The Real Story of Mawlana Thanawi’s Marriage
In a recent diatribe, Nahiem Ajmal (“Mufti” Abu Layth al-Maliki) alleged that Hakim al-Ummah Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanawi (d. 1943/1362), may Allah have mercy on him, married a 10 year old girl, referring to it as the “rape of an innocent underaged girl” and “forcing himself on her.” Ajmal, a
An East India Company massacre in British Gujarat in 1810
It was at daybreak on Friday 19 January 1810 (corresponding to 13 Dhu ’l-Hijjah 1224 AH) when the people of the village of Bodhan, a quiet, unassuming and unfortified village situated on the banks of the Tapi River in the Surat district of Gujarat, came to realise a sudden calamity
Academic ‘khutputs’ and UK Darul Ulooms
In the preface to the second edition of his book published in 1959, Islam in India and Pakistan, Murray T. Titus, a US academic and Christian missionary, gives thanks to several people who helped him write his book which was originally written as a PhD thesis undertaken at the Hartford
Glimpses of the Khanqah of Gangoh
Within the Deobandi fraternity and those Sufi chains that go through them, reading the biographies of the elders of Deoband is something that is often stressed. These books, written in Urdu, are fantastic resources that enable readers and those treading the Sufi path to familiarise themselves with the temperament of