Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi

Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi was born in the Takiya Kalaan, Rae-Bareilly in North India on 5 December 1913, he was named Ali and his full name is Ali bin Abdul Hay bin Fahruddeen Al-Hasani. His lineage joins to Hasan Al Musanna bin Imam Hasan bin Ali bin Abi Talib. Coming from a highly educated family, he was an eminent scholar, writer, an Alim, and a personality of the world of Islam in the last half century. His father was Abdul Hayy Hasani, author of famous books like Nuzhatul Khawatir (a biographical dictionary of Indian Ulama) and Al-Thaqafah al-Islamiyah fil-Hind (Islamic Culture in India). He was a descendant of Syed Ahmad Barelvi who had led a Jihad movement against the British occupation, established an Islamic state in the North Western Frontier (now in Pakistan) and fell martyr on the battlefield of Balakot in 1831. Moreover, he was one of the few non-Arabs today who had fully mastered spoken and written Arabic. Although he is an Arab by lineage, yet his family had lost its roots with the Arabic world and he grew up as an Indian Muslim. He was popularly known in India as Ali Miyan. He was popularly known world-wide by the name of Nadwi, which was not his family name; it was synonymous to higher rank of Islamic intellectuals belonged to a particular institution: the scholars educated at the Nadwat-ul-Ulama in (Lucknow), India, took the name `Nadwi' and the name `Nadwi' in this research refers to Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi.

He received a B.A in Arabic literature from the University of Lucknow in 1927. In order to be trained as an Alim (religious scholar), he was sent to Nadwatul Ulama for higher studies. Nadwat al-ulama also known as Nadwa, the choice of the name got inspiration from a hall in Makkah, where nobles used to assemble to debate and discuss. It was one of the renowned Islamic universities in the world, which has produced several famous scholars. It was founded in 1894 at Kanpur and eventually shifted to Lucknow (India) in 1898. It was established with the objective of countering the challenges of western education; striking out equilibrium between classical Islam and modernity and producing a new breed of Islamic scholars of higher level, molded in classical Islamic disciplines and new ideas to regain the intellectual initiative lost in the wake of colonial occupation. At Nadwa, young Nadwi was exposed to new trends prevalent in Islamic thoughts in other Muslim countries. He was also benefitted from the two leading Arab teachers at Dar al ulum. One of those teachers is Khalil Muhammad of Yemen and Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-Hilali of Morocco who taught him modern verbal and written Arabic. He studied Hadith under Hussain Ahmad Madani at Darul Uloom Deoband and Tafsir under Ahmed Ali Lahori where he came in touch with Iqbal whose poetry left an abiding impression on him.

Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi primarily wrote in Arabic, although also in Urdu, and wrote more than fifty books on history, theology, and biography, and thousands of seminar papers, articles, and recorded speeches. His 1950 book Maza Khasiral Alam be Inhitat al-Muslimeen (lit. What did the world lose with the decline of Muslims?), translated into English as Islam and the World, was largely responsible for popularising the concept of "modern Jahiliyya" The Islamist author Syed Qutb commended Nadwi's writings for his use of the word jahiliyya to describe not a particular age in history (as earlier Muslim scholars did) but a state of moral corruption and materialism. He wrote 'Qasas al-Nabiyyeen' (translated as 'Stories of the Prophets') for his nephew that became famous among the Arabic learners and the book was soon included in the syllabi for teaching Arabic at various institutions around the globe. Being a fan of Dr. Muhammad Iqbal, Ali Nadwi also undertook the task of introducing Iqbal and his Islamic thoughts to the Arab world. Thus, he wrote 'Rawa'i' Iqbal' which was subsequently rendered in to Urdu as 'Nuqoosh-i-Iqbal'.

After his death, the International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI), Pakistan, arranged a seminar in his honor and published the speeches and articles presented therein as ‘Maulana Sayyid Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi – Hayat-o-Afkar Kay Chand Pehlu’

In 1951, during his second pilgrimage (Hajj) to Makkah the key-bearer of the Kaaba (Islam's holiest building), opened its door for two days and allowed Abul Hassan Ali Nadwi to take anyone he chose inside. He was given the key to the Kaaba to allow him to enter whenever he chose during his pilgrimage.

Abul Hasan Ali Hasani Nadwi died on 23 Ramadan, 1420 AH (31 December 1999) in Raebareli, India at the age of 85.