http://bit.ly/mFgsDn
This obituary came into being within some weeks after the Sheikh's unfortunate demise (he passed away on March 10 2011). It began as an English transcript for Dr. Akram Nadwi's Urdu speech, which he gave at a commemorative Mosque gathering a day after the burial. His talk can be heard and downloaded from here: http://bit.ly/k6S1am
I had felt the talk left certain areas that are key to an obituary untouched and since his talk was exhortative in nature and loosely structured as an obituary, I found this understandable.
This brought about the desire to write up a fresh piece. However, while one side of me - the greedy talib al-'ilm - had managed to develop this grievance, another was fixated on my limitations - my own damned and incapable self.
The constant and troubling to-and-fro of this complex lead to an unsteady finish leaving the piece to undergo review. Unfortunately, while I'm grateful to the esteemed Mr. Suliman Qazi and Shaykh Andrew Booso for their quick edits, this never did happen. Work, commitments, travel and more importantly, the unforgiving realisation that there are individuals better suited to write up an obituary kept me tied down.
It is the unflinching determination of my friend Dr. Imran Satya to see this obituary materialise and circulated, in addition to the legal maxim "what cannot be acquired in its totality should not be discarded entirely either" (ما لا يدرك كله، لا يترك جله) that has forced me to think this out differently.
This post would remain incomplete without his full and proper acknowledgement. It is his unceasing encouragement and assistance that brought all of this about. Fa Jazahu Allah Khayran.
I carry the burden of guilt in this piece reflecting some of my own readings of the Shaykh. These may run counter to the perception others have of him, each writer is bound by his frame-of-reference. I take responsibility for all errors. I pray to Allah that He bless us life and death with faith. From Him we came and to Him we shall return.
Dua's,
Uwais
Just read this; thank you, facinating article littered with informative historical tidbits alongside the more personal ones and always nice to see such a great scholar of hadith honoured with decent obituary in english, rahimahullah wa askanahu faseeh jannatih . I watched Barbara Metcalf's AHA talk, erudite as ever. I remember first falling in love with the begums of Bhopal and voraciously reading everything I could find on them (about 8-9 yrs ago pre-these days of information overload) I was ridiculously excited to read Shaharyar Khan's The Begums of Bhopal with it's charming old black and white photos of the begum in a white kkk style burqa and lots of cute little bhopali princes in regimental dress; and remember religiously reading her entry in Nuzhat ul Khawatir, one of the few sources whose objectivity I could trust at the time. Admittedly I was probably biased, having previously fallen headfirst in love with Nawab Siddiq Hasan khan (rather bizarrely I still think, having read so much hanafi deobandi rabid anti indian ahle-hadith literature at the time), when I read an account of how he reacted when allamah Abdul Hayy Lakhnawi rahimahullah died in Nuzhat uk Khawatir. I was both charmed and humbled by his behaviour and it taught me an important lesson which you nicely allude to in your article re: partisansip and difference of opinion. JazakAllahu kheyra for such a nice read.
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