Mawlana Muhammad Sarfraz Khan Safdarr By Abu Asim Badrul Islam

After describing the condition of Imām Ṣafdar’s thirst for knowledge, Mawlānā
Muḥammad Aslam Shaykhūpūrī relates an incident that occurred only a few
weeks prior to his demise. He says, ‘Shaykh Muftī Muḥammad Rafīʿ Usmānī 41
had come to visit Imām Ṣafdar. After greeting him, the first thing Imām Ṣafdar
asked him was, “The shaykh al-ḥadīth of Jāmiʿah Ashrafiyyah (Lahore), Ṣūfī
Muḥammad Sarwar sahib has related such and such a ḥadīth from your revered
father (Imām ‘Allāmah Muftī Muḥammad Shafīʿ). I am looking for its reference.
Could you please identify its source?” 42
The condition of Imām Ṣafdar during his final days, described by his son Shaykh
al-Ḥadīth Mawlānā Zāhid al-Rāshidī and Mawlānā Muḥammad Aslam
Shaykhūpūrī, is reminiscent of the condition of the pious ʿulamā of the early
centuries such as Imām Abū Yūsuf Yaʿqūb al-Anṣārī, the senior student of
Imām Abū Ḥanīfah al-Nuʿmān al-Kūfī, and that of Imām Ibn Mālik, the
grammarian (naḥwī) on their death beds.
A student of Imām Abū Yūsuf, al-Qāḍī Ibrāhīm ibn al-Jarrāḥ al-Kūfī al-Miṣrī,
says:
‘[Imām] Abū Yūsuf was ill. I went to visit him and found him unconscious.
When he regained consciousness, he asked me, “O Ibrāhīm, What do you say
regarding a certain issue in fiqh?” I said, “Even in such a condition?!” He
replied, “That is not a problem at all. Let us discuss a matter of knowledge,
perhaps someone will be relieved by it.” He then asked, “O Ibrāhīm, What is
better when pelting the pillars [of jamarāt] in Ḥajj – to pelt on foot or mounted
on a beast?” I replied, “Mounted on a beast.” He said, “Incorrect.” I then said,
“On foot.” He again replied, “Incorrect.” I said, “Please tell me. May Allāh be
pleased with you.” He said, “The pillar, after the pelting of which, one should
stop and supplicate (say a duʿā) – it is best to pelt it on foot. As for the pillar,
after the pelting of which, one should not supplicate – it is best to pelt it
mounted on a beast.” I then took leave from him. I had not even reached the
door of his house when I heard the sound of people crying over him. He had
died. May Allāh have mercy upon him.’ 43
41
President of the Jāmiʿah Dār al-ʿUlūm in Karachi and grand muftī of Pakistan (see footnote 8).
42
Mawlānā Muḥammad Aslam Shaykhūpūrī, Chand muntashir yādēn, in the Monthly al-Sharīʿah, special
edition (Gujrānwāla, 2009).
43
‘Allāmah ʿAbd al-Fattāḥ Abū Ghuddah, Qīmat al-Zaman ʿinda ‘l-ʿUlamā, 8 th edn (Beirut: Dār al-Bashāʾir
al-Islāmiyyah, 1998), pp. 29.
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