Urs of Pious Predecessors in the Month of Rajab ul Murajjab

Our Pious Predecessors

Rajab is the seventh month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Ninety-three saints and scholars of Islam who passed away in this month have been mentioned in previous Rajab editions of the Faizan-e-Madinah Magazine (from 1438 to 1444 AH).

Below, a further 11 are mentioned:

The noble awliyāˈ السَّلَام رَحِمَهُمُ الـلّٰـهُ

1. Nayyir al-Dīn Hājī Sharīf Zandanī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

He was born in Zandana, Uzbekistan, in the year 492 AH, and passed away on 10 Rajab 612 AH. He was buried in Kannauj, India. Renowned as a saint blessed with divinely-inspired knowledge, he is also remembered for the love and support he displayed for the poor.^[1]

2. Muḥibullāh Ilāhabādī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

An accomplished scholar and author, he ardently espoused the ideology of Muḥiyy al-Dīn Ibn al-ꜤArabī and wrote a commentary on the latter’s Fuṣūṣ al-Ḥikam. A disciple and spiritual representative of Shaykh Abū Saʿīd Gangōhī, he himself was a shaykh in the Chishtī Ṣābirī tradition. He passed away on 9 Rajab 1057 AH. He was buried in Bahadurganj (Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India).^[2]

3. Muhammad ʿUmar Khān Chamkanī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

The leading saint of his time, he was born in Faridabad, Lahore, close to the Ravi River. He passed away in Rajab 1190 AH. His shrine is in Chamkani, Peshawar. He was a scholar, writer, and author, and also a shaykh in the Naqshbandī Mujaddadī Sufi order.^[3]

4. Fayḍ Muhammad Shah Jamālī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

Born to a scholarly household in Shah Jamal (Punjab) in 1290 AH, he passed away on the 8^th of Rajab 1364 AH and was buried in Dera Ghazi Khan. In addition to being a scholar and teacher of the highest calibre—with many of his students becoming scholars themselves—he was also a man of saintly marvels (karāmāt). His spiritual successorship is traced back to the khanqas of ʿUbaydiyya and Taunsa Sharif.^[4]

5. Sayyid Makhdūm Shah Gardēzī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

He was born in Sohawa, in 1273 AH. A reputed gnostic, he was a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad    صَلَّى الـلّٰـهُ عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم and an adherent of the Chishtī Niẓāmī spiritual tradition. He studied Islamic sciences with his father (Sayyid ʿAlī Gardēzī) and the famous Sayyid Mehr ʿAlī Shah, eventually becoming a khalīfah of the latter. He spent his life in teaching. After passing away on the 19^th of Rajab 1349 AH, he was buried in Sohawa, in Azad Kashmir’s Bagh city.^[5]

Scholars of Islam السَّلَام رَحِمَهُمُ الـلّٰـهُ

6. Ibn Ḥajar Aḥmad b. Muhammad Haytamī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

He was lauded as Shaykh al-Islam, Shihāb al-Dīn, and the Muftī of Ḥijāz. He was born in 909 AH in Egypt’s Abi al-Haytam region, and passed away in Makkah in 974. Shāfiʿī in jurisprudence, he was the leading hadith expert of his time and a prolific author. He spent around 33 years teaching, issuing edicts, researching, and writing. Some of his works include Al-Ṣawāʿiq al-Muḥriqah, Al-Fatāwā al-Ḥadīthiyya, Tuḥfat al-Muḥtāj bi Sharḥ al-Minhāj, and Tuḥfat al-Akhbār fī Mawlid al-Mukhtār.^[6]

7. Khalīl al-Dīn Ḥasan Raḥmānī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

A scholar of Islam, he was born in 1276 AH in Pilibhit and passed away there on the 7^th of Rajab 1348 AH. A graduate of Pilibhit’s hadith madrassa, he also spent time studying under the hadith expert Waṣī Aḥmad Sūratī. His proficiency in poetry and verse was appreciated by the likes of Amīr Mīnāˈī and Dagh Dehlawī. Eight collections of his poetry in praise of the Prophet have been published to date.^[7]

8. Ghulām Dastgīr Nāmī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

He was a historian, born in Sheikhupura on the 23^rd of Jumādā al-Ākhirah 1300 AH. His birth took place in his grandfather’s home. He also went on to become an expert linguist in Persian, Urdu, and Arabic. As mentioned initially, history was his central field of expertise, as well as genealogy and poetry. He worked in education for many years before retirement, penning over a hundred works in that time. Buzurgān-e-Lahore, Tarīkh Jalīla, and Islamī Qānun-e-Warāthat are examples.

He passed away on the 7^th of Rajab 1381 AH in Lahore and was buried in Sheikhupura.^[8]

9. Maẓhar al-Dīn Maẓhar رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

Born in 1332 AH to an academic family in India’s Amritsar district, he passed away on the 19^th of Rajab 1401. He was buried in Chattar Park, near Rawalpindi. He studied Islamic sciences under a student of Imam Aḥmad Razā Khān, memorised the Quran, graduated from the Ḥizb al-Aḥnāf educational institute, and was a shaykh in the Chishtī tradition. He is particularly remembered as an eloquent poet and writer. His books include Nishān-i-Rāh, Khātam al-Mursalīn, and Kulliyāt-i-Maẓhar.^[9]

10. Mehr Muhammad Khān Hamdam رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

Born in 1334 AH in India’s East Punjab, he was a memoriser and qari of the Quran, master of the rational and transmitted sciences, a disciple and spiritual representative of the scholar Abū al-Barakāt, a graduate of Lahore’s Ḥizb al-Aḥnāf institute, an expert orator, shaykh, poet, and author.

He founded the Hamdam khanqah of Changa Manga, whilst his spiritual successorship also branches back into the Tawakkuliyya and Murtaḍāˈiyya traditions. He passed away on the 14^th of Rajab 1403 AH and was buried in Kasur.^[10]

11. Fayḍ Aḥmad Tawgīrwī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

An erudite scholar from the shaykhs of the Tawgīrī khanqah, he graduated in Islamic sciences from Multan’s dār al-ʿulūm. He was a teacher in Madrassa Islamiyya ʿArabiyya Kamāl al-ʿUlūm, found in Tawgira. His life was spent teaching and spreading Islam until he passed away on the 1^st of Rajab 1404 AH.^[11]

12. Muhammad Ḥusayn Āsī رَحْمَةُ الـلّٰـهِ عَلَيْه

He was a professor of Islamic academia and a poet. He strived to benefit his fellow brothers and practically implemented his knowledge. He had great love for the Prophet صَلَّى الـلّٰـهُ عَلَيْهِ وَاٰلِهٖ وَسَلَّم and wrote poetry extolling him. Inspired by his shaykh, he founded the Naqsh Lāsānī Islamic University in Shakargarh. He penned over 30 books and epistles. He was born to a religious family in 1357 AH, in Gurdaspur, and passed away on the 12^th of Rajab 1427. He was buried in Shakargarh.^[12]