11. Memories with Muhammad Luqman Salafi

Unlike previous chapters, the stories in this chapter do not follow a historical continuity as they are about individuals that I have befriended. Regarding my friend and companion from Madinah University, a strong pillar of the land of India, Muhammad Luqman Salafi, who returned to his Lord on 5 March 2020 in Makkah. His funeral prayer was conducted in the holy Masjid of Makkah, and he had the honour of being buried in the cemetery of Al-Mu’alla.

The students and teachers of Jamiyah Al-Imam ibn Taymiyah (Bihar), an institution that he had established, held a conference In Memoriam. I was invited to deliver a speech at this conference and also presided at the final gathering of this two-day conference. Here is a short summary of my thoughts delivered at the Memoriam.

In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the All-Merciful

“And Allah increases in guidance those who are ˹rightly˺ guided. And the everlasting good deeds are far better with your Lord in reward and in outcome.” (Surah Maryam)

I am thankful to the heads and graduates of Jamiyah Al-Imam ibn Taymiyah who invited me to deliver a speech so that I can share with you all memories of my dear brother, my friend and colleague, brother Muhammad Luqman Salafi. I will try to contain my memories in the following points:

1. The establishment of the Islamic University of Madinah was a benediction. It provided a golden opportunity to students coming from different parts of the world to establish bonds of love and friendship, and it is according to the Hadith: ““The souls are [like] recruited soldiers: those who know one another will get along, and those who do not will not” that I acquired many friends among whom we count from Patna (Bihar) Muhammad Luqman Salafi.

I came to Madinah Munawwarah in a group of 18 Pakistani students in July 1962 while Shaykh Muhammad Luqman arrived in a group of 17 shortly before us.

My noble father Shaykh AbdulGhaffar Hasan came as a teacher after 2 years. Not only me but also my two brothers established strong links with Luqman. He was greatly inclined to learn English hence our links increased. I was one year ahead of him in the academic year, but we spent much time together in the 4 years at the University.

After my departure to East Africa, there seemed to be no opportunities to see him again, until Dar Al-Ifta establishing a committee of Da’wah and Tabligh in the days of Hajj. This committee was entitled “At-Taw’iyah Al-Islamiyah fil Hajj” and I was invited for many years by this committee at the time of Hajj.

As Shaykh ibn Baz was our head, all his Maktab would be transferred during the days of Hajj from Riyadh to Makkah Mukarramah. Our friend Luqman, who was Secretary and translator of Shaykh ibn Baz and thus among the staff of his office, would spend days in Makkah. Our links hence increased not only in Makkah Mukarramah but also in Taif where he would go with Shaykh ibn Baz in hot weather. The doors of his offices were always open to meet me. I invited him (Shaykh Luqman) for the annual conference of Markazi Jamiat Ahl e Hadith UK and he accepted my invitation with joy.

2. The university we attend and the knowledge that is available to us has a right over us, and my friend fulfilled this right fully. He was already dedicated to the Arabic language but gained greater excellency in the company of great teachers. It is a concordance of events that in the period of seeking knowledge, my first article was published in the weekly magazine “Ash-Shihab” of Beirut and Luqman Salafi had the joy of having an article published in the magazine “Al-Adeeb” of Beirut. Many students of the Indian subcontinent reached the University but very few were fortunate to master the subtleties and refinement of the Arabic language, and then transmit it with a flourish of their pens.

3. Our brother Luqman Salafi was filled with love of Ahl e Hadith Maslak. He was very active in promoting the clear call of the Book and the Sunnah. From his speech and tongue to his pen and paper, all were devoted for this purpose. He chose the topic of defending the Sunnah for his PHD. During a meeting he gifted me the published version of his PHD entitled “Ihtimam Al-Muhaddithin bi Naqd Al-Hadith Sanadan wa Matnan”. In this book, where he mentioned the efforts to scrutinise Ahadith from the point of narration and understanding, he also examined the doubts and allegations of the orientalists.

Regarding this, I presented to him my MA paper which had a similar topic, and which discussed in particular the Ahadith of Sunan ibn Majah that late scholars of Hadith (such as ibn Jawzi and others) declared forged. Then my paper refuted the objection of Schacht that the Asanid of Ahadith tended to be grafted with the passing of time. I gathered the Asanid of the Ahadith forbidding Muzabanah sale and used these to counter the argumentation of Shacht. Brother Luqman was kind enough to appreciate my paper.

4. Despite living far from India, brother Luqman established in India in the province of Bihar (Jharkhand), a great place of learning under the name Jamiyah Al-Imam ibn Taymiyah. He brought the project to fruition; built tall buildings for it and Insha Allah it will be a great treasure for him in the hereafter.

It was in 1988 that I first heard about the foundation of this institute, as he requested me to write a letter to Shaykh ibn Baz introducing this project, and according to my diary, I wrote this letter on the 27 January 1988. In my letter, I praised the establishment of this place of learning in Chandbarah.

During the process of building this centre, brother Luqman did not forget those who had aided him in the project. He called the department of Verification after Shaykh Ibn Baz, and named the lecture hall after Shaykh Muhammad Nasiruddin Albani. I saw photos of the institution and note that one individual achieved a project that is normally achieved by an entire group.

5. Let me now mention the autobiography of brother Luqman entitled “Karwan e Hayat”. How fortunate are the students who remember their teachers and colleagues. Brother Luqman mentioned all his teachers by name, those from whom he studied in India, and also those who were his teachers and mentors in the University of Madinah and in the Ma’had Al-‘Aali (Riyadh).

Among his teachers, he mentioned in detail and with affection my father Shaykh AbdulGhaffar Hasan Rehmani, as well as Shaykh Ibn Baz, Shaykh Muhammad Ameen Shanqiti, Shaykh Albani and Hafiz Muhammad Gondalwi. He also mentioned his companions, especially his class fellow Hafiz Ihsan Elahi Zaheer with whom he had a great bond, and I am delighted that he did not neglect me, this insignificant person.

6. As I would go regularly to Riyadh and Taif, I had the opportunity to benefit from his hospitality often.

In the year 1987-88, I left London with my friend Dr Syed Mutawalli Darsh (Azhari) to stay in Riyadh for 3 months for the purpose of reviewing and correcting the English translation of “Ma’ani Quran”. In this time, I would meet him daily in the office and I would also visit his guest house.

In another visit, I stayed one or two nights in his guest house, and I witnessed that guests would come regularly and many of his companions would stay there enjoying his hospitality.

He was very busy in his office work but people in need would be sitting in front of him, some would need a recommendation letter, some would request to meet the Shaykh (ibn Baz) through him, and some would meet him to seek a temporary place to stay.

7. A pious progeny is a great reward for a scholar. Generally, scholars do not manage to give great attention to their children due to their hectic schedules. Often, we find after their deaths, that despite the great praise for them, their children are not walking in their footsteps.

In a meeting in 2010, brother Luqman mentioned to me a story: Ahmad, the son of Shaykh Ibn Baz, after graduating from the college of Shari’a turned towards business. The reason was that in his youth, he became very close to Abdul Aziz, son of King Fahd. As the mother of Abdul Aziz was from the Aal Shaykh family, she would send him to stay often with Shaykh Ibn Baz, so when Abdul Aziz started a business, he made Ahmad a partner. Brother Luqman had advised Ahmad to look after the scholarly inheritance of his father and keep alive the name of his father. Ahmad thanked him for the sincere advice, but carried on with his work. Once he (Ahmad) went to Madinah University where the teachers and students organised an event to receive him and praised his father’s legacy with great enthusiasm and love. Hearing this affected Ahmad greatly, so he excused himself, saying he could not contribute much to the event. The Shaykh had other sons, Khalid and AbdurRahman, but neither had the honour to be successors of the Shaykh.

Now we hope that the qualified and excellent son of Shaykh Muhammad Luqman Salafi, Dr Abdullah Salafi, will lead with great zeal and fervour the scholarly institute established by his father. May Allah Ta’ala grant him success in the field of knowledge and action

Our last call is: All praises belong to Allah, Lord of the universe

12. Obtaining a place for Jamiyah Al-Quran

At the end of 1979, my wife and I began a project to buy a property in order to continue with the educational and Dawah related activities of Al- Quran Society that I had founded in London. My wife Umm Wohaib had started a class for ladies and children in our small house on Granger Road in North London. These were evening classes, but our small house was soon insufficient to meet the needs of the local community of Muslims. Soon a large house came up for sale in our area; the lounge could fit 15 boys and girls for study, and it was also suitable for the office work and organisational work of the Jam’iyat, but its price of 27 000 pounds was above our capacity. We made efforts to try to collect this amount. We kept writing to the head office of Dar Al-Ifta Riyadh where our Shaykh Abdulaziz ibn Baz had moved as the Mufti of Saudi Arabia, and then through Allah’s generous care, we managed to purchase this house. Dar Al-Ifta gave us £15 000 and our benefactor Abul Aziz Ali Al-Mutawa gave a donation of £12 000.

My family and I lived as tenants in the house; our lounge was an office during the day, and in the evenings it became a madrassah for the boys and girls of Tottenham, Wood Green, Hornsey and other places. For the next 18 years (up to 1997), my wife educated many young boys and girls in completed the reading of the Quran, memorising Juzz Amma, learning the prayer and obtained the privilege to offer it in congregation.

I wrote a course entitled ‘Lessons in Quran and Sunnah’, which contained articles on lives of Prophets, Aqeedah, Hadith and general subjects, as well as questions at the end of each article. This was a correspondence course comprising twenty thin booklets, each a different colour, that were published over fifteen years and that reached places as far away as Ghana and Nigeria, as well as Europe and the Americas. We would post each Lesson as it was published to subscribers, who would often write lengthy replies and send them to me for correction. The course was unique in its time and retains a special place in my memory.

I have many other special memories of this house on Belmont Road, overlooking a beautiful park and tall oak and sycamores.

One of these is the day when the convert sister Sumayyah’s Nikah was performed with a Syrian young brother Ghassan. This English young lady became Muslim after reading the Quran, but her family refused to accept her new faith and made her life very difficult. She was alone in the world until she met Ghassan, and he became a prisoner of her beauty.

Their ceremony of Nikah was going to be a simple affair at our home. But my dear German friend Siddik arrived the same day with his wife and a group of about thirty German female converts who were touring England and meeting various leading lights. He asked if they could meet the bride and soon our house was teeming with this joyous group. His centre in Germany remains a Markaz for Da’wah and Tabligh. After converting to Islam, he joined Madinah University, married a Muslim sister from Malaysia, and then he started Da’wah in Germany through this centre. As part of his work, he would take new converts to Makkah and Madina, as well as to other cities in Europe. He parked his mini bus before our home, and out poured a group of very happy converts as well as ladies of Indian origin living in Germany.

The wedding became a memorable affair due to these new and international guests. Sumayyah remembering this time said:

“There were 2 days in my life were I had to face solitude, but this verse of Surah Ad-Duha gave me comfort: “Your Lord (O Prophet) has not abandoned you, nor has He become hateful (of you)”. There was a day when I converted, and my household left me. And another day when my Nikah took place and Allah sent so many guests from the invisible to remove my solitude.”

Sumayyah and Ghassan moved to the south of England and Allah Ta’ala gave them 3 daughters. My wife visited Sumayya once and Ghassan would often write to me. Sadly, the couple separated later, and I heard many years later that Ghassan had passes away. May Allah Ta’ala grant Sumayyah and her daughters the good in the world and hereafter and keep them on the straight path.

Many prestigious personalities from UK and from outside came to our home and the home of Al- Quran Society, including: The Imam of Ka’bah Shaykh Muhammad ibn As-Subayyal, Shaykh AbdulMuhsin Hamd Al-‘Abbad former chancellor of Jamiyah Islamiyah Madinah Munawarrah, Shaykh Waheedudin Khan (India), Dr Asrar Ahmad, his elder brother Ijaz Ahmad and his younger brother Dr Absar Ahmad, Hakeem AbdurRaheem Ashraf, Sayid Abdul Aziz Ali Al-Mutawa’ and others whose mention will come later.

Original Urdu post:

Original Urdu post:

https://siratemustaqeem.mjah.org.uk/gahe-gahe-baz-khawan-e-qissa-pareena-ra-2/