Abdur Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera – Mufti Saeed Ahmed Palanpuri An Obituary
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Learn Rahmanir Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa salatu
salam ala CB mursaleen, while he or sapi as you are in my bad
around the whole time in England last night, which was just early
morning time in India, we receive the news of the passing of one of
the most prominent and
very academic scholars of the Indian subcontinent. He was at his
passing, he was the teacher and the Sheikh of Sahil Buhari in
DeLong, the Obon, which is the greatest seminary and the largest
Seminary in the Indian subcontinent, and Subhan, Allah, I
just want to just discuss a few things about him just so that
since he just passed away, I mean, he's passed away 25th of Ramadan,
according to India, time, according to India, dates of
Ramadan. So that's already mashallah very honorable to start
with. But when a person dies, there's always the more we can do
for them, the better. So, the idea is that you understand who this
person is, and of course, the loss. Because whenever you have a
person of great knowledge and so on, right, depart this world, that
means the deprivation because the question that arises that is there
going to be somebody else to
to fill their place, right? Everybody's going to die, so we
understand that everybody's going to die. So one thing is like,
okay, he's old, now he's going to die, he did die to old age. But at
the end of the day, this is definitely a deprivation for a lot
of people because of the amount of inspiration that he had provided.
I mean, me personally speaking, I would say that kind of known about
him for at least 30 years. The reason for that is
the masjid I later became Imam at he used to actually come there for
many, many Ramadan, he came there for many Ramadan from India, he
would come for the whole Ramadan. And lots of people would go from
various different come from various different place, places to
come and listen to his lectures.
So I didn't obviously understand much at that time, and he knew
about him, and he was a great scholar, whatever, I didn't really
get to sit with him much until obviously much later. So just a
few things about him. I mean, he's, he's originally from the
north northern part of Gujarat, kind of more further north from a
lot of the majorities in the UK, or in the West, in general, from
place called pollen pool. That's where he's from, as far as I know,
from a religious family. And then he studied locally first, and then
in other places. And then eventually, he became a teacher at
one of the famous seminaries of Goodra.
In run there, and I think he taught there for about 10 years
now, during that time, I think he is a man of I mean, he's, he's a
man of
huge strengths, academic strengths, right? He's not scared
of anything, he's takes everything by the neck and meet, you know, he
tries to deal with complicated matters. So that must have been
noticeable and quite clear from a young age from the time he was
teaching. So I remember him telling us I think it was either
last year or the year before that
he was actually invited to teach at Nadal or da, right. And that in
itself is a big thing. Because you have to remember both Nadella and
some of the biggest mothers as Nadeau and download Dubai and sun
and pour the oil in up semi in Eastern European semi in western
up and the UPS. I mean, they consider themselves to be kind of
the holders of the knowledge holders of the whole academic
aspect, because that's where the big mothers are. That's where the
whole freedom fighting, you know, most of the great acaba came from
so that's understandable, you know, hygiene doddle. Qasim nano
twee Rashid Ahmed can go he and kalila Hamid Salam booty Rahima
home, Allahu taala, all of them, they all came from, you know,
within several miles to one another, mostly from that side.
And then you had another one the other side with shut Ahmed Shaheed
and a lot of others. So there's a huge history down there. right not
to say there isn't history in other parts of the country,
there's a huge history, but in terms of the more recent academic
excellence, it's there, right? So
for him to be invited, that's already a big thing. But he didn't
go there was several reasons he said he didn't go and then after
that, he he was invited by I think it was monument zoo nominee, to I
think it was shakable has anyone who invited him to another event
for monarch and do not mind he actually made mashallah with him.
And then he went to download the Obinze. Now for a Gujrati for
Gujrati to be
accepted in Dar Salam duben. Right, is not that easy, and
especially in those days, it's not that easy. The reason is that up
had many of the students and up had students from all over the
place, I mean, these mothers has had students from Bengal, Bihar,
Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, and all these other various different states.
And they had I would say that maybe some people would argue that
maybe it had a bit of a superiority
complex because of being the guidance of the dean in the area,
so many people would not stand a chance down there. Obviously, many
people have broke have gone through the so called ceiling and
become very prominent teachers. They're both from Bihar and other
places as well. Now for a Gujarati I mean, Gujarati is a respected
because they generally have the money and they do a lot of the
donation, right in India. So they're generally respected
anyway. So they're not looked down upon entirely like that by anybody
anyway. Right. But for them from an academic perspective to for
somebody to excel like that. Montana, move the service, move
the sidebar, and where he gets
a position there. Now, he's got a huge challenge. And I remember
once he told us, I think, again, this was, I think, one or two,
this was a few years ago, he mentioned this, he said that when
he first went to Durban, for him to establish himself as somebody
serious and somebody to, you know, that they to take take seriously
and not just like, a guy from another state, right, who somehow
got a job here. To prove his point. He said, he started working
on a very complicated book. Right. And it's, it's by one of the
biggest philosophers, called Maulana Qasim, Nan is also
actually the founder, one of the founding members of Darwin, duben,
right. He's a very intellectual, right, huge philosopher, really
complicated some of his work. So it is called RB Hyatts. And all
discussion is about the life of the Prophet sallahu, some in the
grave or lives of prophets in the grave. It's a very complicated
book, the way he explains it using the examples and the parallels and
resemblance and the metaphors and things like that. So it's
something which many people fail, you know, would find it quite a
task to read through and understand comprehend. So most
people don't really said that he started working on either a
commentary or translation or something like that. He says, I
did that Ria and I still remember his words. He said, I did that Ria
and right I did that, just to show people that I'm serious, right,
that they try to take me seriously. But you know what, he
didn't have to worry too much. Because I remember the first time
I visited Darwin, Durban was, I think in 1992, right, I'd gone to
study one year. In that case, we're in Gujarat and I took a trip
to download Durban. And I remember after discussing with the students
there, they basically said that the lesson that everybody attends,
because remember, dollar day, when has 1000s of students. Now it's
got even more than it had in that those days. It's like a university
setting where there's no register for class as in smaller seminaries
we have registered, so you have you better be in class, whereas
you get in trouble there. If you want to study you study, right?
Yes. If you do certain things wrong, they have certain
disciplinary measures. But otherwise, there's no force,
there's nobody's gonna force you to come into class. Right?
Generally, at least in the top left, because there's, I think at
that time, it was several 100 people, a few 100 People in Dota,
two Hadith in the in the Buhari class, right, in the last year,
the graduation year. Now, I think there's a few 1000. So I still
remember the class that would be full to the brim, everybody would
attend, just because they wanted to was the lesson of sunnah
telemovie, which is what most dependable he taught for many,
many years. So in that class, everybody will attend many of the
other classes, sometimes, you know, there will be missing
students, but that one, everybody attended. Why? Why did they attend
his classes? What's going on? What is it about this man, I've
observed them quite closely, because I've had quite a few
Alhamdulillah been on the turf quite a few times. And he had, he
had a bit of a liking for me, I would say Alhamdulillah. Right,
especially later on, and so on. He's told me off as well. I
remember once he told me of I went from a several years after that
first incident, I was in San Antonio, and this was in 1999. And
I went from Santa boo to visit him. And I was told that by his by
his son that you could, you know, you could go go go and try to see
him. But he told me off. Why do you come at a time when, you know,
can you not see that same and I hadn't seen the sign? Right? So I
do get a bit upset and everything like that, but hamdulillah all of
that, you know, just you can't it? This is a huge individual. This is
a huge individual. And it was right that I had gone at a time
when it was not visitation time. And anybody who's productive has
times. So thereafter that whenever he would come in England, I would
meet him whenever I would go to the fixed seminar, and he would
attend and you know, my show leader is give me some time.
hamdulillah so what was about him is that it was very bold, very
intellectual, and he did not shy away from difficult tasks and
difficult topics, he will literally go off the difficulty.
That's why one very complex work that we have, right is the Hoja
Tula Hill Bhairava. Right, which is basically the book by Shaohua.
Lulu are one of the spiritual and academic forefathers of the
education and the scholarship of the Indian subcontinent. So he's
written a several volume commentary of in English we
actually covering this book right now with a small group of Allah
ma. And you know his mashallah his edition is probably the best
audition out there though. Is that audition a very good because it's
a very complicated book to start with. And he mashallah he's gone
very far, to basically unraveling it explaining its difficulties and
so on. He's gotten
numerous books to his name's got serious to his name, Hadith
commentaries, other small things written books on Mantic is written
books on hikma on philosophy, right, you know, to dumb it down
for students. So what is the secret? Why would students attend
his class? Right? And why would so many, so those were scholars,
right? And in England when he would come, there'll be so many
people that would attend his classes, this would be both Alama
and none are Allama. None scholars. Why? Because he would,
and this is one of my greatest admiration for him, he would take
the most complicated topic, dumbing it down, right, in a way
that was palatable, comprehensible for the layman. And he would
explain it, he would not be frightened about that. Lots of
others, they don't deal with sensitive topics, he would deal
with centering Yes, sometimes he did cause controversy by that he
he would deal with numerous topics, especially against the the
art and so on. Sometimes he was, you know, very vocal about these
things. And, you know, it could ruffle feathers with some of these
things. But mashallah, the amount of contribution that he has
provided where he takes the most even I remember once I sat in
Buhari does have his just a few years ago, right? And it's very
simple Deus he didn't the complicated stuff, he would just
make easy, right? He just had his style, you know, he had a style of
what you would call
very huge clarity of mind, very clear thought process,
able to distinguish things, categorize things, he had a huge,
beautiful taxonomy, you'd, you know, really understand typology
very well how to separate things out and say, Okay, this fits here,
you would be able to just unravel things and take them into their
component. They break them down into the components and then
explain like that way to make it very easy to understand. I think
that's why that's one of the reasons why the Scholars, the
scholars, and the students would really love him.
So Alhamdulillah I think the last time that I met him once was in
the last year this year, unfortunately, the program was
cancelled a fixed seminar, so I wasn't able to see him this year.
But the one before that, I met him and then after that in last
Ramadan, in mercy Koba in Stamford Hill, so before I left Australia,
I went to visit him and Hamdulillah he had just completed
with somebody else working on again, biannual Quran of
Hakimullah at Monash every time he is supposed to be an amazing WCF
is short, relatively short, like shorter than my evil Quran, etc,
full of
just amazing subtleties, from various different subjects whereby
the soul and Quranic difficile anecdotes and things like that.
Not very easy to read in some cases.
So with somebody else mana, Mufti Sayeed has just released the first
volume last year and if a subsequent volume has come out, so
he gifted me the first volume of Assan, biannual Quran, where he's
kind of the language is made it easier for people to be able to
benefit from the wisdoms of hacky Mahna Mahna Mahna Shawneetown. Me.
So as I said, he would take complicated matters, and you will
deal with them. And there's not too many elements that too many
odema that do that. And I think that's probably where he was in
terms. I remember once in Ramadan, I said to him, can I study a book
by you because this is wonderful. Obviously, I was on your mind and
that message at that time? So he says, No, he says, the Ramadan is
the time for the Quran. And he says, I'm Kecia Hafiz, which
basically means that mirror you know, my, my memory, my
memorization of the Quran is not very strong. So I have to do a lot
of effort for it in Ramadan. Right?
So that's why No, I'm not going to teach you I'm just going to do
this. And we can have images you can ask me any question you want.
He loved questions. He loves to sit and discuss things. So I think
it was generally after the hearing and there was Masha lots of local
minima that would benefit from him like that. Lots of other people
that would benefit from him like that. So a lot of wonderful
anecdotes, because his reading was quite far his understanding of the
man hedge and just basically where things were going was was quite
good as well. So we ask Allah subhanaw taala to reward him
immensely, and inshallah he's left behind a lot of students, right,
all the graduates the 1000s 1000s of graduates who loved them, you
know, every year that would graduate from there and then the
people that he infused around the world with with inspiration, and
all the books that he's left behind, mashallah definitely
somebody who's going to go down into history, somebody who lots of
biographies are going to be written about and just please pray
for him and for his family, and play a pray that we can also
follow in the wonderful work and the footsteps, the wonderful
footsteps that he led and Masha Allah did death in Ramadan as well
as a wonderful thing. So may Allah subhanahu X accept him and excel
Him and raise this status in the hereafter as well. With that one
and then hamdulillahi rabbil aalameen