Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi

Muhammad Zakariya Kandhlawi (2 February 1898 – 24 May 1982) was an Indian hadith scholar of Kandhla, Shaykh al-Hadith of Mazahir Uloom Saharanpur and the nephew of Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi, the founder of the Tablighi Jamaat.¹² The English article's lead calls him a Sunni Hanafi hadith scholar of the Deobandi school; his Fada'il-e-A'mal became the Tablighi Jamaat's curriculum.¹²

He was born at Kandhla on 11 Ramadan 1315 AH (2 February 1898), the only son of Muhammad Yahya Kandhlawi; the English article's age template computes from 3 February and Wikidata carries 3 and 12 February as well.¹³⁴ At two he moved to Gangoh, where his father lived with Rashid Ahmad Gangohi, and in 1910 he went with his father to Saharanpur to attend Mazahir Uloom, studying the hadith collections under his father and, in 1916, reading Sahih al-Bukhari and Jami' al-Tirmidhi a second time under Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri, whom he assisted on the Badhl al-Majhud commentary.¹³

In 1333 AH (1915) he gave bay'ah at the hand of Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri, taking him as his spiritual guide.¹ The Arabic article states that he kept to his shaykh Khalil Ahmad, who granted him a general ijaza and made him his khalifa, and the English article records that his shaykh conferred khilafah on him in four silsilas — Chishtiyya, Suhrawardiyya, Qadiriyya and Naqshbandiyya.³¹

He was appointed a teacher at Mazahir Uloom in 1916 at eighteen, rose to teach the dawrah books of hadith, and taught Sahih al-Bukhari in full sixteen times before cataracts ended his teaching in 1968.¹ His works include Awjaz al-Masalik, his six-volume commentary on Malik's Muwatta, Khasa'il-i Nabawi, and the Faza'il series, of which Fada'il-e-A'mal is required reading in the Tablighi Jamaat; his essays are described by the Oxford profile cited in the article as required reading for the movement's people.¹ He supported the Tablighi Jamaat founded by his uncle throughout his life.¹²

He fell ill at Medina on 16 May 1982 and died there on 24 May 1982; his body was buried the same day in Jannat al-Baqi, near the enclosure of the Prophet ﷺ's family, as he had wished.¹ Wikidata also carries a 24 May 1983 death value, which the article's detailed account does not support.⁴

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