Abdul Hameed bin Abdul Karim bin Qurban Qanbar bin Taj Ali better known as Hameeduddin Farahi.

Name: Abdul Hameed bin Abdul Karim bin Qurban Qanbar bin Taj Ali better known as Hameeduddin Farahi.

Among the group of 'born brilliants', there are some who become legends in their own lifetimes, others who receive recognition just after they pass away (post-humming) and a few for whom the wheel of fortune must complete another rotation, before the world is able to appreciate their extraordinary achievements and tremendous contributions.

Hameeduddin Farahi, a brilliant and high caliber Muslim scholar, undoubtedly, belongs to this rare breed of men. It has taken almost half a century for a handful of Muslim scholars of the subcontinent to realize the awesome amount of work done by him to redirect the Muslim religious thought from the path it had deviated. Perhaps, it will take another half a century before his name becomes as famous as Abu Hanifa or Ibni Taimiyyah.

Farahi was born in Phariha, a small village in Azamgarh district (Uttar Pradesh, India) in the year 1862 CE (1280 H) to a religious middle class family that was well known for its social magnificence and scholarly contributions in the region. He was brought up in luxury milieu.

Shaikh Ahmed Ali was the first teacher of Farahi who taught him the recitation of Holy Quran. He memorized the Quran when he was only 10 years old. Then he studied Persian from Shaikh Mahdi, who was master of Persian language and literature. Within a short time, he attained admirable knowledge of Persian as he was able to compose poems at this early stage like that of compiled by eminent poets.

After that, he went under supervision of his cousin - Allama Shibli Nomani, the famous theologian-historian, from whom he learnt Arabic. Shibli also created in him the temperament of seeking information. He traveled to Lahore to study Arabic literature in depth from Maulana Faizul Hasan Saharaupuri, who was considered a master in this field at that time. At the age of twenty, he took admission in the Aligarh Muslim College to study English and the modern disciplines of knowledge. He was recommended by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (1817-1897CE) the founder of the College. In his letter of recommendation addressed to the principal of the college, an Englishman. Sir Syed wrote that he was sending someone who knew more Arabic and Persian than the professors of the college. While studying in the college, Farahi translated parts of "At-Tabaqaat-ul-Kubraa" of Abu Abdullah Ibn Saad Az-Zuhri (784-845 CE) into Persian. The translation was found to be so good that Sir Syed included it in the college syllabus. Farahi did his graduation from Allahbad University.

In Aligarh College, he studied the modern philosophy under supervision of Thomas Arnold, a renowned orientalist who taught at the college for 10 years and well known among the educated men for his celebrated book “Preaching of Islam”. Even though this work was highly appreciated by the Muslim scholars, Farahi criticized it, because according to him, it basically aims to detach Muslim from the spirit of Jihad.

While at Aligarh, he learnt Hebrew from a German orientalist, Joseph Horovitz (1874-1931 CE) who was a professor of Arabic at the Aligarh College. Horovitz studied Arabic with Farahi. During his stay in Aligarh, Farahi accomplished “Ima’an Fi Aqsamil Quran – a study of methods and styles of oaths in Quran” and published tafsir of Surahs Al-Qiyama and Al-Lahab.

Considering Farahi’s outstanding knowledge of Arabic, Sir Syed requested him to translate his Tafsir into Arabic, but he declined to fulfill his request. “I will not participate in spreading out this sin”, he said.

Academic and Administrative Assignments

After completing the formal education, Farahi undertook various academic and administrative assignments. In 1324 H, he was appointed as lecturer of Arabic and Persian at Madrasatul Islam in Karachi.

In 1326 H, he was appointed as professor of Arabic at Allahabad University where he spent 6 years of full academic activities and published tafsir of Surah Al-Tahrim. Due to his distinguished knowledge, he was selected as one of the members of Arabic Committee for oriental sciences. It is worth mentioning that when in 1331 H foundation of International Islamic University in Madina Al-Munawarah was proposed, Farahi and Shibli were amongst the scholars who were selected to teach there.

The government of Hyderabad State appointed him in 1332 H as dean of Darul Uloom (College of Oriental Sciences) where he also used to teach the students of higher classes. During his stay at Hyderabad, Farahi conceived the idea of establishing a university where all religious and modern sciences would be taught in Urdu. His scheme materialized in 1919 EC in the form of Jamia Osmania, Hyderabad. Apart from teaching at the College, he used to deliver lectures on Quranic sciences that were attended by students as well as the researchers and scholars. He accomplished “Ar-raai-us-Saheeh Fee-Man-huwaz-zabeeh – Who Was Sacrificed?” and the preface of his Tafsir “Nizamul Quran Wa Taweel-ul-Furqan Bil Furqan – Coherence and Orders in Quran and Interpretation of Quran by Quran”. He subsequently returned to Saraimeer in 1925 EC, a town near his home village in Azamgarh district and took charge of the Madrasatul Islah, which is the living expression of the dream of Shibli and Farahi, provides knowledge of traditional modern disciplines. It includes in its curriculum Arabic literature, English language and Literature, history of classical and modern philosophy almost up to the graduation level.

Besides managing the affairs of the Madrasah, Farahi devoted most of his time here in training a few students. Among them, was Amin Ahsan Islahi (1904-1997 CE), who was destined to become the greatest exponent of his thought after him, whose Tadabbur-e-Quran is considered to be true expression of Nazm-e-Quran (coherence in Quran) as envisaged by Farahi.

When Shibli died in 1332 H, his disciples got together in order to materialize the idea of their master to set up Darul Musannifeen (Shibli Academy) and resolved to select Farahi as the president and Allama Syed Sulaiman Nadwi as the director of the newly formed institute. This institute tremendously contributed to enrich the Islamic library by producing a large amount of literature on the Muslim history. It particularly focused on bringing out celebrated books on history of Muslim rulers in the Indian subcontinent. The most celebrated works of this prestigious academy included Siratun Nabi (Biography of the Prophet (PBUH) in ۷ volumes) written jointly by Shibni and his noble disciple Sulaiman Nadwi and Al-Farooq (Biography of second caliph of Islam, Omar bin Khattab), which has been translated into Arabic, English, Turkish and many other languages.

Opinions of Contemporary Scholars

Farahi was well known for his exceptional intellect and extraordinary brainpower. His act of renouncing worldly pleasure, his providence, detachment from fame, modesty and piety, way of performing worshiping (ibadah) are unquestionable amongst his contemporary scholars.

When Allama Takiuddin Hilali visited Farahi in his village, he was so much impressed by his authority knowledge of the Islamic and modern sciences, specially the Quran and the Arabic literature. “Farahi is a scholar of rare caliber of our edge. Example of such a personality of high acumen could not be found now-a-days in the Muslim world”. He noted in his diary.

Shibli used to say: “Whoever sat with Hameeduddin, his heart would turn away from worldly life”. Sulaiman Nadvi considers him as a symbol of learning and piety. Another noted scholar, Abdul Majid Daryabadi outlines: “My eyes never saw a person like him in terms of patience, gratitude, contentment, trust in Allah and self satisfaction. In Hyderabad, he used to receive a quite big amount of salary and had close relations with the modern wealthy society, but his sincerity, modesty, style of dressing remained unchanged”. It was his habit to spend a part of his income on buying books and major part was for deprived people, orphans and widows.

His Scholarships

Farahi was a versatile scholar with diversified scholarship, who distinguished in traditional sciences, skilled in Arabic, Persian and English languages, and learned Hebrew. Despite diversification of his knowledge and mastery command over different branches of sciences, the Quran remained his chief interest and the focal point of all his writings. He reflected almost fifty years over the Quran. His greatest contribution to its study is his discovery of coherence in the Quran. He has achieved the impossible', remarked Shibli while praising his student's grand discovery. It was, undoubtedly, a superhuman accomplishment. Farahi, demonstrated to all the western cities that with a sound understanding of the Arabic language one can appreciate coherence in the Quran which is certainly not a haphazard collection of injunctions. By taking into consideration, the three constituents of nazm (coherence): order, proportion and unity he proved that a single interpretation of the Quran was possible. This alone was a far-reaching consequence of the newly founded principle of Nazm-e-Quran. Serious differences in the interpretation of the Quran which have given rise to the menace of religious sectarianism is actually the result of disregarding thematic and structural coherence in the arrangement and mutual relationship of various Quranic verses and paragraphs. Each sect has adopted its interpretation because isolating a verse from its context can associate multiple meanings to it. It is only the coherence of the Quran, which, if considered, leads to a definite and integrated understanding of the Divine Message. It is only then that the Quran can be truly regarded as a Meezaan (Balance of Justice) and a Furqaan (Distinguisher of Good and Evil). It is only then that the Quranic verse ‘Hold fast to the Cable of Allah and be not divided among yourselves’ (3:103), can become a manifest reality, and the unity in the Muslim Ummah be achieved. Farahi went on to enunciate certain principles necessary to understand and interpret the Quran. The foremost among them was the principle of coherence. He was able to show that unless the Quran is understood through a holistic approach, a lot of its treasure of wisdom remains hidden.

Almost all of Farahi,s works are in Arabic. Despite consistently advised by his master, Shibli, to express his ideas in the regional language i.e., Urdu, Farahi rather opted Arabic to disseminate his philosophy to a broader audience considering the fact that Arabic is widely spoken and read in the Muslim World. But, unfortunately, the objective set by him was not achieved as even his biography is not included in “Al-A’alam – a well known collection of biographies of contemporary scholars” of Zirikli. Farahi had adopted a very direct method in his study of the Quran and his findings were as original as his approach. He also made another significant contribution by rewriting and reconstructing all the sub-disciplines of the Arabic language needed to study the Quran.

Most of Farahi's works are in the form of notes, scripts and unfinished books. He could only complete a few of them. Foremost among them is a collection of his interpretation of no more than fourteen Surahs of the Quran by the name "Majmuah-e-Tafaaseer-e- Farahi – Collection of Interpretation of the Quran". His "Mufradaat-ul-Quran – Meaning of Some Complex Words in Quran" deals with some difficult words of the Quran and presents a new explanation. This book has recently been published by Dar Al-Gharb, Beirut, Lebanon with valuable preface and notes by Dr. Mohammad Ajmal Islahi which also includes biography of Farahi. He explained the nature of oaths and adjurations in the Quran in his book entitled "Al-Im`aan fee Aqsaam-il-Quran - a study of methods and styles of oaths in Quran". In his book "Ar-raai-us- Saheeh Fee-Man-huwaz-zabeeh - Who Was Sacrificed?", he elaborated upon the philosophy of sacrifice and by furnishing evidences from the Quran and the Torah conclusively refuted the claim of the Jews that it was Isaac Abraham had intended to sacrifice not lsmael. He relaid the principles of rhetoric needed to study the Quran in "Jamhuratul Balaaghah – Collection of Eloquence” and outlined some special Quranic styles and constructions in "Asaaleeb-ul-Quran – Style of Quran”. The arguments he presented to verify the principle of coherence are soundly enlisted in "Dalaalil-un-Nizaam – Evidence of Coherence and Order in Quran". His complete mastery of Arabic and Persian can be seen from his poetical works in both these languages. Besides these scholarly dissertations, there are at least twenty other unfinished works, which need to be completed and developed further. Most of these writings have been published by Dairah-e-Hameediah in Saraimeer, India, an institution established to promote and propagate the thoughts and views of Farahi.

It is to be noted that Abul Kalam Azad and Abul A'la Maududi forcefully expressed the activist and revolutionary teachings of the Qur'an, whereas Farahi and Amin Ahsan Islahi brought the beauty of the internal coherence of the Qur'an to light.

With regards to the theory of Huroof-i-Muqatta'aat, Farahi is of the view that the letters of this parent alphabet as English and Hindi do not represent phonetic sounds only, but as the Chinese alphabet symbolize certain meanings and objects and usually assume the shape of the objects and meanings they convey. He goes on to assert that it was these letters which the early Egyptians adopted and after adapting them according to their own concepts founded the hieroglyphic script from them. The remnants of this script can be seen in the tables of the Egyptian Pyramids.

This article is too short to elaborate on all the theories and principles established and originated by Farahi to help understand the Quran in a direct method. In brief, with his scholarly work, Farahi, no doubt, has laid the foundations for the intellectual awakening of the Muslims. It is now upto every sincere Muslim to build on this legacy and strive for the revival of the Muslim Ummah. This revival may seem to some people an impossibility today, yet impossibilities can succumb to a man’s will – something Farahi himself proved! Farahi died on 11th November 1930 in Mathura, where he had gone for treatment.