Muhammad Abd al-Rashid al-Numani
- Died
- 1420 AH
- Born in
- -
Muhammad Abd al-Rashid al-Numani (1333–1420 AH / 1915–1999 CE) was an Indian-born Pakistani Hanafi jurist and hadith scholar, known for his critical studies in hadith literature and his defense of the Hanafi tradition, notably in his treatise Makanat al-Imam Abi Hanifa fi al-Hadith ("The Standing of Imam Abu Hanifa in Hadith") .
Lineage, Birth, and Upbringing
His full lineage is Muhammad Abd al-Rashid ibn Muhammad Abd al-Rahim ibn Muhammad Bakhsh ibn Balaqi ibn Chiragh Muhammad ibn Himmat . He was of Rajput descent (al-Rajbut nasaban), affiliated with the Hanafi school (al-Nu'mani madhhaban), and originally from Jaipur in Rajasthan, India, before settling in Karachi, Sindh . He was born on 18 Dhu al-Qi'da 1333 AH (28 September 1915 CE) in Jaipur . Having no children of their own, his elder paternal uncle, al-Hafiz Abd al-Karim, and his wife—who was also al-Numani's maternal aunt—undertook his upbringing .
Education and Teachers
Al-Numani began his studies at the age of four under his uncle and father, learning the Quran, calligraphy, and introductory Persian texts . He attended the Anwar Muhammadi elementary school and subsequently enrolled at Madrasat Ta'lim al-Islam outside the Ajmeri Gate at age eight, where he studied advanced Persian under Munshi Irshad Ali Khan, Munshi Sattar Ali, Munshi Abd al-Qayyum Natiq, and Munshi Sa'id Husayn .
Between 1346 and 1351 AH, he studied Arabic morphology, grammar, and hadith texts—from Mizan al-Sarf up to Mishkat al-Masabih and portions of Sahih al-Bukhari—under Qadir Bakhsh al-Bada'uni . He then traveled to Dar al-Ulum Nadwat al-Ulama in Lucknow, where he spent two years under the hadith specialist Haydar Hasan Khan al-Tonki, under whom he specialized in hadith sciences and studied astronomy, Quranic exegesis through Tafsir al-Jalalayn, and logic . He also earned the "Mawlawi Fadil" and "Munshi Fadil" certifications from the University of the Punjab .
Career and Students
Al-Numani worked with Mahmud Hasan in Hyderabad, Deccan, on the compilation of Mu'jam al-Musannifin under the patronage of the Asifiyya State . Following his move to Pakistan, he served as Shaykh al-Hadith at Bahawalpur University . He supervised students in hadith and Islamic jurisprudence at institutions including Jamia Uloom al-Islamia in Banuri Town, Karachi, where he mentored researchers such as Muhammad Hifz al-Rahman al-Kumillayi, whom he directed to compile a comprehensive biographical dictionary of Hanafi scholars .
Scholarly Standing and Reception
Al-Numani was widely praised by contemporary scholars for his critical rigor in hadith transmission and his investigative footnotes . Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda described him as a master critic in hadith sciences whose extensive studies—such as his work Ma Tamassu Ilayhi al-Hajah li-Man Yutali' Sunan Ibn Majah ("What Is Indispensable for Reader of Sunan Ibn Majah")—demonstrated his authority in the discipline; Abu Ghudda also prepared and edited al-Numani's treatise on the hadith standing of Abu Hanifa .
Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Nadwi regarded him as the closest student of Haydar Hasan Khan who inherited his teacher's critical taste and depth of knowledge . Muhammad Yusuf al-Banuri commended him as a devoted colleague in the service of religion and praised his proficiency across multiple branches of hadith scholarship . Other scholars who commended him and dedicated their writings to him include Muhammad Idris al-Kandhlawi, Habib al-Rahman al-A'zami, Nur al-Din Itr, and the Meccan teacher Muhammad Nur Murshid al-Makki, who wrote that al-Numani could rightfully be counted among the hadith memorizers (huffaz) of his era .
Personal Life
In Jumada al-Ula 1359 AH, al-Numani married Ashraf Jahan bint Sharaf al-Din . The couple had two sons—Abd al-Muid, who died as a youth while studying at Jamia Uloom al-Islamia, and Muhammad Abd al-Shahid, who became a lecturer in Arabic at the University of Karachi—as well as three daughters: Amat al-Rahman, Amat Allah, and Amat al-Rahim .
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List of Works
Makanat al-Imam Abi Hanifa fi al-Hadith (The Standing of Imam Abu Hanifa in Hadith) is a specialized treatise on Hadith scholarship. The work is dedicated to examining and defending the rank, reliability, and proficiency of Imam Abu Hanifa in the field of Hadith transmission and criticism.