Saviours of Islamic Spirit

Saviours of Islamic Spirit
Tarīkh-i Daʿwat wa ʿAzīmat by Abū ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Ḥasanī Nadwī
A New Revised and Edited Translation
Revised and Edited by Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf Mangera

This masterful work by the late Indian historian and intellectual, Shaykh Abū ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī Nadwī, recounts the rises and declines of the Muslim Ummah-its trials, setbacks, and, most significantly, its victories. It is a moving chronicle of the achievements and triumphs that propelled the Ummah forward. The narrative unfolds through the lives of extraordinary individuals: revivers endowed with courage, resolve, and zeal-an elect group divinely inspired to preserve the spirit of God’s religion on earth. They were, in essence, the saviours of the Islamic spirit.

Drawing upon the lives of ten of the most influential figures from the first seven centuries of Islam-from Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, and al-Ghazālī to Ibn al-Jawzī and Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ayyūbī-this work offers reassurance and essential perspective in light of the current challenges facing Muslims worldwide. It aims to inspire Muslim youth and all seekers of virtue to cultivate love for Allah and to adopt role models of intellectual and spiritual excellence at a time when many search for guidance in less deserving places. This history reminds us that our present circumstances are far from the darkest moments the Ummah has endured.

Personalities Covered

• Imam Ḥasan al-Baṣrī

• Imam ʿUmar ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz

• Imam Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal

• Imam Abū ’l-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī

• Imam Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī

• Imam ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī

• Imam ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Salām

• Imam Abū ’l-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī

• Sultan Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ayyūbī

• Sultan Nūr al-Dīn Zangī

• The Tartars

The Author

Shaykh Abū ’l-Ḥasan ʿAlī al-Ḥasanī Nadwī (1332/1914-1420/1999), affectionately known as ʿAlī Miyān, was one of the leading intellectuals and religious scholars of modern India. A prolific author, he wrote extensively on history, biography, and contemporary issues affecting Muslims in India and abroad. He served as rector of the renowned Nadwat al-ʿUlamāʾ seminary in Lucknow, where he taught Qur’anic exegesis, ḥadīth, Arabic literature, history, and logic.

He was a founding member of Rābiṭat al-Adab al-Islāmī al-ʿĀlamiyyah (the Universal League of Islamic Literature) and later chaired the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board. His literary legacy spans hundreds of works in Arabic and Urdu, many of which have become part of university curricula across the Arab world. His celebrated Arabic treatise Mādhā Khasira al-ʿĀlam bi Inḥiṭāṭ al-Muslimīn (What Did the World Lose by the Decline of the Muslims?) secured his place among the foremost thinkers of the Muslim world.

His major contributions include his eight-volume autobiography Kārwān-i Zindagī, Purāne Chirāgh (profiles of contemporary luminaries), biographies of Sayyid Aḥmad Shāhīd and Sayyidunā ʿAlī (may Allah ennoble his countenance), and his monumental Tarīkh-i Daʿwat wa ʿAzīmat (Saviours of Islamic Spirit). He passed away at the age of eighty-six on Friday, 31 December 1999 (22 Ramadan 1420).