As salaamu wa alay kum wa rahmatullahi wa barakath,
A few years ago I came across a report which said that the Bahishti Zewar (The Heavenly Ornaments) – that famous book written by Hakeem al Ummah Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi (may Allah have mercy on him) was not actually written by him!
Some background regarding Bahishti Zewar:
The book is mainly written for the day to day guidance of the Muslim women in matters of Fiqh(jurisprudence) and others subjects within the teachings of Islam, the book has been very successful and has sold millions of copies and continues to do so, translated into various languages, carries the name of Maulana Thanwi on its cover.
So then, this was truly surprising, who then was the author? The report said the actual author was one Maulana Sayyid Ahmed Ali Saheb Fatehpuri (may Allah have mercy on him) and not Maulana Thanwi, if that was so, then why is the book sold under Maulana Thanwi’s name?
(The report did provide a link to a page of Bahishti Zewar as proof even though when I last checked, it turned out to be a dead link.)
Yet, as you’d know all of this sounded outrageous, millions of copies of Bahishti Zewar have been sold and continue to sell and yet this obscure report said the book wasn’t written by him? So I did what everyone else usually does, close the page and move on.
Until…
When researching for my article on the 40 days of Greek Mathematician, Pythagoras which I posted here I happened to garner something which I’m sure you would find very interesting.
Here’s why it gets interesting.
Firstly, it is actually true that even though Bahishti Zewar carries the name of Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanwi and even though started by him, the book was actually written by Maulana Sayyid Ahmed Ali Saheb Fatehpuri, so this does confirms with that earlier report.
So what is it I bring new to the table?
The proof.
Continue reading:
