Jewels of the Islahi School

These two works of encyclopaedic breadth are fine examples of Islamic scholarship in Urdu published on either side of the 1947 boundary line and drawing on the intellectual heritage associated with the Madrasatul Islah, founded in 1908 in UP (United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, later Uttar Pradesh).

They reveal connections between scholarly networks and institutions, beginning with the MAO (Mahomedan Anglo-Oriental) College, Aligarh, proceeding to the Nadwatul Ulema, Lucknow, continuing to the Madrasatul Islah, Azamgarh, and concluding with pre-and post-partition Jamaat-e Islami. The works will be long lasting sources of information on the ‘Islahi School’ founded by Hamidudeen Farahi (1863-1930).

The cover of  Farahi Islahi Lughatul Qur’an includes the explanatory phrase ‘Research and Elucidation of Select Words of the Glorious Qur’an’. The term Lughatul Qur’an can be translated as ‘Lexicon of the Qur’an’.  The editorial contributions from Rashid Ayyub Islahi include an extensive introduction and explanatory notes within the text, based on unique access to archival documents, such as Farahi’s incomplete manuscript in Arabic, Mufradat al-Qur’an (Vocabulary of the Qur’an), his tafseer of Nizamul Qur’an and the end notes (Ta’liqat fi tafsir al Qur’an, 2 volumes). Rashid Ayyub Islahi obtained his PhD from the University of Glasgow in the Philology of Hadith. While continuing his research at the Madrasatul Islah’s archives, he also serves on  the advisory board of the Islamic Literary Society and runs the Farahi Foundation in London.

Maulana Ameen Ahsan Islahi, Hayat wa Afkar is based on Ahktar Hussain Azmi’s PhD thesis, awarded by Punjab University in 2006. It has all the bearings of an academic treatise, with sections providing a conceptual framework in which to posit Ameen Islahi’s work, a literature survey and a judicious mix of criticism and admiration. It is also rich in archival findings, including references to some of Maulana Islahi’s early writings. Dr Azmi was for 10 years the principal of the Government Postgraduate College, Lahore, taking retirement in 2023. He remains a contributor to Islamic journals including Tarjumanul Qur’an and  Al-Burhan, Lahore, and speaker at Islamic conferences. He is author of a biography on Hassan Al-Banna, Neel ka safar (Journey on the Nile) and contributes to podcasts and Youtube channels.

Farahi Islahi Lughatul Qur’an

Dr Rashid Ayyub comes to his editorial responsibilities well-equipped: he is himself a third generation Madrasatul Islah ‘alim with a family connection – his maternal grandfather was Akhtar Ahsan Islahi and father, Muhammad Ayyub Islahi. The Lughatul Qur’an triangulates the efforts of three eminent scholars: Farahi at the apex; and Akhtar Ahsan Islahi (1901-1958) and Amin Ahsan Islahi (1904-1997) at the bases.

However, also in the background is the ubiquitous figure of Shibli Numani (1857-1914), Farahi’s older cousin. Both were indebted to Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and  the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College (MAO) in Aligarh (not conferred university charter till 1920). Shibli Naumani (1863-1930) joined the MAO staff in February 1883 as a 26 year old  Professor of Persian (and later Arabic) when “he looked like a student, and the boys often asked  him to recite his poems. He would get the doors of  his classroom closed and sweetly recite his poems.” [1]  Shibli took a year off in 1892 for foreign travels, that included visits to educational institutions in Egypt and Ottoman Turkey.  Though his title of ‘Shams ul Ulema’ was conferred while still at MAO in 1894, he was not at ease and left four years later. .Shibli had embarked on a tour of educational institutions in Egypt and Turkey and returned with proposals that eventually led to the Darul Uloom Nadwat ul Ulama with an emphasis on Arabic. Shibli Nomani’s draft plan envisaged, “the inclusion of ‘ilm-e kalam (theology), fiqh (law), and Western sciences in the curriculum [. . .] “. [2]

Hamidudeen Farahi was a student at MAO during Sir Syed’s lifetime, obtaining a BA in 1895. He returned as Assistant Professor of Arabic from 1907-1908. He owed his expertise in Hebrew – a feature of explanations in Lughatul Qur’an –  to Professor Joseph Horowitz, also on the MAO faculty. It was a reciprocal arrangement, because Farahi tutored him in Arabic. Later, Farahi taught in the Darul Uloom, Hyderabad.

According to Dr Rashid Ayyub Islahi, Shibli’s efforts at Nadwa at best resulted in only a partial reform of the dars nizami curricula (‘Allama Shibli ki zyada say zyada koshishi Nadwatul ulema main dars nizami main juzwi islahat ki had tak thee’).  Shibli resigned from the Nadwa in 1913, to devote time to the Darul Musinifeen in Azamgarh, and to write his magnum opus, Seeratun Nabi (completed by Syed Sulaiman Nadvi). Dr Rashid notes, “Shibli coaxed Farahi to leave his prestigious and well-paid post in Hyderabad and come to an ordinary religious school in the Azamgarh region and transform it into a splendid centre of expertise”. Farahi took up the challenge and set about devising and implementing  a curriculum  at the madrassa in Sarai Mir in accordance with his perspective and priorities.

The Farahi school’s hallmark is the central place given to Arabic grammar, semantics,  etymology and morphology for unveiling the Qur’an’s message. Dr Rashid notes, “Farahi had reached the conclusion that until the fields of knowledge (‘uloom’) were not subservient to the Qur’an (‘hukmarani’), the ummat’s  qibla would not be rectified. Hence, he chose Arabic for his speeches, thought and writings, because for change in the Islamic world, the ummat’s ulema needed an intellectual renewal (‘fikri islah’); his system of education can be described as the ‘Qur’anisation of knowledge’. [. . .] For him, the real source (‘makhuz’) for a bringing together (‘tadween’) of the arts and sciences (‘uloom wa funoon’) there needs to be an investment (‘surmaya’) in the Qur’an and old Arabic (‘qadeem ‘arabi’) [. . .] that unless the meanings of the words of the Qur’an are understood, “this closes the door” to serious reflection, and results in obscuring the coherence (nazm) of verses and surahs.” 

Both Akhtar Ahsan Islahi (1901-1958) and Ameen Ahsan Islahi  (1904-1997) enrolled in Madrasatul Islahi in 1914 and graduated together in 1922. Akhtar Ahsan joined its teaching staff on completion of studies, and subsequently worked closely with Farahi, compiling many of his unfinished works. Amin Ahsan worked as a journalist in the Khilafatist newspaper Madinah before returning  to teach in 1925, where he too furthered his Qur’anic learning under Farahi’s guidance for the next five years. These prize students ensured the continued influence of the Islahi School in subsequent decades – the former through his courses at Madasatul Islah, and the latter in the tafsir Tadabbur-e Qur’an.

Dr Rashid Ayyub’s translation from the Arabic conveys Farahi’s combative turn of phrase in scholarly debate. For example, in the first of the essays also published in Farahi Islahi Lughatul Qur’an, he has strong words for those who have translated tamanna in Surah al-Haj22:52 as  ‘recite’, when it should be ‘longing’. Farahi notes how this has “opened the door of discord in the ummah and it is obvious that whoever goes against the mainstream necessarily ends up in different fissures of aimless wandering (mukhtalif wadiyon main bhattakta huwa phirayga)”. In this sense, Farahi anticipated the Satanic Verses controversy sixty years or so later.

In another essay, Farahi maintains that the Qur’an does not contain unfamiliar or alien to the language speakers of the time – because its purpose is one of communication. If there were unfamiliar words, then the companions would surely have sought clarification from the Prophet, peace be upon him. However, this  does not preclude Qur’anic Arabic’s use of loan words: some of his examples are sijjii, qirtas, qantar.

The Lughatul Qur’an provides a commentary on 2,500 Qur’anic words and related terms, that range from a few sentences to several pages of explanation. Apart from Arabic lexicology and etymology, Farahi’s erudition beyond tafsir and hadith studies spanned several disciplines and branches of knowledge, including, Biblical studies and pre-Islamic poetry.

An example from Lughatul Qur’an is the entry for aqbara, which appears in Surah ‘Abasa 80:21, “Then and yet greater, shall make him die, and a grave endow him”,

Lughat points out “Aqbara means placing someone in the grave or interment. The word also has a subtle indication that when a person dies it is not annihilation (fana) but divine power (qudrat) has entrusted the  earth; and the thing that is entrusted will necessarily be taken back one day. Therefore Allah the most High will take back from the earth what has been entrusted to it.”

An example of a much longer entry are the six pages on-marwah. This placename appears in  al-Baqarah, 2:158, “Verily Safa and Marwah are sites of Allah’s worship [. . .]”. In a detailed analysis of Old Testament sources, Farahi makes the case that Marwah in the Bible was altered by Jewish rabbis to Moriah, a place name in Jerusalem, as for example in Genesis 22:2, “God said, [to Abraham] ‘Take your son Isaac, your only son, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah”. This word play and other changes were made to sever the connection that Prophet Ibraham, and Ismail (not Isaac) had with Mecca. Farahi quoted the Biblical sources in the original Hebrew, to demonstrate the gradual distortion in the story of the migration of the Prophet Ibrahim,

In the entries, the editor has also included incorporated notes from the works of Akhtar Ahsan Islahi, Amin Ahsan Islahi and others. It also records a debt to Dr Muzaffar Ahsan Islahi. However, while this has made the Lughat more comprehensive, it is often difficult to distinguish between Farahi’s writings and those of  his students. The reviewer has been informed that a new edition of Lughat is under preparation that will seek to address this concern.

Maulana Ameen Ahsan Islahi, Hayat wa Afkar

Maulana Ameen Islahi, Hayat wa Afkar is an intellectual biography with extensive comparisons of Ameen Ahsan Islahi’s views with past and present Muslim scholars. The book comprises ten major parts, each with several chapters: Life history (Sawaneh wa seerat); Contributions to scholarship and research (‘Ilmi wa tahqiqi khidmat); New foundation for Tafsir scholarship (‘ilm tafsir ki tashkile jadid); Renewal in envisioning the Qur’an’s coherence (nazm Qur’an kay tasawwur ki tajidid); New explanations in Hadith scholarship (‘ilm hadthi ki ta’abir jadid); New clarification in Fiqh studies (‘ilm fiqh ki taudhih jadid); New approach in studies of theological discourse (‘ilm kalam ki tabiyin-e jadid); New compilation in studies of spiritual development (‘ilm tazkiyah ki tadwin jadid); New paths for the invitation and establishment of the deen (manhaj d’awat wa iqamate deen); Effects of innovative thinking (tajdidi fikr kay asrat).

The lengthiest of these parts is ‘New foundation for Tafsir scholarship’ comprising five chapters: Historical perspective of Tafsir scholarship (‘ilme tafsir ki tashkile jadid); The place of hadith and ‘Pondering over the Qur’an’ in principles of hadith (Usul tafsir main maqame hadith aur ‘Tadabbur-e-Qur’an); Evidence from Arabic rhetoric in pondering over the Qur’an (Tadabbur-e-Qur’an main kalam ‘Arab say istishhad); Uniqueness of Maulana Islahi’s approach to Tafsir (Maulana Islahi rahimahu ka tafsiri tafarrud); New approaches in  Tafsir scholarship and ‘Pondering over the Qur’an’ (‘ilm tafsir ki tashkil-e jadid aur ‘Tadabbur-e-Qur’an’).

The author Dr Akhtar Hussain Azmi has provided several biographical details on Maulana Amın Ahsan Islahi’s activities on completion of studies at Madrasatul Islah hitherto less well known. In addition to serving as a young journalist on the Khilafatist newspaper Madinah, he helped Maulana Abdulmajid Daryabadi and Maulana Abdurrahman Nagrami in their journal, Sidq.[3] He also translated to Urdu, most likely from the Arabic, a novel Hindustani Jasus (Hindustan’s spy), about Mustafa Saghir who infiltrated the Turkish nationalist movement in 1918-1919 in the guise of a Khilafatist but in secret service of British Military Intelligence.

Amin Ahsan returned to his alma mater in 1925 on the call from Maulana Farahi. He held his older colleague on the staff, Maulana Akhtar Ahsan Islahi, in respect, “where I needed his help in overcoming my gaps in knowledge (’ilmi khamiya)  he was most generous. In some subjects he excelled me and I benefited from his help, so from this perspective, if not my companion, it may not be wrong to say he was my teacher.” In addition to a close teacher-pupil relationship with Farahi, Amin Ahsan was asked by Maulana Abdurrahman Mubarakpuri to research the topic of  rijal-e hadith. Between 1936-1939 he worked in the translation of Maulana Farahi’s unpublished works from Arabic and also edited the journal Al-Islah.

Amin Ahsan was impressed by Maulana Abul ‘Ala Maududi’s writings in Tarjumanul Qur’an and became an early member of the Jamaat Islami when it was founded in 1941. Other former ‘Islahists’ rallying around Maulana Maududi’s message of political activism and religious renewal and renaissance included the up and coming scholar Sadruddin Islahi [4]. By 1944, Amin Ahsan Islahi departed from Madrasatul Islah in the UP to join Maulana Maududi in the rough and ready environs of Darul Islam, Pathankot, in eastern Punjab. At the time both men were still young – Maududi, aged 41 and Amin Ahsan a year younger. Very soon, Amin Ahsan emerged as Maududi’s right hand man and second in command in the Jamaat’s hierarchy. Dr Akhtar Hussain Azmi notes that when Maulana Maududi was taken ill in 1946, the Jamaat’s Shura formalised this arrangement. After partition, Amin Ahsan migrated, first residing in Rawalpindi and then moving permanently to Lahore, where the Jamaat had established its headquarters. Not all Islahists made the same choice. The brilliant Sadruddin Islahi did not migrate, but returned to Azamgarh to pursue his scholarship and later lead Jamaat Islami Hind.

Dr Azmi’s work also sheds light on the background to Maulana Islah’s disenchantment with the Jamaat Islami, “In 1956, differences began between Maulana Maududi and Maulana Amin Ahsan Islahi over the powers of the Ameer and the Shura. Maulana Islahi was in favour of keeping the Shura’s decisions binding. Professor Khurshid Ahmad (editor, Tarjumanul Qur’an) who had Jamaat and family ties with Maulana Islahi, and who was also trusted by Maulana Maududi, worked to maintain understanding and communication between these two elders. According to him (Khurshid Sahib), there was no reference to Shura when Jamaat’s constitution was drafted at the time of its founding. However, when the scope of work expanded, the need for a Shura was felt, and one was formed. But would the Shura’s decision carry weight or the Amir’s veto? On this matter, a fundamental disagreement arose between Maulana Maududi and Maulana Islahi. To resolve this principled disagreement, various constitutional proposals were put forward. According to Professor Khurshid, this strained mutual trust and eventually led to estrangement; consequently, on January 18, 1958, Maulana Islahi, through a letter, informed Maulana Maududi and the Jamaat of his separation.”

Maulana Islahi then embarked on what was to be his magnum opus, the nine volume exegetical work, Tadabbur-e Qur’an. Dr Azmi rightly highlights its unique feature – the search for coherence or nazm in the Qur’an: He quotes Amin Ahsan, “until the coherence is understood, neither will any surah’s purpose and value or essential be apparent or will its interpretation be accessible [. . .] many of the differences in our fiqh only arise from not considering this context (siyaq wa sabaq) and nazm.”

Dr Azmi provides a survey of scholars – classical and modern – who have argued for and against this search for coherence. The scholars of the past who have supported the idea have included Imam Razi, Ibn al-‘Arabi, Ibn al-Qayim, Al-Jawzi and Jalaludin Suyuti; those in more recent times include Muhammad Abdu, Rashid Rida, Abdullah Draz and Abul ‘Ala Maududi. Professor Khurshid Ahmad described it as offering “a direct path of guidance and instruction from the Qur’an with a contextualisation of the text”.

Amin Ahsan Islahi’s student in the 1960s, Mohammad Saleem Kayani, has provided a succinct overview of the Farahi-Amin Ahsan Islahi approach,  “Every surah in the Qur’an is a unit with a central theme (‘amud) around which it revolves. The ‘amud is the unifying thread in the surah, and the surah must be interpreted with reference to it. Not only is every surah a unit, but there exists a logical link between all the surahs as they follow one another in the received Qur’anic arrangement. Between different surahs there is also a logical unity and coherence  [. . .] there are seven (according to Farahi, nine) distinct groups of surahs in the Qur’an, with each group having a distinct ‘amud, and within each group, the Makkan blocks of surahs always precedes the Medinan block of surahs. Furthermore, Islahi holds that in each group all the phases of the Islamic message are reflected, though the emphasis in each group is different”. [5]

As Dr Azmi points out that past attempts at finding nazm had been limited to a surah, a pair or grouping of surahs, not to the entire Qur’an, which is Tadabbur-e Qur’an’s accomplishment. Neal Robinson, in his Discovering the Qur’an, while expressing reservations, alsonotes “Amin Ahsan Islahi was the first person to give a detailed explanation of why all the 114 surahs occur in the order they do”.[6]  There are many who have envisaged the surahs of the Qur’an as a collection of pearls, but it was left to Amin Ahsan to string them together into a necklace.

Dr Azmi cites the scholars who do not regard the search for nazm of particular relevance, for example Shah Waliullah, for whom the Qur’an was essentially a compilation of firmans or orders from the Divine to mankind.

In the preface to Maulana Ameen Islahi, Hayat wa Afkar the late Professor Mahmud Ahmed Ghazi praised it as a  work, “in keeping with  current standards, it is a balanced and critical appreciation of Maulana Islahi’s thought that alongside noting  positive and foundational achievements, wherever it was felt an appraisal (nazar thani) necessary, focusses and clarifies.”  In the ‘appraisal’ there is a critical evaluation of Amin Ahsan Islahi’s methodology, in which the logic of nazm can trump shan-e nuzool and even ahadith. Dr Azmi’s assessment also conveys the extent to which the sufi tendency towards Wahdatul wujud (Unity of Being) tendency was an anathema for Islahi. He castigated the way the stories of  karamat (miracles, marvels) are seen as exceptions to the iron rule of cause and effect that is operative in our lived reality.

The extensive quotations in Arabic, without translation, in both Farahi Islahi Lughatul Qur’an and Maulana Ameen Islahi, Hayat wa Afkar indicates the intended readership are senior level darul uloom students. However both works warrant greater circulation in the Urdu speaking diaspora as testimony of the language’s rich religious literature heritage.

[1] S.K. Bhatnagar. History of the MAO College, Aligarh (Sir Syed Hall, Aligarh Muslim University, 1969) p.101.

[2] Faheemuddin. “Shibli Nuʿmani: The Creation of Muslim Institutions in India at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” Anthropos, vol. 118, no. 2, 2023, pp. 461–70. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27297681. Accessed 26 May 2026.

[3] This is referred to as ‘Such’ which also means Truth, probably in error, p.57.

[4] For Maulana Sadrudddin’s collaboration with Maulana Maududi in Pathankot, see M. A. Sherif, Facets of Faith, Islamic Book Trust, Kuala Lumpur, 2018.

[5] Pondering over the Qur’an, Volume One, Tafsir of Surah al-Fatihah and Surah al-Baqarah. Translation by Mohammad Saleem Kayani, Islamic Book Trust, Kuala Lumpur 2006.

[6] Neal Robinson, Discovering the Qur’an, A Contemporary Approach to a Veiled Text, SCM Press, Second Edition, 2003. Robinson’s reservations are two-fold: “if his [Amin Ahsan Islahi’s] explanation of the arrangement of the surahs is correct, why does it seem not to have been known to the Companions of the Prophet? Second, how is Islahi’s belief that the surahs are arranged in alternate blocks of Meccan and Medinan material to be reconciled with the traditional view that a number of the Meccan surahs contain one or more Madinan ayats?”

JS/July 2026 [with acknowledgements to Dr Rashid Ayyub Islahi]

Related Postings: The Qur’an Beheld, Beheld.