Abul Hasan Ali An-Nadwi: A man of hope through a century of turmoil

Ali Miyan was downright moralist and spiritualist. While to some modernistic scholars the past is the intellectual albatross that the Ummah sooner discarded the better for it to Ali Miyan it is a legacy that must be made a subject of study. According to them you look at the past to find out ‘why’ you are and ‘where’ you are in your decline. To Abul Hasan Ali you look at the past to find out ‘how much’ you had declined. To some the Ummah needs a fresh agenda. Abul Hasan Ali envisaged the Ummah’s journey into the future as a continuation of the past on the well-trodden path as taken by the Salaf the Imams the Mujaddidun renowned scholars and – not to forget – what is anathema to some: the Shuyukh and the great Sufis.