B​iography

Mawlānā ​Sayyid Ḥashmat ʿAlī Shirāzī

Life  

Allāmah Sayyid Ḥashmat ʿAlī Shirāzī of Khayrullāhpūr was born in the year 1858 (1275 AH). His father's name was Ḥājī Sayyid Jamāʿat ʿAlī. His family's elder was Sayyid Saʿīd Nawrūz Shirāzī (buried in Uchī Rasūlpūr Sayyidān). Sayyid ​Saʿīd moved to India to militarily aid the Shah of Iran, Shah Tahmasp, in helping the Mughal Emperor Humayun. In return, Humayun allotted five villages of agricultural land near Sialkot of which Alīpūr Sayyidān and Khayrullāhpūr Sayyidān are most famous. Sayyid Ḥashmat’s family tree reaches Muḥammad Mamūn Dībāj (RA), the son of Imām Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (as) after a few generations.

Education  

Sayyid Ḥashmat ʿAlī gained his initial education in the Arabic and Persian languages in the local seminary of Molvī ʿAbd al-Rashīd Ḥanafī. Later, he completed his religious education in the seminary of Ayatollāh Abū al-Qāsim Lahorī in Moḥalla Shīʿān, Lahore. After completing his Dars-i-Niẓāmī in The Oriental College of Lahore, he went to the city of Lucknow to complete his religious education. To further his knowledge and understanding of the different Islamic schools of thought, he enrolled in the seminary of Deoband in India.   The thirst for knowledge took him to Iraq, Iran and Turkey, where he acquired knowledge from the great contemporary Shiite scholars. One of them was the great scholar of Samarra, Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥasan Shirāzī. In Najaf and Karbala, he benefited from great scholars such as Sayyid Muḥammad Qazwīnī (d. 1306 AH), Shaykh Muḥammad Ḥasan Mamaqānī (d. 1323 AH), Sayyid Muḥammad Kāẓim Akhūnd, author of al-Kifāyah (d. 1329 AH) and Sayyid Muḥammad Ḥusayn Shahristānī. In total, he spent 13 years in the holy lands of Iraq and Iran, and 1 year in Constantinople in Turkey. He returned back to his homeland having gained the license for ijtihad and the rank of Marja'īyya. He also helped in the establishment of the famous Aligarh University in Aligarh, India.

Academic stature

Allāmah Ḥashmat ʿAlī was a mujtahid and an expert in the science of Islamic jurisprudence, principles of jurisprudence, and the rational sciences. Furthermore, the Sayyid was well acquainted with the study of philosophy.   ʿAbd al-Majīd Sālik mentions in the biography of Allāmah Iqbāl called "Tazkirah-i-Iqbāl" that after Allāmah Shaykh ʿAbd al-Āʿlā Harawī, Allāmah Iqbāl (the great Muslim poet/philosopher) benefitted in theological and philosophical issues (the issue of time and space and the issue of Imāmate etc.) from Allāmah Ḥashmat ʿAlī and he mentions that he was well-versed in philosophy and had written a book on the concepts of “time and space”. Iqbāl had previously written a letter to Pīr Meher ʿAlī Shāh in 1933 inquiring about Ibn ʿArabī’s view on time and space, but he was unable to respod due to his meditation and bad health.   Allāmah Shaykh Muḥammad Ḥusayn Najafī in the preface of his book Aḥsan al-Fawāʾid Fī Sharḥ al-ʿAqāʾid, has mentioned the names of 100 high ranking scholars of the Shīʿa Imāmīyyah and writes about Sayyid Ḥashmat ʿAlī that "he was a religious scholar of high stature and a preserver of the divine law. The list of his religious services in Punjab is immense. He wrote multiple works on Islamic scholastic theology of which the treatise Miʿrājīyya, on proving the bodily ascension of the Prophet and Ghāyat al-Marām, on the necessity of the Imām are especially worth mentioning.

Students  

One of Allāmah Ḥashmat ʿAlī Khayrullāhpūrī's students who are mentioned in the books is Mawlavī Sayyid ʿAlī Shāh. Other people who have benefited from Sayyid Ḥashmat in certain matters include Allāmah Iqbāl.

Demise  

He passed away between the nights of the 1st and 2nd of January in 1935 (25 Ramaḍān 1354 AH) and is buried in the Ḥussainīya in Khayrullāhpūr.

Works  

Most of the works he authored were not preserved. However, four treatises of his on theological and philosophical issues have been published:

1. Miʿrājīyya, on proving the bodily ascension of the Prophet (Urdū).
2. Manjāt al-Ṣudūr al-Amīnah, regarding the ḥadīth of the clay (Persian).
3. Ghāyat al-Marām, on the necessity of the Imām (Urdū).
4. ʿArshīyyah, on disproving reincarnation (Persian).