Muhammad Yusuf Kandhlawi

Muhammad Yusuf Kandhlawi (20 March 1917 – 2 April 1965) was an Indian scholar, the son of Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi, founder of the Tablighi Jamaat, and his successor as the Jamaat's second amir.¹² He wrote Hayat al-Sahaba in three volumes and Amani al-Ahbar fi Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar in four.¹

He was born at Kandhla on 25 Jumada al-awwal 1335 AH (20 March 1917), while his father was teaching at Mazahir Uloom Saharanpur.² He memorised the Qur'an at ten under Hafiz Imam Khan Mewati, and Syed Ahmad Faizabadi, elder brother of Hussain Ahmad Madani, sent him an honorary degree from Medina marking the memorisation.¹² He read the fiqh books up to Kanz al-Daqa'iq under Hafiz Maqbul Hasan Gangohi, then entered Mazahir Uloom, where he read the hadith collections under its teachers — among them Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi, under whom he read Sunan Abi Dawud — and graduated in 1936 (1355 AH) at twenty.²¹ In 1935 he married Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi's eldest daughter.²

After his father's death in 1944 he became the Jamaat's second amir; the Urdu biography credits him with devising the Jamaat's working system of tours and set periods of travel, and in his time the movement's preaching journeys abroad began from the Prophet ﷺ's Mosque in Medina.² His addresses at the Nizamuddin centre in Delhi drew large audiences, including many Hindus.²

His books include Hayat al-Sahaba (The Companions' Way of Life), three volumes in Arabic; Amani al-Ahbar fi Sharh Ma'ani al-Athar, a four-volume annotation of al-Tahawi's work; and Muntakhab Ahadith in Urdu and Arabic.¹³

He fell ill during a gathering at Lahore on a preaching journey to Pakistan and died there on 29 Dhu al-Qa'da 1384 AH (2 April 1965), aged 48.²¹ His funeral prayer at Delhi, led by Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi, was attended by at least two hundred thousand mourners, and he was buried next to his father's grave.¹³

None of the three Wikipedia articles names a school for him in its prose; the Sunni, Hanafi and Deobandi-movement values appear in the English and Urdu articles' infoboxes, which are structured fields rather than text attestations, and category filings do not attest, so his record leaves the school unclassified with the readings preserved in its faith note.¹²⁴

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