Monday 7 April 2014

Moulana Ilyas Enrolls In Deoband, Turning Point

Moulana Ilyas Enrolls In Deoband, Turning Point 

Now we are at the point when Moulana Ilyas (ra) enrolls in Darul Uloom Deoband to complete his studies. This is a turning point in his life because now a few new personalities are going to come in his life molding, changing and shaping his perspective and establishing his role in the world. Before we get into that I want to pause here to reflect on what has happened in the first 20 years of the life of Moulana Ilyas (ra). What have we learned so far about him?

We see that he comes from a family connected to the masjid - they had their own family masjid.

We see that he comes from a family deeply devoted to the Holy Quran - every salaah in the family masjid saw the first two rows full of huffaz from his own family.

We see that his family had a great love and zeal for Islamic scholarship - his father was a great scholar, his brother was a scholar who taught him his intial books in Islamic sciences.

We see that his family had a great love and zeal to serve others - his father would help lessen the weight people carried and then give them cool water to drink then he would offer two rakaah thanksgiving Allah swt for allowing him to serve the creation.

We see that his family had a great attachment to the Khanqah of Gangoh - his brother requested his father to allow him to stay at the Khanqah of Gangoh and his father agreed.

We see that Moulana Ilyas himself was deeply attached to the Khanqah of Gangoh - he spent ten years in the service of Moulana Rashid Ahmed Gangohi (ra).

We see that his family and him gave a lot of respect for the pious people - in Gangoh he would be studying under his brother and when they heard that some pious shaikh or pious people are visiting the khanqah his brother Moulana Yahya (ra) would stop his lecture and tell the students that their lecture for the day was to go sit in the company of those pious people and benefit from them.

We see that he was recluse, deeply attached to moraqaba and long prayers - Shaikh Zakariyyah (ra) reports that when he and his classmates would go for their lessons they would find their teacher Moulana Ilyas (ra) in deep moraqaba in solitude, Moulana Ilyas was just twenty years of age at this point. Shaikh Zakariyyah (ra) also reports that Moulana Ilyas (ra) was by this time habitual of praying nafil salaah from after Maghrib till Isha, Moulana Ilyas (ra) was just twenty years of age at this point.

Now at this juncture Moulana Ilyas (ra) heads off to Darul Uloom Deoband to complete his studies. Up to this point in his life we hear nothing of dawat and tabligh, we hear nothing of 3 days, 40 days, 4 months, we hear nothing of khuruj - up to this point in his life we see the zeal of the study of Islamic sciences in him, up to this point in his life we see the khanqah and the a'maal (deeds) of the khanqah alive in him. Up to this point in his life there is not a single mention of dawat and tabligh as we commonly know of it today associated with him. These are things for us tablighi workers to think about and ponder on. He is the founder of this great work and his foundations are what?

No comments:

Post a Comment