The Ramadhan of Hazrat Maulana Khaleel Ahmed Saharapuri

Sep
01
2008

The Ramadhan of Hazrat Maulana Khaleel Ahmed Saharapuri

Taken from Akaabir ka Ramadhan by Shaykhul Hadith Maulana Muhammad Zakariya (ra). Maulana Muhammad Zakariya (ra) writes a letter to Khwaja Azizul Hasan who replied with the following:

Dear Respected Moulana Zakarya,

Your letter filled me with great joy. Because I was myself not fully acquainted with some aspects of Hazrat’s general habits in Ramadan, I was forced to present your letter to Hazrat himself.

On reading it, he said: “Write back to him saying that if he wants to know, he should ask me directly.” I write this merely to inform you. It is because I am presently in I’tikaaf that I write this in pencil. Kindly forgive me for this.

Yours truly,

AZIZUL HASAN.

1. Special care was taken at Hazrat’s place with regard to the setting right of clocks and watches. A special person was appointed to do that throughout the year. But during Ramadan, special care was taken to set them correctly through the aid of the Post Office or the telephone department etc. Even then, ‘iftar’ was started two or three minutes after the times shown on calendars.

Similarly at Raipur, where the rising and setting of the sun can quite clearly be seen, Hazrat Raipuri took special care that the times shown on watches were carefully synchronised for both those times. As for my late father and my uncle (Maulana Ilyaas), they did not rely much on the times shown on calendars nor on clocks. For them this hadith was of paramount importance:

“When the night has set in from here and the day has departed from here, the faster’s fast is over.”

2. As already mentioned, he used to wait two or three minutes after the times shown on calendars.

3. Hazrat was very particular about breaking his fast with dates and zam-zam. When throughout the year any returning Hajis brought presents of dates and zam-zam, these were stored away for use during Ramadan. There was no problem in keeping zam-zam stored away, but if the dates started going bad, they were distributed before Ramadan. However, at the time of Iftar Hazrat also used to drink half or a quarter cup of tea with milk and then gave the rest of the cup to this humble soul.

4. During Hazrat’s time a period of roughly ten minutes used to be allowed between the azaan and the salaah for Maghrib, so that those who performed their iftar at home could be allowed to arrive at the mosque in time to join the jama’at.

5. Hazrat broke his fast in the Madressa together with a few guests and attendants - fifteen to twenty in all. In Medina, he used to break his fast in the Madressa Uloom Shar-’iyyah.

6. This has already been answered.

7. This has already been answered under No 3.

8. There was no difference in the number of raka-’aat performed as nafl after Maghrib. However in the manner of performance there was a definite difference. Generally he recited 1-1/4 paras therein and during Ramadan it was those paras, which he was to recite in taraweeh later in the evening.

9. This has already been answered.

10. After Salatul-Owabeen, Hazrat used to return home to have his meal over which he took about twenty to twenty-five minutes, but he ate very little during this meal.

Here by us in Kandhla and Gangoh there was no custom of eating pulao at sehri time. In fact there was a strong feeling against it as people considered it something, which made fasting difficult by causing thirst. For the first time I ate pulao at Hazrat’s place at sehri in Saharanpur. I have also never had the habit of eating pulao at iftar time because it proved to be a burden in performing taraweeh afterwards. However as long as my health remained good, I used to have a solid meal at sehri time.

11. Except for the last two years of his life when weakness and ill health troubled him, Hazrat used to lead the taraweeh prayers himself and recite the Quran in it. Before the DARUL-TALABAH (students’ hostel) was built, he used to lead the taraweeh prayers in the old Madressa building. But after the old student’s hostel was erected, then on the order of Hazrat, my late father led the first taraweeh prayers therein. Thereafter Hazrat himself always led the taraweeh prayers himself.

12. It was his fixed habit to finish the khatam of the Quran on the evening of the 29th Ramadan. In the first number of nights he recited 1-1/4 paras and thereafter one para per night. In this respect there is a story about Hazrat Shah Abdul Qadir R.A. 1f Ramadan was to carry 29 days, he used to recite two paras on the first night and if it was to carry 30 days, he used to recite one para. His brother Shah Abdul Aziz, after having performed taraweeh in his own mosque, used to send someone to Shah Abdul Qadir’s mosque to find out whether his brother recited one or two paras on the opening night of Ramadan. If it became known that his brother recited two paras, he used to say: “This year Ramadan will have 29 days.” (Note that this is not a case of knowledge of the unseen, but knowledge obtained through the means of ‘kashf”.

13. After taraweeh Hazrat used to rest for about fifteen to twenty minutes while some attendants pressed his legs. At this time there used to be some general conversation on the Quran. For example, someone may have erroneously corrected him from behind or it may be concerning something, which might have happened during taraweeh. Some minutes used to be spent on this in light-hearted manner.

14) After taraweeh and after resting for a while, he used to go home, where for fifteen to twenty minutes he talked to his family members. Some of the women of the ‘mohalla’ (town quarter) also used to arrive at this time, and he used to address them shortly, advising them. Thereafter he went to sleep for about two and a half to three hours.

15) It was his habit to recite two paras in tahajjud salaah. Sometimes it was a bit more and sometimes a bit less, according to the time available. When the hadith on ‘nazaa-ir’ came along in ‘BAZAL-MAJHOOD’, which is not in accordance with the sequence of verses in the Uthmani Quran, he told me: “Copy this hadith on a piece of paper. Today I want to recite it in this sequence in tahajjud prayers.”

16. According to different times of the year, Hazrat used to get up about two or three hours before dawn. He had sehri about half an hour before dawn over which he took about fifteen to twenty minutes. Thus he finished about fifteen minutes before Fajr.

17. He had no special habit of eating anything special e.g. milk or anything similar. If it so happened that a present of ‘pheni’ (a kind of sweetmeat) was brought, he used to give of it to the whole family, while he himself used to take merely one or half a spoonful of it. However, sometimes pulao used to be cooked or sehri, but never for iftar. I have already stated that in Kandhla and Gangoh it was considered wrong to eat pulao at sehri time as it caused thirst afterwards.

18) It was Hazrat’s habit in Ramadan to perform Fajr salaah at the onset of the greyness of dawn (isfaar), but it was done about ten or twelve minutes prior to the time at times other than in Ramadan.

19) Throughout the year after Fajr salaah, it was his habit to sit reciting various wazeefas. In the cold days of winter he did so after entering into the privacy of his own room while during the hot days he sat on a bed in the courtyard of the Madressa until sunrise. At such times, he also went into deep meditation. Then from sunrise onwards, he busied himself with his lecturing on Bukhari Shareef and Sahih Tirmithi. After 1335 H he busied himself at this time with the writing of BAZAL-MAJHOOD until about 11 or 12 o’clock.

During the Ramadans of that time, he used to rest for about an hour after performing Ishraq salaah. In the hot months, he then dictated his thoughts on BAZAL MAJHOOD till one o’clock while in the cold months he did so until 12 o’clock, thereafter resting till Zuhr salaah.

20) During Ramadan, Hazrat himself used to lead the taraweeh prayers until about two years before his death. After Zuhr salaah, he recited whatever

he was to recite in taraweeh that night to Hafiz Muhammad Hussain Ujrarwy. This was what Hafiz Saheb used to come to Saharanpur for.

Occasionally when for some reason or the other Hafiz Saheb was absent, he used to make ‘daur’ with me, but during his stay in Medina, he always

recited to me. After my return from Haj, it was a time when his work on BAZAL MAJHOOD had also been completed, and he developed the habit of

daily reciting one para to his wife. It was this para, which he was to recite in Salatul-Owabeen that night and also in taraweeh.

21) From after this Haj Hazrat also used to make ‘daur’ with my late father (May Allah (SWT) fill his resting place with noor). It was this para, which he was later to recite in taraweeh. I have not seen Hazrat make ‘daur’ with anyone else except my late father.

22) I have very seldom seen Hazrat reciting the Holy Quran by reading from the Quran. Only sometimes did I see it.

23) Except for the last two or three years of his life when he had grown weak and was plagued by illness, I have never seen him not performing I’tikaaf of the last ten days of Ramadan. He used to perform it in the old Madressa masjid before the erection of the Darul Talabah and after this hostel was built, he performed I’tikaaf, in the Darul Talabah masjid. Even during I’tikaaf he never put aside or suspended the writing arid dictating of BAZAL MAJHOOD. In fact on or about the 20th Ramadan, all the books required for research and the writing of this monumental work, were gathered and placed in the room on the western side of the KULTHOOMA MASJID. It was my task to place these books in the masjid as required and to replace them in the room after use. I have not seen him perform I’tikaaf at any other time apart from the last ten days of Ramadan.

24) I have not seen any real difference between his actions during the last ten days as compared with the rest of Ramadan, except for the fact that he rose a bit earlier in the morning. I have also mentioned in “VIRTUES OF RAMADAN” in concise manner that between the month of Ramadan and the rest of the months of the year there was no real difference in the lives of Hazrat Saharanpuri and Hakeemul Ummat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi. However, as for Hazrat Shaikhul Hind Maulana Mahmoodul Hasan, and Maulana Abdul Qadir Raipuri, there was a very marked difference of greater devotion and extra devotional activity.

25) As for Hazrat’s occasional reading of newspapers at other times, this was completely discarded in Ramadan. In fact apart from the last two or three years, when he made ‘daur’ with my late father, the tasbeeh was always in his hands and his tongue all the time busy with dhikr. If ever any of his mureeds should ask something, he replied them. Some people like Mutawali Jaleel Saheb, and Riyadul Islam Saheb used to come from Kandhla and Meerut respectively to spend part of Ramadan with him on a regular basis without performing I’tikaaf, because they always wanted to return home one day before Eid.