Abu al-Hasan 'Ali al-Hasani al-Nadwi

Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Hayy ibn Fakhr al-Din al-Hasani al-Nadwi (1333–1420 AH/1914–1999 CE) was an Indian scholar, preacher and man of letters who wrote in Arabic and Urdu; among his best-known books are Madha Khasira al-'Alam bi-Inhitat al-Muslimin? ("What Has the World Lost through the Decline of the Muslims?") and al-Sira al-Nabawiyya. ² The biography attached to his Sira in the Dar Ibn Kathir edition praises him at length and quotes contemporaries. Among them is Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who called him one on whom Salafis and Sufis, followers of the schools and those who follow none, all agreed. ³

His lineage, as the biography gives it, goes back to 'Abd Allah al-Ashtar ibn Muhammad al-Nafs al-Zakiyya, of the descendants of al-Hasan ibn 'Ali. The first of his family to settle in India, early in the seventh Islamic century, was the amir Qutb al-Din al-Madani. ⁴ His father was the historian 'Abd al-Hayy al-Hasani, author of Nuzhat al-Khawatir on the notable figures of India; his mother had memorised the Qur'an and wrote poetry. ⁴

• He was born on 6 Muharram 1333 AH (1914 CE) in the village of Takiya Kalan near Rae Bareli in the United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh). His father died in 1341 AH (1923 CE), when he was nine or ten, and his mother and his elder brother Dr 'Abd al-'Ali al-Hasani brought him up. ⁵
• He studied Arabic with Khalil ibn Muhammad al-Ansari al-Yamani from late 1924, then specialised in literature with Taqi al-Din al-Hilali when the latter came to Nadwat al-'Ulama' in 1930. ⁵
• He entered Lucknow University (Arabic literature) in 1927 and the Dar al-'Ulum of Nadwat al-'Ulama' in 1929. There he read the two Sahihs and the Sunans of Abu Dawud and al-Tirmidhi with Haydar Hasan Khan of Tonk. He studied the exegesis of the whole Qur'an with Ahmad 'Ali Lahori in Lahore in 1351 AH/1932 CE, and attended Husain Ahmad Madani's lessons on al-Bukhari and al-Tirmidhi at Deoband. ⁶

• He was appointed to teach exegesis and literature at the Dar al-'Ulum of Nadwat al-'Ulama' in 1934. ⁶
• On a tour of India's religious centres in 1939 he came to know 'Abd al-Qadir Raipuri and Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi. He received spiritual training from the first and followed the second's example in preaching; the biography calls this a turning point in his life. ⁷
• He founded a centre for Islamic teaching in 1943, the "Message of Humanity" movement among Muslims and Hindus in 1951, and the Academy of Islamic Research in Lucknow in 1959. He helped found the Board of Religious Education of Uttar Pradesh (1960), the All-India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (1964) and the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board (1972). ⁸

• His first Arabic article appeared in Rashid Rida's al-Manar in 1931, on Sayyid Ahmad Shahid, and Rida reissued it as a separate book. The biography says he was fourteen at the time, which does not agree with the birth date it gives. ⁹
• Among his books the biography lists: Sirat Ahmad Shahid in Urdu (1937); Mukhtarat min Adab al-'Arab (1940); Qasas al-Nabiyyin and al-Qira'a al-Rashida (1944); Madha Khasira al-'Alam (1944); Rijal al-Fikr wa-al-Da'wa fi al-Islam, from lectures at the Faculty of Shari'a in Damascus in 1956; al-Qadiyani wa-al-Qadiyaniyya (1958); al-Sira' bayna al-Fikra al-Islamiyya wa-al-Fikra al-Gharbiyya (1965); al-Arkan al-Arba'a (1967); al-Sira al-Nabawiyya (1976); and al-Murtada, on 'Ali ibn Abi Talib (may God be pleased with him) (1988). ¹⁰
• He helped edit journals including al-Diya', al-Nadwa, al-Ba'th al-Islami, al-Ra'id and Ta'mir-e Hayat, and wrote for al-Risala, al-Fath, Hadarat al-Islam and al-Muslimun. ¹¹

• He was a corresponding member of the Arabic language academies of Damascus, Cairo and Jordan, a member of the advisory council of the Islamic University of Medina from 1962, and of the founding council of the Muslim World League. ¹²
• He received the King Faisal International Prize in 1980 for Madha Khasira al-'Alam and an honorary doctorate from the University of Kashmir in 1981. He chaired the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies from 1983 and the World League of Islamic Literature from 1984. He also received Dubai's Islamic Personality award for 1419 AH and a prize from the Sultan of Brunei in 1998. ¹³
• He was secretary-general of the Dar al-'Ulum of Nadwat al-'Ulama'. ¹⁴

He died of a heart attack on Friday 23 Ramadan 1420 AH, the last day of December 1999, in his birthplace Rae Bareli, at the age of eighty-six. The prayer in absentia was said for him in the two Holy Mosques on the night of 27 Ramadan. ¹⁵