Sulaiman Nadvi

Sulaiman Nadvi (22 November 1884 – 22 November 1953) was an Indian, then Pakistani, scholar and historian, among the foremost pupils of Shibli Nomani.¹² He completed Shibli's Sirat-un-Nabi, founded Darul Musannifeen (the Shibli Academy) at Azamgarh, and edited the journal Ma'arif.¹

He was born on Friday 23 Safar 1302 AH (22 November 1884) at Desna, a village in Nalanda district, Bihar; his father, Hakeem Sayyed Abul Hasan, was a Sufi.²¹ After early schooling in his village and at the Khanqah Mujibiyya at Phulwari Sharif, he entered Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama at Lucknow in 1901, studied there seven years and graduated in 1906, becoming one of Shibli Nomani's favourite pupils.³¹ In 1908 he was appointed an instructor of modern Arabic and theology at Nadwa, and Aligarh Muslim University conferred an honorary DLitt on him in 1941.¹

When Shibli Nomani died in 1914, Nadvi completed the Sirat-un-Nabi his teacher had begun; his works also include Khutbat-e-Madras, Seerat-e-Aisha, Arb-o-Hind Ke Talluqat (Arab–Indian relations), The Arab Navigation, Tarikh Ard-ul-Quran and a risala titled Ahl-us-Sunnah-wal-Jama'ah.¹³ At his teacher's wish he founded Darul Musannifeen at Azamgarh and worked there twenty-two years, founded and edited the scholarly journal Ma'arif, and was a member of the founding committee of Jamia Millia Islamia.²¹

Later in life he turned to Sufism: the English article states that he formed a close spiritual relation with Ashraf Ali Thanwi and became his disciple, and the Arabic article, written independently, names him among the foremost students and khulafa of Thanwi and styles him al-Naqshbandi al-Mujaddidi.¹²

In June 1950 he moved to Pakistan and settled in Karachi, where he was appointed chairman of the Taleemat-e-Islami Board advising on the Islamic aspects of Pakistan's constitution.¹ He died at Karachi on 22 November 1953, aged sixty-nine, on his birthday; the Urdu article's lead gives 23 November against its own death section, and the Arabic article's body prints 2 November against its own infobox, and neither slip is followed.³²⁴ Pakistan Post issued a commemorative stamp for him in its Pioneers of Freedom series in 1992.¹

His record documents a Sufi affiliation, because two independent texts state his discipleship and khilafa: the English text's statement that he became Thanwi's disciple and the Arabic lead's naming of him among Thanwi's khulafa in the Naqshbandi-Mujaddidi line.¹² The Arabic lead also styles him Hanafi, but no second independent text names a madhhab for him, so that naming is preserved in the record's faith note rather than recorded as a segment; his risala titled Ahl-us-Sunnah-wal-Jama'ah is a work, not a text naming his school.²¹

{¹} {³} {²} {⁴}