Chapter 15: Starting to Teach in Madeenah Munawwarah

Chapter 15: Starting to Teach in Madeenah Munawwarah

At the end of Shabaan 1316 Hijri (January 1899) when I was leaving Deoband with my brothers for the final time, Hadhrat Shaykhul Hind RA joined others to bid us farewell and walked with us to Deoband Station – strongly advising us to never give up teaching under any circumstance, even if it was only one or two students. Bearing his advice in mind, I became deeply concerned about how to occupy myself with teaching. When we had reached Madeenah Munawwarah, a few Hindustani and Arab students had requested to be taught a few kitabs. I had ample opportunity to study Arabic books but had not developed my spoken Arabic and therefore, I faced a few difficulties. However, in accordance with the advice of Hadhrat Shaykhul Hind RA, I began teaching outside my allocated time working as a scribe. At the time, many ulama would teach in the respected Harame Nabwi (Masjide Nabwi alayhis salam) as a form of honour. One benefit I reaped from this was that I was able to memorise the foundational books of sarf, nahw, and fiqh etc and secondly, I was able to perfect my spoken Arabic.

Generally, amongst the ahle-ilm and particularly, within the ulema of Hijaz there was much jealousy and rivalry. Therefore, whenever an alim would make his presence, many eyebrows would be raised, and he would be subjected to criticism. As the ulema of Hind were not articulate with spoken Arabic, they would frequently suffer setbacks. Despite this, many highly revered ulema of Hind had become renowned in Madeenah Munawwarah; their profound knowledge and high level of aptitude and capability were well recognised by everyone. These individuals included; Hadhrat Shaykh Mohammad Abid Ansari Sindi RA,thereafter Hadhrat Shah Abd al-Ghani Naqshbandi Dehelvi RA, followed by Hadhrat Molana Habibur Rahman Sahib Raudaulvi RA and Molana Mohammad Is-haq sahib Amritsari RA. Many of their books and students are still present there today and the latter two scholars were still alive at the time. Even though people were generally unable to take benefit from Hadhrat Molana Habibur Rahman sahib because of his stern personality and ascetic nature, his high level of aptitude and capability were given the mark of excellence.

Furthermore, it was challenging for menial traders like us to establish and develop credibility in the fields that the Arab ulema held distinction and excellence.This is the reason why teaching only one or two students and focusing on the foundational books of nahw, sarf, fiqh proved very beneficial. Until Shawwal 1318 Hijri (February 1901), I continued to teach groups of two to four students without attracting anyone's criticism as my teaching had not developed. Thereafter, in Dhil-Qadah 1318 Hijri (March 1901), I visited Gangoh shareef on the instruction of Hadhrat Molana Gangohi Quddus sirruhu and following my return to Madeenah Munawwarah in Muharram 1320 (April 1902), my teaching made great progression -the details will follow later.

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The next chapter to be uploaded will be based on Shaykhul Islam's (Quddus sirruhu) life and challenges whilst living in Madeenah Munawwarah  inshaAllah.

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