Ashraf Ali Thanawi (1863-1943) was one of the most prominent religious scholars in Islamic history. Author of over a thousand books on different aspects of Islam, he defended the Islamic scholarly tradition and articulated its authority in an age of momentous religious and political change. Muhammad Qasim Zaman offers a comprehensive and highly accessible account of Thanawi's multifaceted career and thought, whilst also providing a valuable introduction to Islam in modern South Asia.
Challenging conventional notions about the place of women in Muslim societies, the Bihishti Zewar (Heavenly Ornaments) gives life to the themes of religious and social reform that have too often been treated in the abstract. This instructional guidebook, used by the world's largest population of Muslims, is a vital source for those interested in modern Indian social and intellectual history, in Islamic reform, and in conceptions of gender and women's roles. The Bihishti Zewar was written in northern India in the early 1900s by a revered Muslim scholar and spiritual guide, Maulana Ashraf 'Ali Thanawi (1864-1943), to instruct Muslim girls and women in religious teachings, proper behavior, and prudent conduct of their everyday lives. In so doing, it sets out the core of a reformist version of Islam that has become increasingly prominent across Muslim societies during the past hundred years. Throughout the work, nothing is more striking than the extent to which the book takes women and men as essentially the same, in contrast to European works directed toward women at this time. Its rich descriptions of the everyday life of the relatively privileged classes in turn-of-the-century north India provide information on issues of personality formation as well as on family life, social relations, household management, and encounters with new institutions and inventions. Barbara Metcalf has carefully selected those sections of the Bihishti Zewar that best illustrate the themes of reformist thought about God, the person, society, and gender. She provides a substantial introduction to the text and to each section, as well as detailed annotations.
Allah (swt) has declared in the Qur’ān: ﴾O you who believe, obey Allah and obey the Messenger…﴿ (4:59). Accordingly, Islamic religious life is based on the instructions of the Qur’ān and the authentic Sunna. This treatise brings together around 90 verses of the Qur’ān and 340 hadiths—under the headings of 25 ‘principles’—which focus on the very essentials of Islam, including the meaning of Islam and faith; exhortations of a spiritual nature, such as trusting in the Divine, remembrance of Him, loving Allah and His Messenger, abstaining from sin, gratitude, and patience; and commandments of a legal nature, relating to prayer, recitation of the Qur’ān, fasting, hajj, zakat, marriage, childrearing and good social conduct. Ashraf ʿAlī Thānawī (1863-1943) was a leading Islamic scholar and Sufi from India, whose popularity continues. After graduating from the famous seminary Dār al-ʿUlūm Deoband, he spent his life engaged in the scholarly life of the madrasah and as a spiritual guide. As a scholar and Sufi, he wrote books on a wide variety of subjects, both legal and spiritual, from beginners’ level to advanced, and inspired many scholars, including those Indian scholars who would contribute to the establishment of Pakistan.
Ashraf `Ali Thanawi (1863-1943) was one of the most prominent religious scholars in Islamic history. Author of over a thousand books on different aspects of Islam, his work sought to defend the Islamic scholarly tradition and to articulate its authority in an age of momentous religious and political change. In this authoritative biography, Muhammad Qasim Zaman offers a comprehensive and highly accessible account of Thanawi’s multifaceted career and thought, whilst also providing a valuable introduction to Islam in modern South Asia.
The popularity of the Muslim League and its idea of Pakistan has been measured in terms of its success in achieving the goal of a sovereign state in the Muslim majority regions of North West and North East India. It led to an oversight of Muslim leaders and organizations which were opposed to this demand, predicating their opposition to the League on its understanding of the history and ideological content of the Muslim nation. This volume takes stock of multiple narratives about Muslim identity formation in the context of debates about partition, historicizes those narratives, and reads them in the light of the larger political milieu of the period. Focusing on the critiques of the Muslim League, its concept of the Muslim nation, and the political settlement demanded on its behalf, it studies how the movement for Pakistan inspired a contentious, influential conversation on the definition of the Muslim nation.
