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The Fascinating Life of Shaykh

ʿAbbās Inʿām Khwājah

Ilyās b. Aḥmad Ḥusayn al-Burmawi Teacher of the Glorious Quran and tajwīd at the noble Masjid Nabawi

ʿAbbās Inʿām Khwājah Bukhāri1 was born in the city of Kokand in Uzbekistan in

approximately 1307 A.H./1890 C.E.2

HIS ACADEMIC LIFE

He memorized the Glorious Quran in Kokand, the town of his birth at the age of fifteen.

He traveled to Bukhara at the age of about sixteen, and he enrolled there in the Mīr-i ʿArab

madrasah. There he learned the Islamic sciences and studied Ḥanafi fiqh, tafsīr, logic, and

philosophy. He remained in Bukhara for a number of years.

Then he traveled to Samarqand and stayed in the town of Khartank. He re-studied the

sciences that he had acquired in Bukhara, especially Sullam al-ʿUlūm.3 When he was about

1 I (i.e. the author of this biography, Shaykh Ilyās al-Burmawi [T]) was assisted in this biography by his student Shaykh Sayyid ʿAbd al-Karīm Sayyid Dād Muḥammad al-Balōchi who was born in the year 1368 A.H./1949 C.E. in Balochistan. He took charge of Madrasah Uzbekiyyah after the demise of the Shaykh. This transcription occurred on Friday, 24/5/1418 A.H. [9/26/1997 C.E.], at that very same madrasah. 2 All dates in the original work are according to the Hijri calendar. The Gregorian dates that appear in this

translation were converted by the translator using Islamicfinder.org’s online conversion program, and are meant to be understood as rough estimates, as errors of plus or minus one year are common when attempting Hijri-Gregorian conversion [T]. 3 A book on the science of logic by Shaykh Muḥibbullāh b. ʿAbd al-Shakūr al-Bihāri [T].

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thirty years old, the communists were intensifying their pressure on the scholars and the

students of sacred knowledge, so he traveled to Afghanistan but did not stay there for long.

He passed through the city of Peshawar, and thereafter traveled to the lands of India, lands of

knowledge and scholars at that time. He stayed in the city of Meerut and enrolled in one of

the madrasahs there. He learned and studied the religious sciences under the scholars of the

time. He remained there for five years. Then he enrolled in the renowned college of Dār al-

ʿUlūm Deoband, and he studied there for two years until he graduated. Then he served as

the imam of a masjid in the city of Ajmer for a period of three years, during which he

established a class for the memorization of the Quran in the masjid where he was serving as

the imam. He remained in that city leading people in prayer, teaching them to memorize

the book of Allah, instructing them, and guiding them for a period of three years.

Upon the outbreak of World War II, he left India and went to Baghdad. He stayed there

for six months, during which he learned the qirā’āt [i.e. modes of Quranic recitation] and

memorized them. Then, when he had completed his study of the qirā’āt, he traveled to the

lands of Syria, but he did not stay there long. Two weeks after his arrival in Syria, in the

year 1360 A.H./1941 C.E., he set out for the Holy Lands. He settled in Madīnah

Munawwarah, the city of knowledge and scholars.

In Madīnah Munawwarah, he sat with Shaykh Ḥasan al-Shāʿir, the former Shaykh al-

Qurrā in Madīnah Munawwarah. He read the qirā’āt under him and perfected them.

He also took over the administration of the Madrasa Uzbekiyyah4 from the year 1360

A.H./1941 C.E. until the end of his life. Alongside the administrative affairs of the madrasah,

he taught the Glorious Quran, the qirā’āt, and other subjects from the Islamic and linguistic

sciences for a period of forty-seven years without any interruption, until he returned to

Allah (Glorious and Exalted be He).

HIS TEACHERS

Shaykh Aswad Makhdūm, one of the senior scholars of Bukhara;

Shaykh Ḥusayn Aḥmad Madani;

Shaykh Ibrāhīm Balyāwi;

Shaykh Iʿzāz ʿAlī; and

Shaykh ʿAbd al-Samīʿ,

4 This madrasah was founded in the year 1274 A.H./1858 C.E. (, and it is located in Madīnah Munawwarah [T]).

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From all of the above, he acquired knowledge of the sciences of the Sharīʿah, including fiqh,

Hadith, tafsīr, language, philosophy, and other subjects. [As for his teachers in recitation,

they were:]

Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Khaṭīb, imam and khaṭīb of the Masjid of Imam Abū

Ḥanīfah in Baghdad, Iraq, from whom he acquired knowledge of the seven qirā’āt.

Shaykh Ḥasan al-Shāʿir, from whom he acquired knowledge of the qirā’āt as well.

HIS STUDENTS

Shaykh Muḥammad ʿAlī Sindi, who memorized at his hands Manẓūmat al-

Shāṭibiyyah fī ‘l-Qirā’āt al-Sabʿ and Manẓūmat al-Durrah al-Muḍiyyah fī ‘l-Qirā’āt al-

Thalāth al-Mutammimah li ‘l-ʿAshr. He also read the Quran according to the various

qirā’āt under him, as well as the Alfiyyah of Ibn Mālik, and the book Takhlīs al-

Miftāḥ.

Shaykh Sayyid ʿAbd al-Karīm Sayyid Dād Muḥammad al-Balōchi, who read under

him the Glorious Quran according to the riwāyah of Ḥafṣ ʿan ʿĀṣim. He also

memorized under him Manẓūmat al-Shāṭibiyyah, the Alfiyyah of Ibn Mālik, and the

book Zād al-Ṭālibīn. He stayed in the service of the Shaykh for twenty-two years.

As for those students that read the riwāyah of Ḥafṣ under him, he produced many.

Some of them are listed below:

o Islām Aḥmad Ḥāfiẓ

o ʿAbd al-Ḥafīẓ al-Pākistāni

o Madani Bukhāri

o ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Burmāwi

o Nūr al-Islām al-Burmāwi

o Muḥammad Ḥasan Yamāni

o Muḥammad Sālim Yamāni

o Ustādh Yaḥyā ʿAbd al-Hādī al-Yamāni

o Muḥammad Sayf al-Yamāni

o Jamīl al-Yamāni

o Nāẓim ʿAbd al-Mālik al-Yamāni

o Muḥammad al-Yamāni, who at a very young age finished memorizing the

Quran in only six months

o ʿAbd al-Majīd Aḥmad al-Balōchi

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o ʿAbdullāh Muḥammad al-Balōchi

o Bilāl ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Pākistāni

o Nadhīr Aḥmad al-Pākistani

o Ayyūb ʿAbd al-Waḥīd al-Banglādēshi

o Maḥmūd ʿAbd al-Waḥīd al-Banglādēshi

o ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Kuwayti

o ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd al-Sindi

o Ustādh ʿAbdullāh Daulat Bukhāri

o Aḥmad Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Qādir Mullā

o ʿAbd al-Ra’ūf ʿAbd al-Rashīd al-Hindi

o Muṭīʿullāh Bukhāri

o And many others

HIS DEMISE

On Thursday night, the twentieth of Dhu ‘l-Ḥijjah in the year 1407 A.H./1987 C.E., he

passed away (May Allah have mercy on him) in Madīnah Munawwarah. He was prayed over

after the Fajr prayer on Thursday in al-Masjid al-Nabawi and was buried in al-Baqīʿ.

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Translated by Shoaib A. Rasheed from the original Arabic: al-Burmawi, Ilyās b. Aḥmad Ḥusayn, Imtāʿ al-

Fuḍalā’ bi Tarājim al-Qurrā’, “ʿAbbās Bukhāri,” Dār al-Nadwah al-ʿIlmiyyah