Imam-e-Rabbani Mujaddid-e-Alf-e-Thani Shaikh Ahmed Sirhindi RA
I have been busy reading Syed Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi (Ali Mian) (RA)'s Tareekh-e-Dawat-o-Azeemat for many years.
My progress has been extremely slow.
I bought the books around 2000 and I am just finishing the fourth volume.
Writing of the series took even longer.
It began in 1954 and finished in 1989.
That is thirty five years.
Why did it take so long to write and why does it take long to read it?
There will be several reasons but the chief amongst them is the following.
Ali Mian RA chose to live mentally and spiritually in those times that he was writing about.
This made the writing slow and the resultant books are not easy to read for they take a long time to assimilate.
These are not mere history book - these are Islahi books too.
While reading them a person has to go throw an spiritual process.
That is not an easy task.
That is a difficult task.
One another implication of this bit of info is that Ali Mian RA's books are very difficult to assail.
Hence the west has simply ignored them.
They simply can not deal with them.
We must make the best use of this bit of info.
Personally it took me several attempts to finish the first volume.
I shall read the same chapters again and again and then get exhausted and leave the book for a long time.
I have finished the first volume twice and I am sure I have to do several readings more of the same.
Recently I finished the second volume and the third.
Second one is about Imam Ibn Taimiyyah RA and the third about Shaikh Muinuddin Chishti RA, Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya RA and Hazrat Makhdoom Sharfudding Yahya Muneeri RA.
Fourth one is about Imam-e-Rabbani Mujaddid-e-Alf-e-Thani Shaikh Ahmed Sirhindi RA.
There are so many things that I can talk about all of these personalities but shall not do so because all those goodies are cluttering my communication channel.
But I must add that I felt enormous love for Ali Mian RA for writing this series.
Deoband falls later in the same series of events that include Imam-e-Rabbani RA, Shah Waliullah RA and others.
Imam-e-Rabbani RA adopted the following modus operandi.
He campaigned with the influential people in the courts of the then kings and managed to persuade the power that be to adopt Islamic ways as far as the latter could do.
He was successful in his attempts.