Amin Ahsan Islahi was born in 1904 in Bamhur, a small village in Azam Garh Uttar Pardash India. Having covered the initial stages of study he was ushered into Madrasah al-Islah Sarai Mir, founded by the great Qur’an scholar Hamid Uddin Farahi in 1915. He was admitted in grade three. Islahi gratudated from the Madrasah in 1922 and joined journalism. He edited a newspaper Madinah at Bijnawr and remained associated with Sach, a newspaper edited by Mawlana Abdul-Majid Daryabadi. Read More ...
In 1925 Farahi invited Islahi to join him and study the Quran. Islahi embraced this opportunity, left journalism and Madrasah al-Islah. Besides teaching the Holy Quran in the Madrasah he remained under Farahi’s tutelage till the latter’s death in 1930. During this priod Farahi groomed and cultivated Islahi to inherit the great Quranic scholarship he had established.
Islahi studied Ḥadīth under Abdul-Rahman Muhaddith Mubarakpuri. He published al-Islah, a monthly journal dedicated to presentation and dissemanation of Farahi’s works. He continued translating and publishing parts of Farahi’s books in the journal untill its closure in 1939.
Islahi joined Jamaat-i-Islami the political party launched by Syed Abu al-Ala Mawdudi since its inception and worked for the party in prominent positions for seventeen years. He differed with the leadership of the party on weighty issues and left the paty in 1958.
Having releived himself from the duties in the Jamaat Islami he could devote more time to writing a commentary on the Quran following the principles of interpretation set out by his mentor, Farahi. Initially published in portions in the monomental commentary was completed in 1980.
He also issued Tadabbur a quarterly journal in 1981 which captures his scholarly activites including his lectures on the Ḥadith and the Quran. His major treatises in Urdu on various religious topics other than Tadabbur-i-Quran include the following:
- Tazkiyah-i-Nafs: Purification of the Nafs (personality).
- Ḥaqiqat-i-Shirk-u-Tawḥid: Reality of Polytheism and Monotheism
- Dawat-i-Din awr us ka Ṭariqah-i-Kar: Propagation of the Religion and Method of Preaching
- Islami Qanun ki Tadwin: Codification of Islamic Law
- Islami Riyasat: The Islamic State
- Islami Muasharay mayṇ Awrat ka Muqam:The Status of Women in an Islamic Society
- Ḥaqiqat-i-Namaz: The Essence of the Prayer
- Ḥaqiqat-i-Taqwah: The Essence of God-consciousness.
- Islami Riyasat mayṇ Fiqḥi Ikhtilafat ka Ḥal: Solution of Juristic Differences in an Islamic State
- Mabadi Tadabbur-i-Quran: Principles of Understanding the Quran
- Mabadi Tadabbur-i-Ḥadith: Principles of Understanding the Ḥadith
- Tanqidat: Reviews (This is a collection of his critical analysis of differenct stances on the religious issues)
- Tawḍiḥat: Elaborations. (This is a collection of general explanatory essays)
- Maqalat-i-Islahi: Islahi’s Articles (A miscellaneous collection of articles)
- Quran mayṇ Parday kay Aḥkamat: The Directives of Ḥijab in the Quran
- Tafḥim-i-Din: Understanding Islam
- Falsafay kay Mathail Quran ki Rawshani mayṇ: Philosophical Issues in the Light of theQuran
During his early academic career Islahi translated parts of Farahi’s unfinished commentary on the Quran entitled Niẓam al-Quran. The collestion consists of commentary on fourteen surahs of the Quran and is available in print under the title Majmuah Tafasir Farahi. He also rendered the following two treatises of Farahi:
- Fi man huwa al-Dhabiḥ: Which of Abraham’s son was Sacrificed?
- Aqsamul-Quran: Oaths of the Quran
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