Web Desk: Death anniversary of eminent religious scholar Allama Shibli Nomani is being observed today.
He was born in Azam Gharh British India on June 4,1857.
He was Islamic scholar, poet, philosopher, historian, educational thinker, author, orator, reformer and critic of orientalists from Indian subcontinent during the British Raj.
He is regarded as the father of Urdu historiography.He was a versatile scholar in Arabic, Persian, Hindi, Turkish and Urdu.
Shibli was associated with two influential movements in the region, the Aligarh and the Nadwa movements.
His synthesis of past and modern ideas contributed significantly to Islamic literature produced in Urdu between 1910 and 1935.
Shibli established the Darul Musannefin Shibli Academy in 1914 to promote Islamic scholarship and also founded the Shibli National College in 1883.
He collected much material on the life of Muhammad (PBUH) , and completed the first two volumes of the planned work, Sirat al-Nabi. His disciple, Sulaiman Nadvi, added to this material and wrote the remaining five volumes after Shibli’s death.
He taught Persian and Arabic languages at Aligarh for sixteen years. After the death of Sir Syed Ahmed in 1898, he left Aligarh University and became an advisor in the Education Department of Hyderabad State.
From his policy, the Osmania University of Hyderabad adopted Urdu as the medium of instruction. Before that, no other university of India had adopted any vernacular language as the medium of instruction in higher studies.
In 1905, he left Hyderabad and went to Lucknow as principal and driving force of the Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulama, a madrasa founded by the Nadwat tul-‘Ulum.
He introduced reforms in the school’s teaching and curriculum. He stayed at the school for five years, but the orthodox class of scholars became hostile towards him, and he had to leave Lucknow to settle in the area around his hometown, Azamgarh in 1913.
Earlier at Nadwa, he had wanted to establish Darul Musannifin or the House of Writers but he could not do this at that time.
He bequeathed his bungalow and mango orchard and motivated the members of his clan and relatives to do the same and had succeeded.
He wrote letters to his disciples and other eminent persons and sought their co-operation. Eventually one of his disciples, Syed Sulaiman Nadvi fulfilled his dream and established Darul Musannifin at Azamgarh.
The first formal meeting of the institution was held on 21 November 1914, within three days of his death.
In August 1914 he went to Allahabad on the news of his elder brother’s illness. Two weeks later his brother died. He then moved to Azamgarh.
There he developed the basic concept of Darul Musannifin. He died on 18 November 1914.
His famous books include ‘Seerat-un-Nabi’, Ilm-ul-Kalam, Al-Farooq, Al-Ma’mun and Al-Ghazali.
