Mahmud Hasan Deobandi

Mahmud Hasan was born in 1851 in the town of Bareilly (in modern Uttar Pradesh, India) to a family with a scholarly background.[1][2][3] His father, Muhammad Zulfiqar Ali, was a scholar of the Arabic language and worked in the education department of the British East India Company's administration in the region.[4]

As a child, Mahmud Hasan was with his father in Meerut during the Mutiny of 1857.[3]

Hasan received a traditional Islamic education with a strong emphasis on the study of Islam, the Persian language and Urdu. His primary education was under his uncle Mahtab Ali.[5][3] While Mahmud al-Hasan was studying the books Mukhtasar al-Quduri and Sharh-i-Tahdhib, the college known as Darul Uloom Deoband was established in 1866.[2] His father sent him to the newly established school, where he was the first student. There he studied with Mahmud Deobandi[5] and completed his basic studies in 1286 AH (1869/1870), after which he studied under the guidance of Muhammad Qasim Nanotvi, with whom he studied hadith. After that, he studied higher level books under his father. He graduated from Darul Uloom Deoband in 1873.[2][4]

In 1874, Mahmud Hasan joined Darul Uloom Deoband as a teacher and later got promoted to the position of the college principal in 1890.[2][4][1]

Although focused on his work at the school, Maulana Mahmud al-Hasan developed an interest in the political environment of British India and the world. When the Ottoman Empire entered World War I against the British Empire in 1914, Muslims across the world were concerned of the future of the Sultan of Ottoman Empire, who was the caliph of Islam and spiritual leader of the global Muslim community. Known as the Khilafat struggle, its leaders Mohammad Ali Jouhar and Maulana Shaukat Ali organised protests across the country (see: partitioning of the Ottoman Empire). Mahmud al-Hasan was fervently active in encouraging Muslim students to join the movement. Hasan organised efforts to start an armed revolution against British rule from both within and outside India. He launched a programme to train volunteers from among his disciples in India and abroad who joined this movement in a large number. The most eminent among them were Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi and Maulana Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari. Sending Sindhi to Kabul and Ansari to the North-West Frontier Province to mobilize popular support and recruit volunteers, Mahmud al-Hasan himself traveled to Hijaz to secure Turkish support in 1915.[2][4][1]

Obtaining the Turkish governor Ghalib Pasha's signature on a declaration of war against the British, Mahmud al-Hasan planned to return to India via Baghdad and Balochistan to start the rebellion. The plan, referred to as the Silk Letter Conspiracy, however, was leaked and captured by the Punjab CID, and he was arrested in Mecca. He was imprisoned in Malta, for more than three years before his release in 1920.[4][1]

After returning to British India, Mahmud al-Hasan joined the Khilafat movement. He also issued his famous fatwa (legal opinion on Islamic law) of non-cooperation against the British rule in India.[4][1]

He laid the foundation stone of the Jamia Millia Islamia in October 1920, a university founded by Indian nationalists Hakim Ajmal Khan, Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari to develop an institution independent of British control.[4][1] He also wrote a well known translation of the Quran, the commentary of which was written by one of his students, Shabbir Ahmad Usmani. Mahmud al-Hasan supported modern education and also supported Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama established in 1893 in Lucknow.[1]

Mahmud Hasan died on 30 November 1920.[1] His endeavours won him the admiration not only of Muslims but also of Indians across the religious and political spectrum. He became an icon of the Indian independence movement, and was given the title of "Shaykh al-Hind" by the Central Khilafat Committee.[3] Hasan issued a fatwa making it the duty of all Indian Muslims to support and participate with Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress, who had prescribed a policy of non-cooperation — mass civil disobedience through non-violence.[3]

Bab-e-Maulana Mahmud Hasan of the Jamia Millia Islamia is named after Mahmud Hasan Deobandi

Shaikh-Ul-Hind Maulana Mahmood Hasan Medical College in Saharanpur is named after him. Asir Adrawi has written his biography enitled Shaykh al-Hind Hayat Aur Karname which is published by Shaikhul Hind Academy, Deoband. Darul Uloom Deoband has set up a research institute Shaikhul Hind Academy, named after him.

At the Aligarh Muslim University.Muhammad Tayyab wrote a Master of Philosophy thesis in Political science enitled The Role of Shaikh-Ul-Hind Maulana Mahmud-Ul-Hasan in the Indian Freedom Movement.[6]

He co-wrote an Urdu exegesis (Tafsir) of the Qur'an, called Tafsir-e-Usmani, with Shabbir Ahmad Usmani.[1]

Mahmud Hasan is regarded as one of the main figures of Deobandi movement, every Deobandi scholar anywhere in the world traces back his educational lineage to Mahmud Hasan Deobandi. Shabbir Ahmad Usmani in the science of tafsir, Anwar Shah Kashmiri in hadith, Ubaidullah Sindhi, Husain Ahmad Madani and Muhammad Mian Mansoor Ansari in the politics, Kifayatullah Dihlawi, Mufti Shafi Usmani in fiqh, Ashraf Ali Thanwi in Tasawwuf are notable students of Mahmud Hasan.[7]

• JMI biography