mewatis, the half-apostate people. He found that the reform work in the half-apostate Mewatis required extensive field work. Then, with a view to create the dawah temperament in the Muslim community, he launched the Tabligh movement and always described it as the ABC of his scheme of overall reform work. What we are doing in the sphere of dawah, as far as I think, is the DEF and an extension of the same work which the Maulana had launched. I’m sure beyond any doubt that the voice of the Kalimah raised from the Bunglow Wali Masjid will get to the ear of every man in all corners of the world. I’m in possession of the photos of the epistles of Maulana Md. Ilyas and his great son, Maulana Muhammad Yusuf, which they happened to write in connection with dawah. In those epistles they have said that the existent work was the first step of the comprehensive work they had before themselves. The work would be regarded really valuable when the people would flock to the fold of Islam in multitudes.

In an assembly of the du’at (pl. of daie, the precher) organized by a Delhi-based dawah organization, I faced a question from the


participants why I did not call the attention of the Tabligh dignitaries to introduce the religion of Islam to the non-Muslims. My answer, which was actually an expression of reality, was:

“There exists an environment of dawah in the world these days, and people are embracing Islam in large numbers. The greater number of the converts to Islam comprises those who have entered the fold of Islam either at their own instance or the anti-Islam malicious propaganda made them to study Islam and its teachings. Others are those who entered the fold of Islam by means of the dawah endeavors being made by the Muslims. A deeper study into most cases of the latter category of the newly convert muslims will reveal the fact that the majority of such people is embracing Islam through the individual efforts of the Tablighi fellows, and this has been happening ever since the period of the Late Maulana Muhammad Ilyas. From among the confidants of the Late Maulana Miyan Ji Musa and Haji Abdur Rahman (of Itawda) held special position with him, and the Mulana’s biography can never be completed if these two names are left out. This Haji Abdur Rahman himself was a new convert to Islam. At his Blessed hand more than four thousand non-Muslims embraced Islam. Indeed there are many like Amirud Din, the retired colonel and sincere associate of the Tabligh movement, at whose hand a great number of non-Muslim brothers entered the fold of Islam. It is an admitted fact that for the primary training of the new converts no way is proved better than sending them in the Jama’at of


Tabligh. Gratitude to Allah! The dignitaries of the markaz bless me and the people ssociated with their prayers, especially at particular blessed occasions. A new trend in the thinking of the elders of the Tabligh is being noted nowadays. It is their advice to the Tablighi fellows that they should try their best to call the non-Muslim brothers to their assemblies held anywhere aboard a train, railway stations, the bus depots, etc. Opposition from any quarter, if there is any should be dismissed in the spirit of tolerance. Your own fellows may also take an opinion different from yours.

Q. The Muslims, generally speaking, say that first we need to reform ourselves and reconstruct our damages. The Muslims are turning apostate and are rashly falling into other deadly sins. At this stage . What do you say about the questions of the types?

Ans. This is a longer topic to deal with. About the questions of the type I have written a series of articles which have already got published in the Urdu monthly Armaghan. This series, under the title Dawate din, kuch ghalat fahmiyan, kuch kham khayaliaa (Preaching of Islam: some misunderstandings, some vain hopes) now is available in book form in the market bearing the title Dawate Din, Kuch ghalat fahmiyan, kuch Haqaiq ( preaching of Islam: some misunderstandings, some facts). This book is intended to meet all such misapprehension and clear the doubts. The book is of great


importance and deserves study. The book has won the approval and appreciation of most of the men of Islamic learning. Its study is expected to wash the mind off the doubts and apprehensions, as is the experience of many people.

Q. What should we do in the blessed month for the interest of dawah?

Ans. The blessed month in fact is the season of the special Divine grants, a great festive occasion celebrated for the Revelation of the Qur’an, the Guidance for mankind and to attract the blessings of the Qur’an. The dawah activists are required to determine their targets and get them endorsed by Allah in the blessed month, and supplications should be made for the grant of the position of a daie. Once we got it endorsed by Allah, the resources and the requirements will get fulfilled. Even the faith and the restlessness for the sake of Faith to are granted. To secure all these things what is needed are the prayers which have to be made with firm conviction, the sense of humility, of meekness of resourcelessens.

Q. What is the chief consideration a preacher essentially requires to keep fresh in his mind while he is in the work field of dawah?

Ans. Answers to this question may differ from person to person. As far as my estimation is concerned, the work of dawah is the supremost part of the Divine institution of Prophethood. The more the dai is conscious of his incapacity and resourcelesseness, the greater the success


is granted to him on the part of Allah Ta’ala. The sense of one’s inability, lack of knowledge and inactivety imparts one an actual feeling to humiliate oneself before Allah and make earnest supplications to Him. Needless to say, man, however great and resourceful he is, has no other option than making supplications to Allah and asking Him in all earnestness. A sincere dua uttered with a sense of humility wins the pleasure of Allah and He makes decisions to grant. The blessed month is the most suitable season of asking Allah taala His bounty and reward. We are unfit to present ourselves in the Divine court. It is the sense of our resourcelessness which keeps us lying on His door under the guise of Itikaf (seclusion), with the conviction that none other than He can meet our needs. We, therefore, must avail of this blessed opportunity and rise to the ocassion with greater preparedness.

Q. Any message for the Armaghan readership?

Ans. This country is of the people of love. Allah ta’ala has cast man, the masterpiece of His creation, in the best mould. There is no reason to disappoint from such people of love. To uncover the moral and creational beauty of such a good people there is an earnest need to come to the field of dawah with courage and love. What is needed here to carry out the task of dawah is the only love and courage rather than the ability. We need to offer the thirsty humanity the sweet and could water of the divide Guidance. Coming out to the field of dawah with the same feelings in mind will


prove the master key to change every despair into hope.

www.armughan.in/

(Extracted from the monthly Armaghan, the issues of the months of May, June, August, September 2010`)

Phulat Masjid and Madarsa

an interview with mualana muhammad kalim siddiqi

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