TheRamadan of Shaykh Al-Hadith Ml ZakariyyaKandelwi by Dr Muhammad Ismail Memon Madani

the ramadan of shaikh muĤ ammud zakariyyĀ
Ĥađrat. Ĥađrat recited in a medium tone and paused at each aya in
order to enable listeners to understand each and every word.
Since Ĥađrat had memorized Qur’an at an older age and was
deeply engrossed during recitation, he occasionally stumbled,
but never recited incorrectly. If he stopped suddenly as happens
when reciting in tarāwīĥ or he confused two assimilated ayas
[mutashābihāt], one of the ĥuffāż quickly corrected him. If he
was corrected wrongly, he ignored the incorrection and then
corrected the mistake himself or was picked up by another
ĥāfiż. In any case, Ĥađrat never got irritated with one who
mistakenly corrected him [as often happens in tarāwīĥ]; but
on the contrary, he reassured [the embarassed ĥāfiż who had
incorrectly tried to rectify his recitation] him, saying that, “If
the recitor can make a mistake then why can’t the listener?
It’s only understandable that if the listener is mistaken he will
correct the recitor wrongly.”
Ĥađrat led tarāwīĥ most of his life until he was seventy. After
that, he could continue no longer. He would say, “I bow and think
I will never be able to stand for the next rak‘a, but then I force
myself up for the next rak‘a. In every rak‘a [in tarāwīĥ], I feel as if
I am going to fall in every rak‘a and standing up from prostration
is harder than climbing a high mountain.” Still, he led tarāwīĥ
for two years in this manner and struggled to lead tarāwīĥ for as
long as possible. In the end when he became extremely weak, he
finally stopped. In place of tarāwīĥ, he listened to others and spent
all his free time reciting Qur’an. In Ramadan, he recited Qur’an
immediately after sunrise until 11 a.m. 57
This whole routine of Ĥađrat as compiled by his biographer,
Shaikh Mīratī, is before he began his work on Badhl. It was Ĥađrat’s
habit to recite one part after Żuhr to Ĥāfiż Ĥussain, who came for
this purpose every Ramadan, as has been mentioned previously.
After ‘Aśr until ifţār, he stayed in the old school, and his helpers
gathered around him at the time [it was a silent gathering]. I saw
57 Tadhkirat al-Khalīl.
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