Zakariyya Kandhlawi
Zakariyya Kandhlawi (; 3 February 1898 – 24 May 1982) was a mid-twentieth-century traditionalist
Sunni scholar and an authority in the
study of hadith, also known as
Sheikh al-Hadith, hailing from India. He was an influential member and ideologist of
Tablighi Jamaat and the author of the
Fada'il series, which is a crucial propagation literature for the movement. Born into a family deeply rooted in Tablighi Jamaat and associated with the
Deobandi movement, he studied under
Mazahir Uloom and eventually became a teacher there in 1917, retiring over half a century later in 1968. Engaging with Sufism, a distinctive feature of the mainstream Indian Ulama, he was a student of
Khalil Ahmad Saharanpuri in both hadith and spirituality. Together, they embarked on a ten-year journey to compile
''Badhl al-Majhud'', an explanatory work on ''
Sunan Abi Dawud''. Initially published in five volumes, he expanded it to a twenty-volume collection. He made his first trip to
Medina with Saharanpuri at a young age, and in 1972, he settled in Medina and continued his missionary work from there until his death. He was buried next to his teacher Saharanpuri at
Al-Baqi Cemetery, whose successor he had been named. During his initial stay in Medina, he began working on a commentary on ''
Muwatta Imam Malik'', eventually publishing ''
Awjaz al-Masalik'' over a thirty-year period. This work quickly earned him a reputation for his expertise in interpreting the
Maliki tradition. The first edition, published in six volumes in India, was followed by a fifteen-volume second edition, with the first three volumes printed in
Cairo and the remaining volumes in
Beirut.
He wrote extensively in both Arabic and Urdu, without any copyright restrictions on his publications, covering diverse subjects such as hadith,
Fiqh,
Tafsir,
Tajwid, historical and biographical topics, ethical practices, moral principles, as well as contemporary groups and movements. Additionally, he worked on his father's collection of hadith lectures by
Rashid Ahmad Gangohi. From 1932 to 1934, he focused on lectures related to ''
Sunan al-Tirmidhi'' and published his work,
''Al-Kawakib al-Durri'', which included his own annotations and marginalia. Between 1956 and 1968, he dedicated his efforts to publishing Gangohi's lectures on ''
Sahih al-Bukhari'', known as
''Lami al-Darari''. Another contribution was his authored work,
''Al-Abwab wa al-Tarajim'', aimed at establishing the relationship between chapter headings and the hadiths in ''Sahih al-Bukhari'', providing 70 principles for interpreting the subject matter. He shared glimpses of his life and scholarly journey through his autobiography, named
''Aap Beati'', which spanned seven volumes.
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