Moulana Hidayat Allah ibn Abdullah al-Farisi al-Hanbali al-Surti (orginally, Jahangir ibn Biman Shah) is a convert scholar from Gujarati city of Surat. He embraced Islam with his father and went on to become a well-learned scholar and traveller. Born in 1834 and died around 1916-17, he lived approximately 82 years. During this period he studied with some of the greatest scholars of the time. He spent many years studying under Mufti Abd al-Qayyum ibn ‘Abd al-Hayy al-Badhanvi, upon whom he completed the study of the six books of Hadith and ‘Abd al-Qadir Dehlavi’s Qur’an translation. He also received ijaazaat from Abu al-Hasan ibn Ilahi Bakhsh al-Kandhelvi, “Sheikh al-Kull Fi al-Kull” Miyan Nazir Husayn Dehlavi, Molana Fazl al-Rahman Ganj Muradabadi, Husayn ibn Muhsin al-Ansari, Sayyid ‘Abd al-Hai al-Fasi al-Maghribi amongst dozens of others. Similarly, he was licensed in several Sufi orders, in the Qadiri order from his main teacher Mufti ‘Abd al-Qayyum and Haji Warith ‘Ali al-Deyori and almost all the important variations of the Chisti order: Chisti Sabiri, Chisti Nizami, Chisti Qadiri etc. He is said to have travelled most of the world: the Hijaz, Egypt, Syria, Quds, Europe, the Mongolian lands, America, and seen the wonders of each province and country. He spoke many languages, amongst them confirmed are Arabic, Persian, English, Tamil, Telagu, Bengali and Gujarati. He spoke each of them fluently as they were his native tongue without any difficulty. Near the end of his life, he used to visit Lucknow every year for a few months and meet, amongst other friends, Mol. Nur al-Hasan ibn Nawab Siddiq Hasan Khan and stay at his estate. It is here the historian and chronicler Mol ‘Abd al-Hai al-Hasani would meet him. Here’s some of the things he has to say about him: كان باهر الذكاء، قوي التصور، كثير البحث عن الحقائق، لطيف الطبع، حسن المحاضرة، فصيح المنطق، مليح الكلام، وكانت مجالسته نزهة الأذهان والعقول، بما لديه من الأخبار التي تنشف الأسماع، والأشعار المهذبة للطباع، والحكايات عن الأقطار البعيدة وأهلها وعجائبها… He died in Hyderabad, may Allah have mercy on his soul and elevate his status. My biggest grouse with him is that he did not leave behind a travelogue!
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 20:18:04 +0000
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