Manzoor Nomani

Muhammad Manzoor Nomani (15 December 1905 – 4 May 1997) was an Indian Islamic scholar of Sambhal, a hadith scholar of the Deobandi tradition best known for Maariful Hadith.¹ He graduated from Darul Uloom Deoband in 1927, taught hadith at Nadwatul Ulama, was a founding member of Jamaat-e-Islami who broke with it in 1942, and afterwards affiliated with the Tablighi Jamaat.¹²

He was born on 15 December 1905 (18 Shawwal 1323 AH) at Sambhal, the son of Sufi Muhammad Husain, a businessman and landlord.¹ After schooling in his hometown and at Darul Uloom Mau, he enrolled at Darul Uloom Deoband, graduating in 1927 with the highest marks in the dawrah of hadith, having studied hadith under Anwar Shah Kashmiri.¹² He then taught three years at Amroha and four years as Shaykh al-Hadith at Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama in Lucknow, and in 1934 he founded the monthly journal al-Furqan at Bareilly.¹

Nomani was a founding member of Jamaat-e-Islami in August 1941 and was elected its deputy amir, second to Abul A'la Maududi; in 1942, following disagreements with Maududi, he led a group in resigning and returned to Sambhal.¹ Afterwards he and Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi became affiliated with the Tablighi Jamaat of Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi, whose discourses he compiled as the Malfuzat from Ilyas's final illness in 1943–44.¹² From 1943 he sat on the Majlis-e-Shura of Darul Uloom Deoband, and he was a member of the Muslim World League.¹

His works include Islam Kya Hai?, Din o Shari'at, Maariful Hadith, the Malfuzat of Muhammad Ilyas, and the 1984 critique Khomeini and the Iranian Revolution.¹ He died at Lucknow on 4 May 1997 and was buried at Aishbagh; Wikidata gives the death date as 5 May.¹³

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