Rahmatullah Kairanawi

Kairanawi was born in Kairana, Muzaffarnagar in 1818.{{cite book |editor1-last=Deobandi |editor1-first=Nawaz |editor1-link=Nawaz Deobandi |title=Sawaneh Ulama-e-Deoband|volume = 1 |pages=390|edition=January 2000 |language=ur}} He is a descendant of the third Caliph, Uthman ibn Affan, his full lineage is mentioned in family sources.

Abd al-Rahmānn Gazruni is a forefather of Kairanawi, was the military Chief Justice in Mahmood Ghaznavi Armies. Abd al-Rahmān Gazrūni is buried near the Panipat fort. (Qur'an se Bible Tak) [http://alsawlatiyah.com/moases.htm Kairanvi Biography in Arabic] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927222939/http://alsawlatiyah.com/moases.htm |date=27 September 2007 }}, Madrasa Saulatia website.

Part of the family wealth, a large property in Kairana, was granted by Akbar the Great. Many family members held high positions and/or were intellectuals. Sheikh Hakeem Abdul Kareem who was an 8th great-grandfather of Rahmatullah was the Emperor Akbar's physician. Kairanwi began receiving traditional Islamic education at the age of 6, memorizing the Qur'an at 12. He also learned Arabic and Persian. Later he moved to Delhi where he studied different disciplines including mathematics and medicine. Working as a Mufti and Sharia teacher, he founded a religious school in Kairana.Bible se Qur'an tak

His ism (given name) was Rahmatullāh. His nasab (patronymic) is: Rahmatullāh ibn Khalīlullāh ibn Najībullāh ibn Habībullāh ibn Abd al-Rahīm ibn Qutb al-Dīn ibn Fuzail ibn Abd al-Rahīm ibn Abd al-Karīm ibn Hasan ibn Abd al-Samad ibn Abu Ali ibn Muhammad Yūsuf ibn Abd al-Qādir ibn Jalāluddīn Muhammad ibn Mahmūd ibn Yaqūb ibn Īsā ibn Ismā'īl ibn Muhammad Taqi ibn Abī Bakr ibn Ali Naqi ibn Usmān ibn Abdullāh ibn Shihābuddīn ibn Abd al-Rahmān Gāzrūni ibn Abd al-Azīz Sarkhasi ibn Khālid ibn Walīd ibn Abd al-Azīz ibn Abd al-Rahmān ibn Abdullāh Sāni ibn Abd al-Azīz ibn Abdullāh Kabīr ibn Amar ibn Uthman.{{cite book |editor1-last=Deobandi |editor1-first=Nawaz |editor1-link=Nawaz Deobandi |title=Sawaneh Ulama-e-Deoband|volume = 1 |pages=388 |edition=January 2000 |language=ur}}

In 1837 the Church Mission Society appointed Karl Gottlieb Pfander, described by Eugene Stock as "perhaps the greatest of all missionaries to Mohammedans",[http://anglicanhistory.org/india/stock_beginnings/08.html Beginnings in India], chapter VIII, by Eugene Stock, D.C.L.; London: Central Board of Missions and SPCK, 1917. to Agra in Northern India, where in 1854 he engaged in a famous public debate with leading Islamic scholars. The main Muslim debater was Kairanawi,{{cite book |last1=Parveen, Shabnam |title=Sir Syed Ahmad Khans contribution to Islamic learning |publisher=Aligarh Muslim University |chapter=Chapter 4 |page=81 |hdl=10603/55315 |url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/55315 |access-date=26 March 2020}}{{cite book |last1=Parveen, Shabnam |title=Sir Syed Ahmad Khans contribution to Islamic learning |publisher=Aligarh Muslim University |chapter=Chapter 4 |page=93 |hdl=10603/55315 |url=https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/handle/10603/55315 |access-date=26 March 2020}} being assisted by English-speaking Muhammad Wazîr Khân and influential Islamic writer Imad ud-din Lahiz.Schirrmacher, Christine. [http://www.contra-mundum.org/schirrmacher/rationalism.html "The influence of German Biblical criticism on Muslim apologetics in the 19th century"], Contra Mundum, 1997. Accessed 27 September 2007. Kairanawi used arguments from recent European theologically critical works that Pfander was unfamiliar with, having left Europe before these were published, though his main source of reference was the apocryphal sixteenth-century Gospel of Barnabas, which he held to be authentic.[https://books.google.com/books?id=-dS2fLNkCskC&oe=UTF-8Eugene Stock, The History of the Church Missionary Society its Environment, its Men and its Work] (London, 1899–1916), 2: 171

==Indian Rebellion of 1857==

Following armed uprisings against the British in which he personally took part, Kairanawi (his property was confiscated by the Imperial British Raj) had to leave all of his property (auctioned later), and board a ship in Bombay. Arriving at the port of Mocha, Yemen, he walked to Mecca. The journey took two years.

Kairanawi wrote books in Arabic, Persian and Urdu.

Written originally in Arabic, the book Izhar ul-Haqq in six volumes was translated later into Urdu, and from Urdu into a summarized English version{{cite web |url=http://www.islam4all.com/newpage81.htm |title=This book |website=www.islam4all.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020731132714/http://www.islam4all.com/newpage81.htm |archive-date=2002-07-31}} published by Ta-Ha. The book aims to respond to Christian criticism of Islam. It is the first Muslim book to use Western scholarly works in order to ascertain the errors and contradictions of the Bible. The doctrine of Trinity is purportedly contested using biblical, Christian and other sources. Christine Schirrmacher, a German scholar of Islamic Studies, states in an article on the Pfander-Kairanawi debate: "The Demonstration of the Truth' (izhâr al-haqq) served as a summary of all possible charges against Christianity and was therefore used after al-Kairânawî's death as a sort of encyclopaedia since al-Kairânawî extended the material of former polemicists like 'Ali Tabarî, Ibn Hazm or Ibn Taymiyya to a great extent."

While residing in Mecca, Kairanawi founded a religious school there named Madrasah as-Sawlatiyah. Rahmatullah Kairanawi was appointed as a lecturer at the Masjid-e-Haram by the Sheikh-ul-Ulama (The Leading Scholar) Sheikh Ahmad Dahlan As-Shafiee. Kairanawi started teaching and realized that lessons were delivered as sermons, rather than, planned academic lectures. He gathered some of the Indian Muslim immigrants, wealthy benefactors to establish an authentic Islamic Law School to teach the Islamic sciences through a sound curriculum. He established the Madrassah in 1290 hijrah corresponding to 1874 A.D. The major contributor was a lady of Calcutta by the name of Sawlat-un-Nisa, on whose name the Madrassah is named. The Madrassah is still in existence and has well known alumni around the world, Madrasah as-Sawlatiyah.{{cite web|url=http://kitaabghar.com/kairana/kai-solatia46p.htm|title=HIS HOLYNESS THE GREAT Maulana Mohammad Rahmatullah Kairanvi & Madrasa Saulatiya,Mecca|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200914103409/http://kitaabghar.com/kairana/kai-solatia46p.htm|archive-date=14 September 2020|url-status=live}}Nuzhat-ul-Khawatir vol 8Taqi Usmani, Bible se Qur,an Tak vol 1.

Kairanwi died in 1891 (22 Ramadan 1308 AH) in Mecca and was buried in Jannat al-Mu'alla.{{cite book |editor1-last=Deobandi |editor1-first=Nawaz |editor1-link=Nawaz Deobandi |title=Sawaneh Ulama-e-Deoband|volume = 1 |pages=444 |edition=January 2000 |language=ur}}

• List of Deobandis

{{wikisourcelang|ar|مؤلف:رحمة الله الهندي|Kairanawi}}

{{Reflist}}

• [http://prr.hec.gov.pk/jspui/handle/123456789/8903 مولانا رحمت اللہ کیرانوی کی علمی و دینی خدمات کا تحقیقی جائزہ]
• {{cite book |author1=Mawlāna Abd al-Rashīd Arshad |editor1-last=Deobandi |editor1-first=Nawaz |editor1-link=Nawaz Deobandi |title=Sawaneh Ulama-e-Deoband |publisher=Nawaz Publications |location=Deoband|volume = 1 |pages=380–470 |edition=January 2000 |language=ur |chapter= Mujāhid-e-Islām Mawlāna Rahmatullāh Kairānwi |quote=adapted from Imdād Sābri's Āsār-e-Rahmat}}

{{Portal bar|Biography|Islam|India}}

{{Hanafi scholars}}

{{Maturidi}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kairanawi, Rahmatullah}}

Category:Hanafis

Category:Maturidis

Category:19th-century Muslim theologians

Category:Sunni Sufis

Category:Scholars from Uttar Pradesh

Category:Indian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam

Category:19th-century Indian non-fiction writers

Category:1818 births

Category:1891 deaths

Category:Indian critics of Christianity

Category:Burials at Jannat al-Mu'alla

Category:People from Shamli district

Category:Academic staff of Madrasah as-Sawlatiyah

Category:Deobandis

Category:Critics of Christianity

Category:Indian Muslims

Category:Indian Muslim scholars of Islam